Milner OAM Dr Richard (Dick) Morley
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1942 |
| Place of birth | South Yorkshire coalfield |
| Date of arrival | 1992 |
| Principal occupation | Dentist |
Born on the South Yorkshire coalfield in January 1942 (shares the birthday with Ida Buttrose and Muhammed Ali) and attended primary school there. Moved to Sheffield with the family and completed his secondary education there, mostly at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School founded by the rememberancer (treasurer) to Queen Elizabeth the first. An old school with a long history one of its famous pupil’s was Thomas Avery probably the most effective pirate ever to stalk the Caribbean.
Then studied dentistry at Kings College Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Durham University. Managed to find time to be Rag President in 1965 and chief sub-editor on the university newspaper, graduating in 1966, marrying Les Sheil a nurse at the Royal Victoria Infirmary who comes from South Shields and emigrating to Australia all in the same year. During these years Kings College split from Durham becoming the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He was in the last year with the option to take a Durham and despite great efforts to get everyone after him in the alphabet to opt for a Newcastle degree eventually receive the third last Durham BDS ever conferred.
Dick and Les moved to the Gawler area in November 1992 from Tea Tree Gully where they had lived since arriving in Australia from the UK in 1966. While in Tea Tree Gully they raised two children Rachel and Jeremy. Jeremy is in the RAAF and lives in Butchefeld while Rachel currently works in the Department of Health living in Birdwood. They now have five grandchildren. Dick practiced in Salisbury for over forty years with branch surgeries, one of which between 1979 and the mid-eighties was on Adelaide Road, Gawler and it was knowing Gawler from this period that motivated the move here.
Dick had already been a member of Rotary for several years at this time and became the charter president of the Rotary Club of Gawler Light in 1996 and continues to be an active member of that club. Among his Rotary involvements, he ran the Rotary Youth Exchange Programme for this Rotary District for seven years and was its District Governor in 1988-89. He was on the National board as central region director of ROMAC (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children) for the full three-year term allowed from 2008-2011.
A major involvement has always been as a dental volunteer practicing dentistry in developing countries where the need for free dentistry is great; Rotary being the only organisation which provides volunteer dentists on a regular basis. Dick and Les, who travels and works as a dental nurse, have worked in The Philippines, India, Thailand, Nauru, Kenya, Guatemala and on several occasions both Jamaica and Mexico. He was a board member, including a term as chairman, of Bridging The Gap from its inception in South Australia until it’s closure. He and Les have both served on the Gawler Health Foundation Board and Dick was made a life member in 2009.
Dick has been awarded Rotary’s Service Above Self award in 1997 and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 2013.
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