Dods, Lorimer Fenton

Lorimer Fenton Dods was born in Brisbane on 7 March 1900. His father was Robert Dods, an architect, his mother being a Mary King, from Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. He attended The Southport School, Queensland, from 1909 to 1913, and Sydney Church of England Grammar School from 1914 to 1918. He entered the University of Sydney in 1918, and graduated MB, ChM. in 1923. He also graduated MD in 1936, and was awarded DSc (Honoris Causa), by the University of Sydney in 1974.

Dods married Margaret (Margot) Catherine Walsh in 1927, and they had a son and a daughter. The daughter, who became Mrs Rosemary Manchester, is well represented in the records, but there is no mention of the son in the papers, except for what appears to be a photograph, c. 1940, of Margot, Rosemary and the son, who would have been about ten years of age at the time. There is also mention of a son, Robert, on the University staff file of Lorimer Dods, in connection with the son's hoped for entry into the Faculty of Architecture.

From 1923 to 1925 Dods worked at Newcastle Hospital, and at the Royal Alexandria Hospital for Children, and this latter association he kept for most of his life. From 1926 to 1937 he carried on a general pratice at Edgecliff, N.S.W. He worked overseas in paediatrics, in Britain and Canada during 1937, and from 1938 to 1939 conducted a paediatric practice in Macquarie Street, Sydney. Dods served in the Australian Army Medical Corps from 1939 to 1945, and reached the rank of Lieutenant - Colonel, serving in the Middle East and New Guinea. He returned to his paediatric practice after the war, which he conducted from 1945 to 1949. In 1947 he was awarded a Carnegie Travelling Fellowship, and studied at Boston and Harvard Medical School in the U.S.

Lorimer Dods teaching association with the University of Sydney began in 1938 and 1939, when he became a Tutor in Medical Paediatrics at Royal Alexandria Hospital for Children. He was again appointed Tutor from 1945 to 1947, and in 1948 was Lecturer in Medical Diseases of Children at the University of Sydney. In March 1945, before the end of the war, Dods was appointed Post - Graduate Director in Paediatrics by the Post - Graduate Committee in Medicine, and by 1947 he was styled Supervisor in Paediatrics. In 1949, Dods was appointed the first Professor of Child Health at the University of Sydney. His appointment was to coincide with his appointment by the Federal Government as Director of the Institute of Child Health, then part of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He was to retain the title of Professor of Child Health only as long as he held the position of Director, but was to be responsible for the direction of research into child health generally, and was to coordinate and control both undergraduate and post - graduate teaching in his subject area. He was a member of the Faculty of Medicine and the Professorial Board. Under the terms of his agreement, he was not to receive any remuneration from the University of Sydney, nor was he to participate in the Professorial Superannuation Scheme. He was, however, to retain the right of limited consulting practice. He resigned the Chair in 1960, and was made Professor Emeritus on 6 September 1960. Other honours bestowed upon Lorimer Dods were Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1947, following his Honorary appointment as Physician to the Governor - General, the Duke of Gloucester, and his knighthood in 1962.

Lorimer Dods played a prominent role in the medical profession, being elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, a member of its Council, and Chairman of its Research Advisory Committee. He was prominent in fund raising for the purposes of research into the diseases of children, and his efforts led to the formation of the Children's Medical Research Foundation. On his retirement from the Chair in 1960, he became a member of the Board of Management of the Royal Alexander Hospital for Children, and served on the Board until his 80th birthday. He died on his 81st birhday, 7 March 1981, being survived by his son and daughter. His wife had died in 1977.