Dr John Kearney OAM

The good doctor

JOHN KEARNEY CONTINUES A FAMILY TRADITION OF GENEROSITY, MAKING ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DONATIONS IN THE HISTORY OF BOND UNIVERSITY

by Ken Robinson

Just how far back does the Kearney family’s connection with Bond University go? “Gumboots in the mud,” says Dr John Kearney OAM. “There have been three generations involved now: my parents, myself, and one of my daughters who studied here. But my parents had gumboots in the mud here, right from the beginning.”

In fact the relationship stretches back even further than the University’s notoriously muddy 1987-1989 construction phase, caused by two of the wettest years in Gold Coast history. Dr Kearney’s parents, eminent barrister Dr John F Kearney AM QC and Dr Alison Kearney, moved from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in the 1970s and immediately began campaigning for the growing city to have its own university.

“My parents both went to Melbourne University, as I did, and we were always hankering for a university on the Gold Coast,” Dr Kearney says. “We were particularly keen on a private university to provide benchmarking for tertiary education in Australia. Mum and Dad were very closely associated with the Friends of Bond (established in 1987) and I was at a lot of the early functions for the first-year students. I obviously wanted the University to have a medical school.” All three got their wish, thanks in part to a series of generous donations to the University that extend to this day.

The senior Kearneys are memorialised in the names of two University facilities they helped establish: the John and Alison Kearney Library and the John and Alison Kearney Law Library. They are also responsible for the John F Kearney Moot Court, the John F Kearney Law Gold Medal, and contributed to the Legal Skills Centre and the School of Sustainable Development. The couple were equally generous with their time over the years, welcoming students and academics to their historic Mudgeeraba home Jabiru for celebratory and fundraising events. The University recognised these many contributions by awarding a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, to John F Kearney in 2000, and a Doctor of the University, honoris causa, to Alison Kearney in 2009. Now their son has been honoured with the naming of the Dr John Kearney Anatomy Laboratory following another gift that continues a family passion for education, social justice and community service.

A young John Kearney brought science to the mix. He never considered following his father into law, especially after reading about a Cold War invention straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel. “I was about eight when they built the first laser and I thought, I’m going to use that one day,” he says. After graduating with a medicine degree and Honours in surgery, the young doctor moved to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea where he ran a hospital. It was there that he was

“I was about eight when they built the first laser and I thought, I’m going to use that one day.”

inspired to further his studies and specialise in a field that relies heavily on the use of lasers. “I couldn’t get any eye work done in New Guinea,” he says. “There was only one ophthalmologist in the country and he was too busy to come and visit my area, so I came back to Brisbane to study ophthalmology.”

Establishing the Gold Coast Eye Clinic in 1984, Dr Kearney witnessed the birth of Bond University and taught at its Graduate School of Science and Technology before it was deemed to be unviable and closed during the turmoil of the young University’s early years. “That was sad but it was necessary to maintain Bond as a viable institution in the face of great economic difficulty, and I could understand that,” he says. The school would later be reincarnated as the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine where Dr Kearney continues to teach as an Associate Clinical Professor.

Although he was now back in Australia running a successful practice, Dr Kearney’s stint in PNG had sparked a lifelong commitment to addressing the pressing need for basic eye care in Outback Australia and in neighbouring developing countries including East Timor. He says the most urgent problem is the simplest to solve and does not require surgery. “It is just the supply of glasses - there’s no one to supply the glasses or fit them,” he says. “If a teacher hasn’t got glasses or a student hasn’t got glasses, they can’t read the blackboard or the lessons. And the second most important thing is cataract surgery, and they’re in no position to perform that.”

Vice Chancellor and President Tim Brailsford and Dr John Kearney open the anatomy laboratory named in Dr Kearney’s honour. Portrait of Dr John F Kearney and Dr Alison Kearney in the main library.

Professor Mark Morgan, Vice Chancellor and President Tim Brailsford, Dr John Kearney and Ms Catherine Marks.

Medicine students practising clinical skills in the Bond University Clinical Education and Research Centre. Vice Chancellor and President Tim Brailsford speaks at the opening ceremony.

Professor Nick Zwar, Dr John Kearney, Professor Kirsty Forrest and Mr Aditya Kaushal.

“I’d like Bond graduates – before they even think about ordering any tests – to have listened to the patient, to have physically examined the patient and gained their trust.”

After decades of missions to developing countries, Dr Kearney has a basic template for success. “We make a couple of visits, get runs on the board to gain the trust of the locals and the health department, then we start training the local people,” he says. “We now have about 25 trained local ophthalmologists around the Pacific and in Timor and New Guinea. There’s the humanitarian and Christian aspect to it, but we are also winning hearts and minds.”

Dr Kearney says the most challenging environment to work in was East Timor during Australia’s peacekeeping mission from 1999-2013, which followed the violence of the young country’s independence from Indonesia. “We couldn’t have gone in there without the support of the Australian Defence Force,” he says. They provided law and order which enabled us to develop our programs and our treatment clinics. But I couldn’t do any of my work in developing countries unless I had the support of my colleagues, my family and the Lions Club and so on.”

Dr Kearney’s work in East Timor led to the then-President of the country Mr Xanana Gusmao visiting Bond University in 2005 to attend a fundraising luncheon for the East Timor Eye Program. “I think that was the first time a foreign head of state had visited Bond,” he says.

The latest generous gift from ‘Dr John’ to Bond University will fund a Dr John Kearney Fellow in Clinical Skills, anatomy and clinical skills laboratory equipment, laboratory training and research, and programs to improve the clinical skills in medicine for staff, students and researchers. He hopes the endowment will help produce well-rounded medicine graduates with a bedside manner to match their clinical skills. “I’d like Bond graduates - before they even think about ordering any tests – to have listened to the patient, to have physically examined the patient and gained their trust. Because no one else can do that. The technicians, they can do the tests but they can’t take the history. They haven’t learned general communication skills which Bond is very good at teaching. We must arm our doctors well with these important basic skills.”

Bond University Vice Chancellor and President Professor Tim Brailsford describes Dr Kearney’s donation as an “extraordinary gift”. “John has dedicated his life to improving the lives of others and his various contributions to this University and specifically the Medical Program are his shining beacon and serve as an inspiration to all of us. This gift ensures that John’s legacy will benefit many generations of future students to come.”

When he’s not treating patients, teaching at Bond and Griffith universities or travelling to remote clinics in the tropics, Dr Kearney is spending time with his five children and six grandchildren, and sailing. “I enjoy sailing with my friends,” he says. “When the winds are about 10 knots and we’re coming up to the top mark in a race … there is nothing like it.” The doctor is also a talented ballroom dancer, a skill inherited from his grandfather. “The fittest I’ve ever been was when I was doing competition dancing,” he says.

From gumboots to dancing shoes, the Kearneys have left indelible footprints across the Bond campus and through its history books, marking a path for future generations of students to follow.

Watch the video interview with Ms Catherine Marks and Dr John Kearney