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Vale Colleen Mullavey O’Byrne
Prepared by Anne Cusick and Colleen Harris
Colleen Mullavey O’Byrne, one of the longest-serving and most influential occupational therapy educators in Australia, died in June, aged 84.
Colleen completed primary school in the village of Mullengandra, NSW. She went to high school at St Joseph’s Ladies College in Albury, winning a commonwealth university scholarship in 1954. Colleen used her scholarship to study a Diploma in Occupational Therapy, which was awarded in 1958. For the next 10 years, she worked as an occupational therapist at Cairns Base Hospital (1960), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (1959, 1967-68) and St Vincent’s Hospital in psychiatry and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation (1961-66) where she was Occupational Therapistin-Charge (1964-66). Colleen had her first experience of research (1966-67) with a funded National Heart Foundation project on “The Working Problems of the Housewife Suffering from Heart Disease”. In 1969 Colleen entered the education sector, teaching in the Diploma of Occupational Therapy program at the NSW College of Occupational Therapy, Sydney (1969-71), then in the NSW College of Paramedical Studies (197274) which brought together a number of independent allied health institutions. In 1975 Cumberland College of Health Sciences was established incorporating programs from the paramedical college. In all three organisations Colleen was a senior member of the teaching staff, leading the profession in the transition from diploma to degree-level education.
In 1983 she became Head of the School of Occupational Therapy at Cumberland College, actively promoting occupational therapy in a competitive multidisciplinary environment and building occupational therapy academic staff capacity in readiness for the honours, postgraduate and research training to come. In the early 1990s Cumberland College was integrated into the University of Sydney. Colleen positioned occupational therapy as a research-informed and practice-engaged discipline, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programs. As a scholar herself, Colleen completed postgraduate work at Macquarie University and interdisciplinary research in culture, cultural competency and intercultural practice–which was visionary for its time.
Her leadership was recognised by the University of Sydney in her promotion to associate professor in the mid-1990s–making Colleen the first occupational therapist in NSW to achieve this level of academic prestige. Colleen stepped down as Head of School in 1998. In November 2005 Colleen was appointed honorary associate professor in recognition of her superior contribution across all fields of academic endeavour for a sustained period.
Vale Colleen Mullavey O’Byrne, a wise, visionary and kind humanitarian who led in scholarship and education at local, national and international levels and made a difference in the world.
