McNeil Duo get Duces  

THE McNEIL BROTHERS -  BOTH DUX OF THE COLLEGE.

Patrick McNeil, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, visited his alma mater during mid-October.

Patrick, who attended St Virgil’s College from 1969-74, indicated he was unaware of the OVAtion e-newsletter. I subsequently contacted him to let him know that the College was aware of his amazing achievements and those of his older brother, Don, and that they were featured in the March 2021 edition of OVAtion which could be viewed on the internet and that I would appreciate any updates/corrections... to the recorded stories. 

Patrick's return email : 

I left Tassie in 1985 to undertake medical specialty training with a plan to return three years later but for various reasons I travelled a different path. So visits to Tasmania for me now are very special and much looked forward to. 

I usually get back every couple of years or so and embark on various bushwalks in the wonderful wilderness that I began doing as a late adolescent - walking into the original Lake Pedder was one of my first walks when I would have still been at school. 

In any case, my graduating class of 1974 had a 50-year reunion in October last year which I was sorry to have missed as I had a European holiday pre-booked before I found out about the reunion. 

There have been some email exchanges which made me want to revisit my alma mater a month or so back. It was quite interesting as I have very fond memories of both Austins Ferry and Barrack Street (and St Peters). 

Maybe the only update on the story you ran in 2021 is I do recall I also graduated as Dux of the College in 1974 (like my brother) although in my year I remember the College awarded two duces for the first time - one for the humanities and one for science. Not sure if that tradition continued but my memory is I was the Science Dux and Ross Griggs was the Humanities Dux.

Professor Patrick McNeil                                      

Patrick McNeil is Macquarie University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Medicine and Health), and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health and Human Sciences, roles that provide leadership of both clinical and academic components of Macquarie University Health – the Macquarie University Health Sciences Centre. 

He graduated in Medicine from the University of Tasmania, is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians with specialty training in Rheumatology, completed a PhD in immunology at UNSW, and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. 

His previous leadership roles include Associate Dean, Education at UNSW Medicine, Executive Clinical Director at Liverpool Hospital, and Chair of Arthritis Australia.  

Professor Don McNeil was the Dux of St Virgil’s College in 1957.

As an outcome to the matriculation examinations conducted by Utas, Don topped the State and won the Physics and Chemistry prizes.  He then went on to study at Utas and gained a Bachelor of Science (in Mathematics).  This was followed by studies at the National University in Canberra where he gained a doctorate in statistics.

From Canberra he travelled to the US where he he spent six years as Associate Professor in the Statistics Department at Princeton University.

Don returned to Australia in 1976 to take up an appointment as the foundation Professor of Statistics in the School of Economic & Financial Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Don retired in 2001 to help run a graduate program at Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. It was here that he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science.