Ken Myer

Kenneth Baillieu Myer, AC, DSC (1 March 1921 – 30 July 1992) was an American-born Australian patron of the arts, humanities and sciences; diplomat, administrator, businessman and philanthropist.

Myer made significant philanthropic and personal contributions to the development of major national institutions, most notably the Howard Florey Laboratories of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, the School of Oriental Studies at the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Arts Centre and the National Library of Australia.

His second wife, (later Dame) Merlyn Myer, travelled to San Francisco for the birth of each of her four children to ensure they would be considered legitimate.

[4] The family returned to Australia in 1929 and Myer was educated at Geelong Grammar School, where his strengths were in music, the arts, the classics and languages.

On 15 August 1944, he was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his role in an attack by HMAS Arunta on the Japanese submarine Ro-33 that had torpedoed a merchant ship, Malaita, outside Port Moresby.

Ken Myer donated it to the people of Victoria and Australia, and it was accepted on their behalf by the then prime minister, Robert Menzies.

[4] In 1972, Myer surprised and to a degree alienated his family by publicly supporting the Australian Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam during the federal election campaign.

He was: Myer successfully fostered new research in organisations such as the Division of Plant Industry of the CSIRO and helped build the Oriental Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

[13] Recipients of the award included Clifford Hocking (inaugural award, 1991);[12] Liz Jones (1994[13] or 1995);[14] Jenny Kemp and Daniel Keene (1998); Shirley McKechnie and John Romeril;[13][15] Malcolm Robertson and Mary Kenneally (2000);[13] actor and teacher John Bolton (2002); Bob Sedergreen (2006);[13] choreographer Helen Herbertson (2007);[16] and theatre maker and teacher Robert Draffin (2010).