Manuel Aroney

Manuel Aroney AM OBE

Manuel James Aroney AM, OBE (31 August 1932 - 15 February 2011) was an Australian academic and human rights advocate. Aroney was the only child, born on 31 August 1932, of Dimitrios and Stamatina Aronis (Aroney) who both were born in Aroniadika, Kythera, Greece and migrated to Australia in 1908 and 1923 respectively. They had met and married in Townsville in 1926, set up the Central Cafe in Mackay, later moved to Sydney where Manuel was born and returned in 1933 to Mackay to try to escape the world of the Great Depression. It was there that Manuel did his schooling and gained a prestigious Queensland open scholarship, awarded to the top 25 people in the state and, as well a Commonwealth scholarship.

Taking up the latter, he enrolled at the University of Sydney and gained the degrees BSc with first class honours (1955), MSc (1956) and PhD (1961). He was appointed teaching fellow in Chemistry in 1955, temporary lecturer in 1958, permanent lecturer in 1962 and senior lecturer in 1965. His mentor and long-term colleague in research was the internationally renowned physical-organic chemist Professor R.J.W. Le Fevre, Head of the School of Chemistry.

Following an extensive tour of universities and research institutes in the United Kingdom, Europe and Israel, and the initiation of collaborative research projects with colleagues in Australia and overseas, Aroney was given accelerated promotion to Associate Professor, a relatively new rank and rare in the University of that era.

In 1977, he was appointed Head of the School of Chemistry after the retirement of Professor Le Favre, but shortly after relinquished due to ill health. In fact, he suffered a near fatal heart attack a few months later. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (London), and in the late eighties he became a Member of the International Committee for Molecular Electro-Optics and a member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.

In 1960, Manuel married Anne Pascalis, daughter of Theo and Athena Pascalis of Wollongong. They would go on to have three sons Jim, Theo and Stephen, married respectively to Evelyn, Felicia and Sophie and eight grandchildren, James (deceased), Michael, Alannah, Emeil, William, Emmanuel, Anne-Marie and Demitra,

I addition to his university duties, Manuel Aroney was deeply involved in community activities. In 1975 he was a Foundation Member of the Ethnic Communities Council of New South Wales, an umbrella group for several hundred ethnic associations which was able to act as an advocate body in negotiating with government and policy makers to bring about society changes and equal opportunity within the emerging multicultural society of Australia. From 1977-1981 Aroney was a member of the National Ethnic Broadcasting Advisory Council charged with advising the Commonwealth Government on multilingual electronic media, a politically sensitive issue following the Whitlam years. In the period from 1977-81, he served as one of the four members of the first board of the Federal Government's Special Broadcasting Service which made ethnic radio permanent across Australia, and with Bruce Gyngell, established the SBS television service. Aroney was in the unique position of being a member of both the Board and the Advisory Council. He was appointed a member of the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs (1981-83).

In the period 1981-87 Aroney was a commissioner of the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission whose function it was to promote and protect human rights in Australia. Together with the Government, it was responsible for overseeing and implementing the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, The Human Rights Commission Act 1981 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. He was the voice of the ethnic groups, a matter well known and acknowledged in the ethnic communities.

In 1983 Manuel Aroney chaired a selection panel which assessed proposals from various institutions and ultimately selected the Australian National University to produce, as a bicentennial project, "The Australian People-An Ecyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins" (ed. James Jupp)

During this decade Professor Aroney's contribution to society were recognised by the award in 1980 of an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to the university and to the community and in 1989 of an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) for services to Multiculturism and the Greek community.

In 1991 Manuel Aroney was awarded the degree DSc (Doctor of Science) by the University of Sydney in recognition of his distinguished scientific research in atomic bonding and molecular structure investigated by a range of techniques of physics. His work received high praise from an international panel of experts, one of whom, later quoted in the citation, described Aroney as "a true grand master in his chosen field". Overall, his studies produced 140 research papers and reviews in top level international scientific journals and, as well, a large number of conference papers and abstracts.

Further ill health led to his retirement in 1994 after 39 years of academic service at the University. He continued as an honorary staff member and for 11 years was President of the Foundation for Inorganic Chemistry whose charter was to bring together management and research leaders from industries, eminent academics from overseas, and chemistry staff and alumni of the University of Sydney.

Manuel Aroney gained recognition for his achievements not only within Australia but also in Greece. In 1982, he was given the rare and prestigious honour of being elected Corresponding member of the Academy of Athens as a distinguished Professor of Science. In 1994, he was accorded the great distinction of being made an Honorary Doctor of the University of Athens. Two years later Aroney organised with the Office of International Relations of the University of Athens for the Rector of that university to lead a delegation to Australia to sign agreements establishing academic and cultural ties between Athens and the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales. The honour, Commander of the Order of the Phoenix, was given to him in 1998 by the President of the Hellenic Republic.

In October 1996, Aroney went to Athens, representing the first Greek Australian Museum Foundation, for meetings with the Minister for Culture for the Greek Government, Professor Evangelos Venizelos. Within weeks, he was able to secure a written understanding which the ministry agreed to send to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, original antiquities from the classical games of Olympia. This committee, which Aroney went on to chair, brought together the Greek Minister for Culture, Premier Bob Carr and the Powerhouse Museum in organising and presenting a wonderful exhibition of Greek Olympica Treasures, most of which had never before been allowed to leave Greece.

Throughout his adult life Professor Aroney had also been involved in the work of the church. In 1972, he was given the title Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for Services to the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia. Since its inception in 1983, he served on the Board of Governors of St Spyridon Greek Orthodox College at Kingsford and Maroubra, and from 1986 he was a member of the student selection Committee of the St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College. Aroney was later to represent the college for about 8 years on the council of the Ecumenical tertiary institute, the Sydney College of Divinity.

In 1993, St Spyridon College established an annual award for the highest HSC Aggregate in honour of Manuel names 'The Professor Manuel Aroney Award'. To this day this award, sponsored by Sydney University Greek Society, has been providing the highest achieving student at St Spyridon the opportunity to excel at their studies.

Manuel Aroney had a strong involvement with the Greek Community and was, over the years, a member of many Greek-Australian organisations, including the Kytherian Association of Australia, the International Kytheraismos group of which he was NSW chairman, the Sydney University Greek students' society as founding member and first chairman, the Australian and Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association (AHEPA), Australian Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles to Greece, The Castellorizian Club, The Hellenic Club where he served as Director for 15 years, and the Nicholas Anthony Aroney Trust with its manifold cultural and charitable activities. His contributions to Kythera and its people were officially recognised in April 2008 by being awarded the Kytherian Medal of Honour. Manuel passed away in his sleep on February 15th 2015.