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‘An important and
happy part of my life’
WORDS
vanessa
witton
Photo courtesy Shellshear Museum.
She was also involved in every
aspect of the renovation of the
JT Wilson Museum of Human
Anatomy, now considered
the greatest student anatomy
museum in the southern
hemisphere.
Ann Macintosh passed away
on 1 July 2011. Throughout
her life she was a munificent
benefactor to the University and
particularly loyal to Sydney Medical
School and its discipline of anatomy,
donating more than $1.5 million.
She left the residue of her estate
for the purposes of the NWG
Macintosh Memorial Fund, and so
far $5 million has been received.
Her hope was that the fund named
in memory of her husband would
help graduate and postgraduate
students “for the support of research
work in the Department of Anatomy
and Histology, including the JL
Shellshear Museum, preferably, when
applicable for the support of young
investigators”. Ann recognised the
ever-increasing difficulties young
students experienced accessing
funding for research projects. It
is now expected that more PhD
students, postdoctoral fellows and
junior academic staff will be able
to join this active, progressive
department which will be able
to embrace in the long term all
aspects of anatomical sciences from
dissection through to anthropology.
In the last decades of her life, Ann
tirelessly supported all the things
her husband had been passionate
about. She was responsible for
funding the refurbishment of the
Macintosh Dissecting rooms to
make them safe and modern, and
reinstate the teaching of anatomy
through dissection – the classical
approach Mac had always favoured.
She was also involved in every
aspect of the renovation of the
JT Wilson Museum of Human
Anatomy, now considered the
greatest student anatomy museum
in the southern hemisphere.
Her support helped to refurbish
the Shellshear Museum of Physical
Anthropology and Comparative
Anatomy, and her diary entries for
1993 record 96 visits. She catalogued
skeletal human remains, casts of
human ancestors, animal bones,
and in her 70s was taught computer
skills by the museum’s curator so
she could catalogue all the books
bequeathed by anatomist Professor
Joseph Lexden Shellshear. Her
attention to detail was enviable and
she helped to ensure the fabric of
the department was maintained.
The museum has since been used
extensively as a teaching resource
for undergraduate and postgraduate
students, attracting visiting
researchers and forensic scientists.
Ann was responsible for
establishing the NWG Macintosh
Centre for Quaternary Dating to
help the University maintain its
progressive work in anthropology.
She made donations to Sydney
Medical School Foundation, and
also created Centenary fellowships
for medical technicians in view of
the complexity and volume of their
work. She believed they deserved
more acknowledgement for their
contributions to research and
recognised that few opportunities
existed for them to travel for
professional development.
She was the largest donor to the
expensive heritage restoration of the
Anderson Stuart building in the 1990s,
and had some reservations about the
appropriateness of the commissioned
portrait of herself. At its unveiling, she
claimed Sydney Medical School “has
been a most important and happy part
of my life, and I have such affection
for the old building.” She called it her
second home.
22 mar 2013 SAM