Doctor Ray Burn Eulogy

Thank you for coming to our church to honour Ray Burn today. Funerals recognise and praise the one who has passed from this life but also, as anthropology reminds us, funerals are to restore the living and give us some closure on our grief. Please God, today’s memorial will help us all. You will know and have heard so much of Ray and the remarkable life he lived. But let me say more about our friend, our father and the love of my life.

Ray, the first child of Reginald and Antoniette Burn ( known to her grandchildren as Gargie). Ray was born on 11th December 1929.

Ray Burn – Born December 11th,  1929

From the beginning, Ray’s life was committed to education and, then, to using that knowledge in the service of others. He was off to a great start when his final marks at St Patrick’s Christian Brothers Strathfield placed him in the top 2 per cent in NSW. He chose to study engineering, his father’s profession. Many years of chemical engineering and management in that field followed. Later he opened his own business, Dalmar Manufacturing, in Chippendale, Sydney. Its main product was stamp pads, the materials sourced from what would now be regarded as excellent recycling. This business supported his family and his years of studying medicine. 

In 1975, a mutual friend, Janet Coombs decided Ray and I should meet. We met in City Rd Park, next to Sydney University and went to his nearby factory for coffee. It was 1975 and the furore over The Dismissal was raging, of course, we talked politics. By then my first marriage had ended, as had Ray’s. Ray was living in Chippendale, I was living with several of my children in Surry Hills, a four-storey terrace my father had helped me buy. I was teaching at UNSW. The Whitlam reforms of 1972 allowed me to return to education without charge. In 1974, I secured a job as a tutor.

Ray served in the Army Reserve – rising through the ranks til retirement as Colonel Ray Burn

Ray and I married on the 30th of June 1976 and were able to hold the reception at our newly acquired home in Paddington. Ray continued studying medicine and running his manufacturing business. He obviously never shied away from hard work. On top of his professional commitments, Ray served in the Army reserve, rising through the ranks til retirement as Colonel Ray Burn. He remained knowledgeable in all matters military for the rest of his life. After completing medical internments, he opened a medical practice in Chippendale.

I have emphasised the importance of education in Ray’s life and that continued when he started studying law at Sydney University, later graduating with daughter, Diane Burn. In due course, he was called to the Bar. As a barrister, and with his great solicitor friend Mother Evonne Swift he defended some very interesting people. His knowledge of the law has served many of his patients in securing their rights if they suffered damage and sought recompense. Eventually, the practice of medicine brought Ray and me to Yass.

Life in Yass – family & work with granddaughter Dr Hannah Burn-Petersen who was to take over the family business

We first moved into Tombah Park in a cottage that had been renovated for us by our friend, Jim Yeroklis. Later we moved into Old Linton and opened a medical practice there. The medical practice finally moved to the Mechanics Institute on the main street and we moved out to Quamba, where we still live.

Dr Ray Burn was a contributor to The Yass Valley Times with his health column Health Matters

Ray often wrote for the newspaper of the day on all matters of interest including health & politics. Yass Valley Times Health Matters Columnist – Dr Ray Burn photo taken in 2020 at Old Linton Medical Practice. A story featuring Dr Ray Burn “A Doctor’s Life’ 

Ray decided to retire a year ago. He was 92, and his sight was failing but his intellectual powers remained strong. Eventually, kidney and cardiac failure overtook him, and he went to God at Midday on the 12th of January. He was 93 years old. 

Ray was the love of my life, he was a devoted doctor to many in the town and a father deeply committed to the well-being of his children. The presence of so many people in this church today reflects the high regard in which he was held in this town.

Ann Daniel 

Jan 20, 2023

Painting of Dr Ray Burn by Kim Nelson