Diana Joan Dyason
(1919-1989)
Diana Dyason seems to qualify as a "University child" although
she did not live on campus. Her father, Edward Clarence Evelyn Dyason
(1886-1949), a successful mining engineer and stockbroker who graduated
from the University (BSc 1908, BME 1909) was a collaborator and friend
of Giblin, Copland and other academics outside the field of Economics.
She recalled that "at a very tender age I was taught poker by two
professors (Ernest Skeats and Samuel Wadham) and a vice-chancellor (Raymond
Priestley)". Ernest Scott, Professor of History, was a favourite
uncle.
Dyason's parents believed in equal opportunity for their children and
granted them remarkable autonomy and independence. She herself asserted
that the recalcitrance of her first pony "developed any natural
stubbornness a hundredfold" .
Dyason graduated BSc in 1942 and MSc in 1945. After working as Research
Assistant to RD “Pansy†Wright and
as Senior Demonstrator in Physiology, she moved in 1949 to a newly-established
department in the Arts Faculty which later became History and Philosophy
of Science. After visiting universities with similar programs in the
USA and UK, Dyason returned to HPS, rising to become Reader and Head
of Department, a position she occupied until 1974. In 1975 the first
Professor was appointed; until then HPS, not represented on the Professorial
Board, depended heavily on the consistent and forceful advocacy of Professor
Wright.
Independent means permitted Dyason to build on the already extensive
collection of her parents and her extraordinarily rich private library
was always at the service of students and colleagues. She was generous
with both time and money and fought strenuously for University and external
organisations, including University (Women's) College and the Australian
Conservation Foundation. She was Foundation President of the Australian
Association for the History and Philosophy of Science and Australian
delegate to two general assemblies of the International Union of History
and Philosophy of Science.
Dyason was also a talented poet and water-colourist. In 1984, she was
awarded an honorary LLD from Deakin University.
