Kathleen Mary Kehoe's visionary gift creates a brighter future for fourteen new Narrm Scholars.
Kathleen was an inspirational woman, with a visionary way of thinking, who wanted to create a better future for others and leave the world a better place.
She not only inspired those around her during her lifetime, but she continues to inspire the wider community through the gift she left in her Will to the University of Melbourne.
Regarded by many as the heart of their community, Kathleen lived her life guided by a deep sense of service and compassion for others.
Kathleen Mary Kehoe (far left) at St Vincent’s Hospital (supplied).
Kathleen studied general nursing then midwifery at St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy in the 1950s–1960s, specialising in intensive care and infant welfare. She was passionate about the professional care of mothers and babies, and believed in the power of education to improve the lives of working people and to enhance our communities and society.
In her Will, Kathleen directed her gift “support high achieving students in financial need to undertake their studies or continue to undertake their studies.”
Kathleen’s is the first bequest in support of the University’s Narrm Scholarship Program.
The Narrm Scholarship Program is the biggest commitment the University has ever made to levelling the playing field for bright and motivated students to enrol and succeed at the University of Melbourne. The aim is to remove barriers to success for students with potential, wherever they may be across Victoria and Australia.
The goal is simple - by 2030, double the number of students enrolling who have experienced financial disadvantage, including student from rural and regional Australia as well as doubling the enrolment of Indigenous and / or Torres Strait Islander students.
With thanks to Kathleen’s visionary gift – and Kathleen's passion for health sciences, there will be fourteen students who enrol in the Bachelor of Biomedicine via the Narrm Scholarship Program who will be awarded the Kathleen Mary Kehoe Scholarship.
She saw this as an opportunity to expand people’s lives Mary Kehoe, Kathleen’s niece
Professor Nicola Phillips, Provost at the University of Melbourne, commended Kathleen’s foresight to support financially disadvantaged students with her gift.
“Choosing to give through the University as a gift in Will is an inspiring commitment,” Prof. Phillips said.
“We are incredibly grateful for such generosity, which demonstrates a visionary commitment to what has had meaningful impact in your lifetime, and creating a personal legacy with the potential to impact generations to come.”
Mrs Mary Kehoe, Kathleen Mary Kehoe (middle) and Family, South Melbourne (supplied).
Coming from a big family, Kathleen’s strong sense of justice and love for family was instilled in her from a very early age.
Her mother, Mary, was an early graduate from the University of Melbourne who was passionate about education and service to others. Mary founded the first Meals on Wheels program in Australia and was awarded a British Empire Medal.
A young Kathleen was enlisted to help deliver meals to disadvantaged families, and this opened her eyes to the poverty and hardships people faced after the Great Depression and World War II, especially children. This shaped her desire to choose a career that would help others.
I’d seen all that poverty growing up ... I was just conscious that a child exists in a group of people and ... in those days, if the family wasn’t coping with the children or illness your neighbours would help you. Kathleen Mary Kehoe – Connections, journal of Royal College of Nursing Australia, 14 January 2011
After three years of highly demanding training as a teenager at the Preliminary Training School at St Vincent’s Hospital, Kathleen became a registered nurse in 1957 and a registered midwife in 1958. Seeking a new challenge, she then spent the following two years working as a midwife on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. Returning to Melbourne in 1960, Kathleen later joined the first hospital intensive care course in Australia, at St Vincent’s.
Kathleen’s trailblazing career saw many achievements – driven by her sense of adventure and her desire to give back – including working as a maternal and child health nurse at City of Melbourne for Government housing, obtaining a scholarship to the College of Nursing, Australia to complete a Diploma in Public Health Nursing, and establishing a community health centre.
Like her mother before her, Kathleen was regarded as a trailblazer and force of nature, and was a great inspiration to her nieces and nephews. A leader in child and maternity health, Kathleen was a trained nurse for 58 years and worked tirelessly to give back to the women and children in her local community in the City of Port Phillip.
Kathleen’s niece, Mary Kehoe, recalls walking down the street with her in Albert Park, and being regularly stopped by the locals.
“She was a bit of a rockstar with the mothers and the children who were growing up,” said Mary.
“She was also an inspiration to many of the young social workers coming up.”
Kathleen Mary Kehoe at work (supplied).
Mary also described the pride the family feels about their aunt Kathleen’s commitment to support the Narrm Scholarship Program through a gift in her Will.
“We’re very chuffed by it. We’re so pleased that she did it. It’s very much in her nature to think of the disadvantaged first. She learnt that from her mother, who was very community minded.”
On giving back, Mary says to others:
If you have the ability to give, even if it is in a small way, do it, because it can create such a positive change for people.
This gift from the Estate of Kathleen Mary Kehoe to support the Narrm Scholarship Program enables the University to find future trailblazers – wherever they are in the community – and build bridges of opportunity for them to enrol and discover how they might make a difference to the world.
“We’re looking forward to the story continuing.”
Learn more about leaving a gift in your Will to the University of Melbourne
To discuss your legacy with our Gifts in Wills team, please get in touch:
Phone: +61 3 9035 3489
Email: bequests-office@unimelb.edu.au