Professor David Robert Hutchins (“Prof”) OAM BVSc, Hon DVSc, FANZCVS
Featured Image: Frontispiece of the Memorial Service Brochure @ Kingston Town Room (Level 4), Queen Elizabeth II Stand, Royal Randwick Racecourse, Friday 27th September 2019
“A Celebration of an Exceptional Life”: “Prof” Dave Hutchins
It was an epic on a herculean scale. The setting was perfect and the hospitality exquisite. Who would have expected any less? Dr Treve Williams was the erudite ever-sartorial eloquent Master of Ceremonies; perfectly cast for the role. Treve was very much on home turf only marginally handicapped by recent bilateral knee replacement surgery. It didn’t stop him performing his duties as perfect gentleman. Treve paid colossal tribute to the enormous contribution made by “Prof” to the Randwick Equine Centre (REC) following forced age-related retirement from his academic position(s). It set the scene. Daughter Mrs Hellen House and grandson Mr Lachlan House followed with passionately emotive encomiums to their respectively much beloved father and grandfather. Treve had to apply the ‘rearing bit’ to both Dr Meg Brownlow and Dr Eileen Rogan who waxed eloquently on their association with “Prof” as his ‘special girl interns’ at the Rural Veterinary Centre, Camden. His exceptional professional qualities and finely honed skills made an enormous impression on both and by default almost everyone else in the room. Current EVA President Dr Sam Nugent delivered a succinct account of “Prof’s” mammoth contribution to the Equine Veterinary Profession in Australia and elsewhere. I counted many Past Presidents of the AEVA/EVA. My main problem was putting names to faces in so many cases! It was both an honour and privilege to be there.
