Helping comes naturally to Peter
Local
Whether it’s fundraising, organising a golf day, coaching old scholars’ sport or counting the money after Mass, Peter McCarthy is your man.
The list of voluntary positions 83-year-old Peter has held over the years is extensive.
Some are associated with his Catholic faith including a long involvement with Our Lady of Dolours Church, Kingswood (now part of the Emmaus Parish), and his membership of the Knights of the Southern Cross; others stem from his alma mater, St Ignatius’ College.
If that were not enough, when he retired from his position as senior biochemist at the Daw Park Repatriation Hospital 25 years ago, he began volunteering in the Animal Health Centre at the Adelaide Zoo.
A life member of Zoos SA and current member of the Board, his work in biochemistry and pathology for the Zoo’s Veterinarians continues today.
“When I retired, a good friend of mine, David Schultz, was the head Vet at the Zoo and he asked me and another friend to start a laboratory for the Animal Health Centre,” Peter said.
“That’s how I got involved and I have been ever since.
“I go in there two days a week and there’s a team of volunteers that work with me…it’s similar to biochemistry and pathology work that you’d do for humans in a hospital, only it’s for animals. We also become involved in some research work”
Peter and five other volunteers in the Animal Health Centre were bestowed with the honour of Unsung Heroes at the SA Science Awards in 2019.
Similarly, his voluntary roles for the Church including chair of parish pastoral and finance councils, fundraising for Catholic Charities, hands-on assistance at major Church events and his service to the Knights of the Southern Cross earned him an Archbishop’s Award in 2015.
But Peter is as humble as they come and his awards and other achievements such as writing a 384-page history of the Southern Cross Golf Club and life membership of the Old Ignatians Cricket & Football Club had to be coaxed out of him.
He is no slouch when it comes to playing sport. First XI cricket and First XVIII football captain at school, he was the first ‘Iggy’s’ old scholar to play league football. After captaining the Sturt Senior Colts in 1959, he played the first of his 33 games in 1960.
After family and work restricted his league career, Peter won three Mail Medals playing country football for Milang and co-founded the Old Ignatians Cricket Club, winning two premierships in the first three years. Peter also coached the Old Ignatians Football Club from 1973 to 1978 winning three premierships and reaching the A2 Grade after four years.
On retiring from playing cricket at the age of 47, Peter became an umpire. He took on the role of secretary of the Adelaide Turf Cricket Umpires Association, was selected to stand in the A1 Grand Final and was inducted into Umpire’s Hall of Fame in 2021.
Peter spent the first seven years of his life on a farm at Finniss before his father bought a poultry farm at Westbourne Park. The family of six lived across the road from the farm (now All Hallows Nursing Home) and Peter attended Westbourne Park Primary School.
After graduating from St Ignatius’ he studied Medicine for three years and then transferred to Medical Science, specialising in biochemistry, at the University of Adelaide. He later completed a Master’s degree in Biochemistry at Flinders University.
Peter worked in the laboratory at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for three years and then was fortunate to be appointed the Senior Biochemist at the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park in December, 1966. He remained there until he retired 32 years later.
While still studying, Peter met his wife Margaret Pope, who was a keen netballer and tennis player.
Peter had played tennis on courts that his father built on the poultry farm. These courts were available for hire both day and night.
Like many a Catholic couple, it was while playing tennis for Kingswood in the Catholic league that he met Margaret in 1961. They married in 1963.
“She was playing on the women’s courts on the other side of the convent and we met over afternoon tea,” Peter recalled.
The couple had two sons, Kevin and Michael, who also attended St Ignatius’, and Margaret, despite having no teaching qualifications, became sports mistress at Cabra Dominican College once Michael reached school age.
Tragically, Margaret died at the age of 40 after a short illness. Kevin and Michael were 18 and 16 and although friends rallied around Peter, he admitted that he was “chief cook and bottle washer” while Michael completed his schooling. Kevin was at Flinders University studying to become a Physical Education teacher.
Some persistent matchmaking by a mutual friend eventually resulted in his marriage to Barbara Williams, a junior primary teacher originally from Farrell Flat.
Together they became heavily involved in Barbara’s parish of Dulwich-Burnside where she ran the ‘Sunday School’ at St Peter Claver’s Church.
Peter was chair of the parish council for a term. Although living in Malvern, Barbara and Peter continued to attend mass in the Dulwich-Burnside Parish.
When the 9am Mass ceased they started attending Our Lady of Dolours in Kingswood parish where Peter has lived since the age of
eight.
Peter’s love of Church and golf came together in 1991 when Michael Kain, a member of the Dulwich-Burnside Parish, introduced Peter to the Southern Cross Golf Club and the Knights of the Southern Cross.
“Michael and his wife Betty had joined the Passionist Family Group Movement and were assigned to the group that Barbara and I were leading,” Peter said.
The Southern Cross Golf Club was established by the Knights of the Southern Cross in 1957. Members play once a month at West Beach Patawalonga Course. For more than 60 years they have gone to Horsham to play an annual interstate competition during the holiday weekend in June.
Peter’s organisational expertise was again put to good use when eight years ago the Golf Club began running the Catholic Charities golf day which raises money for Centacare Catholic Community Services.
This year the event raised more than $23,000, with sponsorship support of Whelan Aged Care Advice and Southern Cross Care.
Peter has been Club president, Club captain and committee member over the past 30 years and has chaired the Colonel Light Gardens (now Emmaus) branch of the Knights since 2006.
He described the Knights as a charitable organisation whose members “work to” raise money for worthy causes including the Vinnies, Catherine House, Hutt St Centre and the Village of Hope (a girls orphanage in southern India started by the Passionist Sisters for girls who lost their families during the tsunami).
“The Knights are one of the social hubs of the parish, if someone needs help they ask us,” he said, adding that “most of our members are over the age of 80!”
The grandfather of four is showing no signs of slowing down.
“I enjoy what I do and obtain a sense of pride in helping those who need our help,” he said.
“In the Jesuit tradition I enjoy being part of the cohort of people who are ‘men and women for others’.”
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