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Vale Margaret Lennox Fuller OAM   24.9.1940-20.3.2021

Unlike most Arts students at Sydney University in the 1950s, Marg knew from early on what she wanted to do - to be a social worker.  She graduated in 1961 and started work at Sydney Hospital.  She then moved to England, where she worked in London at St Thomas Hospital and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and made many lifelong friends.

After her marriage to Jeff Fuller in 1969, she moved to Wollongong where she worked for the Smith Family as the first social worker in Wollongong. After working at the Marriage Guidance Council for some years, she joined the Anglican Counselling Centre where she became Program Manager for the Illawarra Region. She continued in this role until her supposed retirement in 2005, but Marg was unstoppable, unfailing in her commitment to the causes she deeply valued and kept working almost up to the end of her life.

She was also awarded an OAM in 2005 “for services to the community, particularly as a social worker and counsellor and through the provision of prison ministry programs.” She continued to work as a clinical supervisor, and as a support person for the Anglican Diocese Professional Standards Unit, which deals with complaints against clergy and church workers. She was also fully involved with the Kairos Prison Ministry, where for some time she was Director of Women’s Ministry, continuing these roles even after her diagnosis with lung cancer in 2018.

Anglicare’s current Operations Manager of community services in Wollongong, Michael Mittwollen, wrote: “It’s easy to forget now that at the time when Marg entered the profession of social work, the community sector was a new sector.  Social work was throwing off the shackles of charity, institutionalisation and medical approaches that “fixed” individuals.  Marg was part of a new generation of social workers.  A trail blazing professional woman for the times”. Marg was highly respected by her colleagues as an outstanding clinician and supervisor.

At her funeral, her daughter Kari described Marg as kind, caring, beautiful, adventurous, gracious, compassionate, empathic, playful, loving and religious (Marg was a strong Christian).  I would like to add very wise; even in our casework classes in 1960, her wisdom and insight into complex cases shone out.

Marg not only had a very happy marriage with two children and 6 grandchildren but a huge circle of friends and many clients who will all carry memories of her strength of character, her warmth, her extraordinary capacity for work and for love.

Petrina Slaytor (nee Neal)

I met Marg at Sydney University Musical Society in 1958 and, thanks to her, I also studied social work.  She was bridesmaid at my wedding, and godmother of my daughter.  In her last year we did weights together on Zoom - more chat than exercise!  She was a great friend and a wonderful social worker. 

The NSW Branch would like to congratulate our 2020 AASW Life Member recipients on their well-deserved achievements:

Diana Carmody

Diana has been providing psychosocial, emotional and practical support to families of patients with life-threatening condition for more than 34 years. While Diana is an incredibly skilled social worker, she is best known for the compassion she has for each of her families. No issue a family faces is too great or too small for her to tackle and she is constantly searching for ways to change the system, so no family is disadvantaged.

Diana’s contribution to the AASW was as one of the lecturers of the highly successful Return to Work program run by the NSW Branch. This program assisted social workers on a career break and those newly arrived in Australia to understand the current practice context and provided them with current practice experience and placements.

Diana has been a strong and vocal advocate to many issues including improving hospital accommodation for families, making changed to carer allowance to families, and organ donation just to name a few.

Diana’s contribution to the social work profession and her ability to hear and understand what is happening for families has seen her recognised as a life member of the AASW.

Jack Whitney, NSW Branch President, presenting Diana with her Life Membership certificate.

Pamela Cohen

Pamela has contributed to a substantial body of work teaching and writing in social work since graduating in 1966. She has volunteered significant time to the AASW, including being a NSW Branch Ethics Committee member from 1999-2005.  

Of note to the AASW, from 1997-2016 Pamela was the facilitator of the highly regarded Supervision of Staff for Social Workers Course, run by the NSW Branch of the AASW, where she has contributed to high supervisory standards across NSW.  This continues to be a very well recognised training course being sponsored by NSW Health.

Pamela has had a strong commitment to developing and supporting new social workers.  For many years she taught courses in group work in a variety of tertiary settings, including the University of NSW and all over Australia with the Australian Centre for Heart Health.

From 1995-2017, she was the co-founder of the Special Interest Group in Cardiac Services and Cardiac Rehabilitation. 

In the field of the psychosocial aspects of cardiac disease, including using group work as a method of helping patients with adjustment and lifestyle issues, Pamela has been recognised as a state-wide, national and international expert.  In 2004 she received the Distinguished Service Award for Cardiac Rehabilitation, including Life Membership, from the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association, the only social worker to have done so in the history of the Association.