Dr Brendan Nelson

Service calls

Dropping out of an economics degree was one of the bravest – and one of the best – personal decisions Brendan Nelson ever made. The first in his family to attend university, progeny of a mother and father who had struggled to make ends meet and who had pinned their hopes for their son on education, it took great courage.

He has chosen the vessels that Australian sailors would sail in to defend our borders, determined policy that would change the course of the nation, and joined the international stage as Australia’s ambassador to NATO, but it was the choice to drop out that displayed Dr Nelson’s true mettle.

“In making the decision to leave university without knowing what I was going to do, was devastating to both my parents – my father in particular,” Dr Nelson said.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I did a lot of thinking about it and came to the conclusion then that people who end their lives with the greatest sense of satisfaction are people who spend their lives in the service of others.

“I applied for medicine at Flinders University and it changed my life.”

After an extensive career in Federal Parliament, he served for three years as an ambassador, and then discovered the job of Director of the Australian War Memorial was to become available and for the first time in many years, he sat down and wrote a job application letter.

“Whatever I have been able to do and achieve I attribute to my parents, the Jesuits and Flinders University,” Dr Nelson said.

“I didn’t realise how privileged and fortunate I was to have the education I had received at Flinders University until I had left. In hindsight, I was so lucky; I got the right lottery ticket.”