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College Roll Bio
Haneman, Benedetto
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Qualifications
AM (1988) MBBS Syd (1944) MRACP (1960) FRACP (1971)
Born
13/02/1923
Died
18/12/2001
Ben Haneman was a man with the widest of interests, in Hebrew ‘ish shehakol bo’, ‘an interest in everything’. First and foremost, he was a doctor, still in clinical practice at the time of his death, but was also a medical historian, bibliophile and humanitarian. He was immersed in Spain, its language and literature, people and medicine. He was a firm believer, and loyal to Judaism. He had close associations with St George Hospital, the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the State Library of NSW. He was married twice, first to Marion Salkow, the mother of his two sons, Peter and David. His second marriage was to Beryl Thomson who survived him. He was devoted to his family and had a special affinity for his grandchildren.
Ben was born in 1923 in Florence, Italy. His parents, Nathan and Amulka Haneman migrated to Australia with their son Ben, aged four. His schooling was at Canterbury Boys High School “where my interest in literature was born” and he entered medical school at the University of Sydney at the early age of fifteen. Graduating in 1944 he served his residencies at the Royal Perth Hospital and the Perth Children’s Hospital. In 1947 he began general practice in Carlton, NSW. Some years later he studied advanced medicine in London at the Hammersmith Hospital and was admitted to Membership of the RACP in 1960 (Fellowship in 1971).
Although well trained in general medicine his particular interest was in gastroenterology. In 1960 he was appointed to St George Hospital as an honorary physician serving the hospital continuously until 1990. He quickly established himself as an inspired teacher and became the hospital’s first Warden of Clinical Studies. This post brought him into contact with and responsibility for many students and postgraduates who remember his compassion and kindness to his patients. He became a physician of eminence and maintained his continuous education through the RACP and the Gastroenterological Society of Australia scientific meetings. He gave continuing support to the medical schools of the Universities of NSW and Sydney. For many years he was Warden of Warrane College, a student residential college at the University of NSW. He also became an Honorary Consultant Physician to Lidcombe and Marrickville hospitals.
The history of medicine was a lifelong interest. He was a foundation member of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine and in 2001 was elected its president while vice-president of the New South Wales Society, remaining in both offices until his death. He gave many papers on historical subjects, notably on the life of Dr Eric Payton Dark in 1997, Dr Thomas Meredith Sheridan in 1999 and in 2001 he spoke about the cholera epidemic of 1991 in Peru that was the subject he was working on for a Master’s degree.
He attended many of the conferences of the International Society of the History of Medicine, the last being in Galveston, Texas, in 2000. In the 1996 Conference on the island of Kos, in Greece, he read a paper contrasting two modern medical saints, Australia’s ‘Weary’ Dunlop and the Spanish professor, Don Eduardo Ortiz de Landezuri. The latter, en route to canonisation by the Vatican was an Opus Dei member (as was Ben) and head of the medical school at the University of Navarre.
Ben had a long and fruitful association with the State Library of NSW. In 1993 he donated some 2000 books to the Library, all related to Don Quixote, the Miguel de Cervantes masterpiece. This valuable and unique collection, compiled over 30 years, contained 1100 different editions of this work in 50 languages, one published in 1620 and another illustrated by Salvador Dali. Ben was attracted to the Don personality and indeed was himself something of a Don Quixote. At the presentation Ben said he was donating his collection because he wanted it to be kept intact and hoped it would stand beside the Library’s collection of Shakespeare who died on the same day as Cervantes.
The Library Society awarded him its inaugural Life Membership after he had served on the committee for many years. He worked in the Library as a volunteer, indexing major Aboriginal journals including Dawn, United Aboriginal Messenger, New Dawn, Our Aim and Identity, a huge project which he completed after ten years. None of these journals now exist. His work has enabled many Aboriginals to trace their family origins as every name occurs in his indexes.
On 17 January 2002, a large group of Ben’s friends attended a function in the State Library, hosted by Susan Tompkins, Sydney bookseller. It was in the Library that he had the fall that led to his death, and it was in the Library that family and friends gathered to recall and give thanks for his wonderful life.
Ben had a passion for Spain and its culture “my involvement in things Spanish has vastly enriched my life.” He learnt Spanish in his youth and became enamoured of the country and its people. He became associated with the University of Navarre medical school and visited there annually over a period of many years. He was made an Honorary Professor of Medicine in 1984 and the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, decorated him with the Cross of a Knight of the Order of Civil Merit. In Sydney he was long active in the Hispanic Society and the Spanish Cultural Society and he gave many readings of Spanish poetry to the Spanish consulate and public. His contributions to medicine and to the Australian Spanish community were recognised by the award of the membership of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1988.
Ben described himself as a book-collecting addict – he began collecting at an early age and warned ‘it can become a vice of unequalled proportions, with books spilling out of their bookshelves and overtaking the house.’ His collection of some 15,000 books overflowed his two-roomed study, the ceiling to floor bookcases lining every wall-space, all books ‘double-parked.’ His library included, apart from Spanish literature and history of medicine, topics ranging from Judaica to biography. He was particularly drawn to and accumulated a library of Cervantes material and Spanish poetry including the work of Federico Garcia Lorca.
For over 30 years Ben served as an invaluable member of the College Library committee. He fought vigorously for the retention of the historical College library, or at least, if removed to another site, for it to remain under the ownership and administration by the College. At the time of his death the future of the library had not been determined.
Ben contributed regular book reviews on medical and social subjects to publications such as the Internal Medicine Journal, Fellowship Affairs, RACP News and Modern Medicine. He regularly attended scientific meetings of the College and the Gastroenterological Society of Australia.
A committed member of the Jewish faith, Ben served on the Jewish Board of Deputies, the main civil body of thought and action in the Australian Jewish community. He wrote book reviews for the Australian Jewish News and the Great Synagogue News, and gave the Rabbi Falk Memorial lecture to members of the Great Synagogue a few months prior to his death, the subject being Australian Jewish Doctors.
As St George Hospital Warden of student education and welfare he gave continuing support to the University of New South Wales. He loved teaching and would take students to Lidcombe Hospital on Sunday mornings to see patients with neurological disorders. Late in 2000 at the invitation of the University of Sydney Medical Graduates Association he presented a fascinating account of the history of the University’s Faculty of Medicine to a large audience of students and fellow graduates. An account was later published in Radius, the Newsletter of the Association. He was also a member of and strong supporter of the Doctors Reform Society.
Over the last three years Ben helped me produce a literary Option for a number of first and second year students in the new four-year postgraduate course of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney. His subjects were ‘Don Quixote and Doctoring’ and George Bernard Shaw’s play the ‘Doctor’s Dilemma and modern medical practice.’ A former student wrote – “I wanted to write and tell you how sad I was to learn of Dr Haneman’s death. I can still see him brimming with enthusiasm for Don Quixote, sharing his passion for books with us! I know you will miss him intensely.” This tribute from a student who spent just one and a half hours in Ben’s company two years ago is testimony to his influence, teaching ability, ambience and enthusiasm for medicine and literature.
Ben was a unique personality. His politics were distinctly left wing. He believed passionately in Government responsibility for health provision but with the right of private practice for doctors. He was essentially a humane person with compassion and understanding. He was most catholic in his interests and concerns, a wonderful friend and mentor, a confirmed optimist, a humorist and joker. He was a man it was a privilege to know as a friend and to share in his delight in literature. He was himself a true Don Quixote, “a character about faith, hope, optimism and charity, seeing things clearly as they ought to be.”
Author
SJM GOULSTON
References
SMH 25 Jan 2002;RACP News 2002 21 12; Australian Jewish News 18 Jan 2002 Med J Aust 2002 176 292 New Doctor 2001/2 no 76 27
Last Updated
May 30, 2018, 17:38 PM
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