Roger Riordan AM
The Founder of Cybec Foundation, Roger Riordan was an extraordinary person by any measure. He stood prominently in the landscape of humanity - a kind, generous, uniquely intelligent and ingenious individual.
He was thoughtful, literate, often outspoken, and courageous to a degree that defied his shy disposition. Over the course of his remarkable life, he endured many hardships, overcame many obstacles, yet still found the time and energy to raise a family and support countless individuals who, for one reason or another, found themselves less fortunate than him. He was tolerant of other people’s views and beliefs, often supporting people whose convictions were contradictory to his own. Roger was a wonderful example of how to be human.
Born at Ivanhoe, Victoria, on the 24th of March 1934, Roger was the second child of Adrian William Riordan and Roslyn Newell Riordan (née Rutherford). He had an older brother, Richard (1932), and a sister, Julienne (1937). The family lived in England from 1935 to 1936, then returned to Melbourne where Roger started school at Melbourne Grammar.
Roger’s father was a career soldier so, when World War II began, he was often away from home. Fearing that Melbourne was no longer safe, Roger’s parents moved the family to Mt Dandenong, to live in a holiday house designed by his mother. The children attended the local state school.
Roger was a clever, curious, somewhat solitary child, entranced by the natural world around him. A bush childhood served as the catalyst for an intense interest and pleasure in native flora and fauna, which stayed with him all his life.
In 1944, when Roger was ten, he began a correspondence with the renowned botanist, Dr Jim Willis, of the National Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He sent specimens to Dr Willis, who replied to R. Riordan, Esquire. When his mother took Roger to the Herbarium after a dentist’s visit in the school holidays, Dr Willis was very surprised to meet a boy. Their friendship lasted until Jim died in 1995, and Roger’s involvement with the Herbarium was lifelong.
From 1945 to 1950 Roger was a student at Upwey High School. His matriculation report noted that he was an outstanding student, Dux of the school in 1950 and a very good Captain of Form VI. The report further noted that he had been helpful in all school activities, was of fine character, as well as being courteous and gentlemanly in conduct. These qualities, evident so early, remained with Roger all his life and underpinned his life’s work.
After matriculating, Roger was admitted to the University of Melbourne and lived at Trinity College while studying for a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He graduated in 1954, and with dreams of becoming an expert in atomic energy, joined the English Electric Company at Rugby in the UK as a 21 year old graduate apprentice. His dreams were dashed as he grew disenchanted with the future of atomic power, and with the company. He moved to Whetstone, where he designed governors for water turbines. However, his time in England was largely unhappy.
Returning to Australia in 1957, Roger joined The Commonwealth Scientifc and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and worked there for the next 16 years. In 1967, he gained international recognition for inventing the “Riordan Gyrator” - a new type of active filter that revolutionised the design of filters for trunk line telephone systems.
Roger met Shirley-Anne (Sally) Yeo on a trip to Central Australia in 1960. They married on the 24th of June, 1961, and honeymooned at the Mount Buffalo Chalet. Roger and Sally bought an old home in East Brighton, built a new one on the site some years later, and raised their three children there: Peter, Adrian and Sarah.
Roger would live the rest of his life in the East Brighton home, except for one year spent working in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Roger would later say that his time at Berkeley was remarkable for both the friendships made and the opportunity to observe, firsthand, the Civil Rights and Free Speech movements which coincided with his sabbatical year. He returned to Berkeley for a commemoration of the Free Speech Movement in 2015.
In 1973, Roger resigned from CSIRO and set up Cybec Electronics in partnership with Sally. They would toil for ten years, but the business was never the commercial success Roger and Sally hoped for. By 1982, Roger had closed the factory and was on the dole.
In 1983, Roger started work as a lecturer at Chisholm Institute of Technology (now Monash University). As outspoken as ever on points of principle, he did not enjoy working within the institutional bureaucracy and described it as the “academic equivalent of Siberia” - but it would lead to a remarkable opportunity.
In 1989, while still at Chisholm, Roger was asked to help with a computer virus that had infected the institute’s PC’s. His response was to write the first version of the virus-busting software program, VET - so called because, in Roger’s mind, you ‘vet’ a document for errors.
VET was extremely effective and, before the year was out, Roger left Chisholm to work on VET full-time. It became enormously successful and grew into an international company employing about 90 people. Sally was a director of the company, but was described by Roger as a second mother to employees. As she looked after the many plants she had placed in the office, she would talk with everyone and take their issues and suggestions to Roger. Roger, always renowned for his strong views, never changed his mind easily. Sally was one of the few who could make him.
As Cybec continued to make money, Roger and Sally set aside a percentage of the Company's profts to endow scholarships and redress the social injustice they saw. Their first scholarship was established at Trinity College in 1995. Trinity never ceased to be important to Roger, as he always maintained that he had learnt more important lessons at the College than at University.
In 1999, Roger and Sally sold the VET Company to Computer Associates and, after giving staff a share of the proceeds from the sale, decided to use a signifcant portion of the remainder for charitable purposes. Sadly, Sally died the same year while visiting her sister in England. Shortly before her unexpected death, Roger and Sally had decided to pay for the fit-out of an aerial ambulance for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was named “The Sally Riordan” in her honour. Roger also endowed scholarships named for Sally at St Leonard’s College - the school their children had attended, and where Sally had worked for a time.
In 2000, Roger married his second wife, Patricia (formerly Patricia Herman, née Burrows), a longtime family friend, and together they established the Cybec Foundation as a Charitable Fund. They expanded the focus of their support to include education, social welfare, performing arts, health, science and the environment.
Roger and Pat had ten happy and busy years together until, very sadly, Pat died in December 2010. Pat was a music lover and an MSO subscriber; the Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was established in her memory.
To date, Cybec Foundation has gifted more than $10 million. During a recent interview, Roger was asked what giving feels like. He replied, “Giving doesn’t feel like anything. But meeting the people who I help is where the pleasure comes”. This is an important part of Roger’s vision: his giving was always personal and his idea was that the gift of support should be returned. This should happen, not by paying it back, but by “paying it forward” and it should happen where, when, and in whatever way the recipient is able to do it.
He went to great lengths to meet Cybec recipients, often inviting people to his home and cooking dinner for them. Strong relationships were forged with Cybec Scholars even returning to introduce partners and babies. On a larger scale, the annual Cybec Foundation Dinner also came to be a wonderful event where people from every part of the Cybec community would come together and forge further connections.
In his latter years, Roger liked to spend time working in his garden, watching out for the resident Tawny Frogmouths, working on his computer programs, inventing things (notably his homemade electric blanket and his brick-lifting device), taking photographs, meeting the people he supported and (of course) writing letters to the papers. His often controversial views were not always popular. Roger’s devotion to free thought and expression often saw him at odds with political, religious and business figures.
He was human and full of contradictions.
Theatrical and musical endeavours he considered “seriously weird” received Cybec funding because Roger recognised the value of creative exploration and diversity. He was a scientist who knew that there is no discovery without experimentation. He was a sometime-pessimist who often said despairing things about the planet and mankind in general, but delighted in plants, birds and small children. He believed in reason and hard data, but was ready to take a risk on a person, or a project. He was deeply moved by the stories of people facing and overcoming hardship and injustice. He never forgot what it felt like to be in despair, and wrote that his greatest good fortune was in his capacity to overcome difculty, and above all, in the marriages and family he made.
Roger deplored indulgence and was openly critical of wealthy people spoiling themselves. In contradiction of his obvious means, he chose to live modestly and to apply his surplus for the benefit of others. He was reserved and often restrained in his personal communications, a quiet and gentle person, almost shy, who on occasion would be overcome with emotion as he considered both the plight and the achievements of those he helped. In spite of his distrust of the system, and his despair at the state of the world, he remained a crusader for social welfare, a defender and supporter of peoples’ right to pursue their dreams, and a champion of those more needy than himself, helping many to live satisfying, happy and healthy lives.
Roger was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2002 for service to the community and conferred with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University of Newcastle in 2005. He ended an address to students on that occasion with these words: “I hope you find satisfaction and joy in your careers and your personal lives. Be honest in all your dealings, have courage and compassion, and never give up, even if things do seem hopeless. Good luck!”