Malcolm Prichard: 1932 – 2018
Malcolm’s father, John Lewis Prichard was born in 1894 in Collins Street Melbourne, where the Grand Hyatt stands today.
Well educated as a Dentist, Dad came to WA towards the end of the Great War and served as a Dentist at the Army training camp at Blackboy Hill.
After the war, my father started a Dental practice in Bunbury in Princep Street.
He married the beautiful Lillian Marsh who was born in Cossack.
She was the daughter of William Marsh, the owner of the Prince of Wales Hotel and later also the Parade Hotel.
Malcolm’s Dad died aged 80, while Mum passed away at 95.
Malcolm was born in in Bunbury 1932, the youngest of five children.
The family home was at 10 Turner Street. It’s a lovely home which still stands today.
Malcolm went to the Infant’s State School, then the Covent and finally Bunbury High School.
He played hockey, was a champion high jumper and Head Boy.
Malcolm’s dad used to take the family sailing in Koombana Bay on his big yacht and drove a Chevrolet car, one of the first in town.
Malcolm was the rouge of the family after studying pharmacy in Perth while his brothers became dentists like their father.
After Graduation, I worked in Hospitals in Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane, then worked in Pharmacies around Perth.
In 1956, Malcom opened his first pharmacy on Stephen Street where the Serendipity Café is today.
When Malcolm was a patient at Royal Perth Hospital, he was cared for by a newly registered Nurse, Wenda. Malcolm said she looked like Elizabeth Taylor, and still does!
Wenda was a farmer’s daughter from Wongan Hills. Wenda and Malcolm married at St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth and Paul Vukelic was the best man.
Together they had five children, and eight grandchildren. Married life started married life in Higgins Street, only a short stagger from the Highway Hotel.
In 2015 during a speech for the Rotary Club, Malcolm said “you know, at that stage in my life I knew I had it all. A business in town, a little fibre home on a ¼ acre block, a wonderful wife, a couple of kids, the Holden car, a hills hoist and a huge TV antenna in the back yard.”
In 1963, the Prichards moved to Perth after Malcolm bought a pharmacy in the city. The family lived in Como near the Canning Bridge for the next 33 years and had two more kids.
When the kids left school, Malcolm sold the pharmacy and did locums for the next 12 years around WA, Australia and the UK. Wenda called them ‘working Holidays’.
They enjoyed retirement, took the caravan everywhere, up and down the coast, over the top, down the middle, around the bottom and over the Nullarbor many times.
They even made it to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and went to every hockey match.
Malcolm also had the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch through the streets of Bunbury, which is now proudly displayed in the family home on Stirling Street.
Malcolm’s Rotary journey began in 1982 as a Charter Member of the Rotary Club of Como, he was President in 1986 – the Year the Polio Plus Campaign started.
Thanks to Rotary, we have now almost eradicated polio worldwide.
Malcolm held every office except Treasurer, yes even the role of Rotary Bully.
Rotary opened a new world to the Prichard family. Eldest daughter, Suzzanne, was a RYLA awardee.
She married a fellow Rylarian. The youngest daughter Jo spent a year on Rotary Youth Exchange in Canada, and their eldest grandchild is a science scholar awardee and went on Youth Exchange to Italy.
The Prichard’s have hosted Youth exchange, Foundation Scholars, GSE Teams and have been counsellors to most.
“Rotary has bought the world to our family and our family to the world” Malcolm said.
In 1996 Malcolm came back to Bunbury to retire, and continued his locum work in local Pharmacies until 2000.
Also in 1996, Barry Johnson introduced Malcolm to the Rotary Club of Bunbury, where he found so many rewards.
Retired life also saw Malcolm and Wenda Prichard go ‘cruisin’ including an around the world adventure on the Dawn Princess.
In 2014 Malcolm was diagnosed with dementia.
Malcolm was described as a “true Gentleman, a caring Husband, loving father and popa, and a genuine friend to many, whose ‘service above self’ touched so many, many lives.”