Kathleen Rankin was born on Armistice Day in 1918. With an auspicious birth date and the middle name ‘Peace’, she was destined to make a mark on the world.

An independent spirit, Kathleen valued education and adventure. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and hitchhiked through Europe in the 1950s. She later forged a career as a law clerk and continued to work well beyond retirement age, into her 80s.

Her second cousins Christine Parkinson and Anne Mulcahy remember Kathleen fondly as a strong and independent woman who valued family and friends, education and commitment to work.

When she passed away in 2016, her bequest to the University of Melbourne included a commitment to glaucoma research, the Kathleen Rankin Bequest. This generous gift is now supporting critical work by CERA’s mitochondria and neurodegeneration researchers.

“Kathleen had glaucoma and was treated by Professor Gerard Crock (Australia’s first Professor of Ophthalmology) at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital,’’ explains Christine.

“She had a great respect for Professor Crock which is in part reflected in her bequest but so too her appreciation for the work done by researchers and scientists in helping to improve treatments and to finding a cure.”

The Kathleen Rankin Bequest is a key supporter of Associate Professor Ian Trounce’s investigations into glaucoma.