Emeritus Professor C D Blake, AO was honoured with a Charles Sturt University (CSU) 30 Year Service Medal last week at a special dinner in Wagga Wagga.

 

The young Cliff Blake became the first Principal of Riverina College of Advanced Education in 1971. The first inkling of the “master of mergers” title, according to CSU historian Don Boadle, came when he “swallowed up Wagga Agricultural College in 1975.”

 

By 1985, the Wagga Wagga Teacher’s College and Goulburn and Riverina’s Colleges of Advanced Education had all combined to come under the leadership of Professor Blake, in the form of Riverina-Murray College of Advanced Education (RMIHE). It was a breathtaking perfomance and an amazing example of political foresight.

 

The creation of CSU, according to Don Boadle, “was the culmination of a hard-fought campaign that demonstrated Cliff Blake’s unshakeable conviction”.

 

According to Hansard, State member for Wagga Wagga Joe Schipp told Parliament in 1998, “few people know the real story of how Charles Sturt University came into being. It was touch and go for almost a month. The two Ministers, Federal Minister Dawkins and State Minister Metherell, fought tooth and nail to refuse the university full university status. I was able to convince Cabinet that we needed a rural network university of the type devised by Cliff Blake, who would have to be regarded as the father of this university if ever there was one.”

 

Professor Cliff Blake is Australia's longest serving chief executive officer of a higher education institution. For more than 30 years he served as Vice-Chancellor of CSU and before that, as founding head of RMIHE.

 

In a speech at the presentation, current CSU Vice-Chancellor Ian Goulter praised Professor Blake as “one of the country's pre-eminent Vice-Chancellors.”  While ackowledging “his distinguished contribution to Charles Sturt University,” Professor Goulter noted that Professor Blake had “secured the future of tertiary education in the Riverina, Murray and Central Western regions of NSW”.

 

In May 2001, the main lecture theatre at Albury-Wodonga Campus based at Thurgoona was named the C D Blake Lecture Theatre in honour of Professor Blake. That same month, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sydney. The CD Blake Experimental Winery in Wagga Wagga is also named for Professor Blake, who was instrumental in establishing the University’s internationally recognised wine science and viticulture courses.

 

Professor Blake is a former President of the Australian Higher Education Industry Association, former Convenor of the NSW Vice-Chancellors' Conference, a former Chair of the National Conference on Open and Distance Education, a former Board member of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, and was awarded an Order of Australia in 2002 for his contribution to Australian higher education. CSU introduced the new 30 year service medal late last year.