Congratulations Lionel Parrott OAM who was recognised in the Australia Day Honours with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community through a range of roles.

Lionel came in to College as a theologian, and had two years in Queen’s. Professor Bill Scott (Wyvern 1940) gave Lionel his first university lecture, then years later they overlapped again when the professor was vice chancellor of Monash University.

Queen’s had an annual football challenge against the Ormond theologs, and for the two years Lionel played, they won. He represented Queen’s as the number one tennis player for both years.  Lionel found water-bagging an enjoyable pastime, and remembers one student who had earned the displeasure of a number of residents was issued with a fake phone call and as he went up the stairs outside the dining room (now the JCR) to receive it, he was hit by an avalanche of water bags. Lionel feels very lucky to have had the experience of living in Queen’s.

He finished his arts degree, having discontinued his studies as a theologian,  then joined the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria. Being a semi-government institution his role was with the group responsible for improving organisational efficiency. It gave him a good background in different areas of work people do.

Lionel then worked for Fibremakers, a subsidiary of ICI, initially performing the same kind of work then after conducting a review of the personnel department, he joined them as staff employment officer. Part of that role was to employ eight graduates a year and that brought him into contact with careers and appointment services. He then spent 26 years at Monash, starting as their career counsellor then progressing to running the whole service which meant dealing with students during and at the completion of their courses. In his busiest year he had 1,000 individual counselling appointments. Another part of the role was to visit schools and encourage students to think about going on to higher education. Then he added staff training to his role as well. Some years after Lionel was at Monash, he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the university.  Before retiring, Lionel worked with Slade Partners, executive search consultants, specialising in higher education appointments, for 12 years. 

Lionel was Chairman of the school council of Billanook College in Mooroolbark, that lead to a role on the executive committee for the Association of Independent Schools. He had contact with Indigenous education, and spent five years as secretary of the southern districts tennis association. Lionel made submissions to government inquiries, including one on powers of attorney and a state government one on careers education. He also produces a monthly newsletter for a church that has a circulation of 200, trying to help people make sense of their lives.

Receiving the award was a very pleasant and enjoyable surprise for Lionel. He finds it satisfying to know that in his career he was able to help others achieve for themselves. He has found it very gratifying to bump into people years down the track and have them tell him how his suggestions worked out for them.