OBITUARY - NICHOLAS OUTTERSIDE
On the 10th February 1980 the death occurred of Nicholas Outterside, first President of A.I.R.
Nick was born in Durham, England in 1908. There he matriculated and was trained as a teacher at Oxford.
He came to Australia in 1925. Awaiting an appointment as a teacher he took a fill-in job in the X-ray Department of St. George Hospital in February 1926. He stayed there for 25 years.
Suffering from overexposure to X-rays he retired into business for a short while. Later he joined the staff of Stanford X-ray Co. as a representative. During the war years he acted as a relief Radiographer in many areas Lithgow, Lewisham and country centres and then joined Parramatta District Hospital, rose to Chief Radiographer and stayed there until he retired.
In 1936 he attended and passed the course sponsored by The University Extension Board. He was Vice-President of A.N.Z.A.R. (Technical Section) from 1941-45, having been a member since it's inauguration in 1935. He was intensively occupied with affairs prior to and after the Incorporation of A.I.R.
During 1946 he was on the Sub-Committee investigating means of forming the A.I.R. and President of the Unincorporated Body in 1948. The A.I.R. was Incorporated in 1950 and Nick was elected President. As such Nick was first to sign both the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the new body and, strangely enough, lived to become the last of the signitories to survive. Those years meant several interstate trips and innumerable meetings.
He was appointed a Foundation Fellow in 1954, received the Watvic Award and in September 1971 received his Past President's Badge.
Nick initiated many of the benefits we now enjoy. One of nature's gentlemen, softly spoken he had the unique facility of finding the common denominator between opposing views and his wise counsels were rarely ignored. A humble man he looked for no credits but has left to Australian Radiographers an Institute of International repute.
Arthur Smith, Charles Keage, Donald Carter.
(The Radiographer, Vol 27, No 2, June 1980, p.38)