Registrars and Secretaries to Senate

Hugh George McCredie

Hugh George McCredie was Deputy Registrar of the University of Sydney from 1961 to 1967, Registrar from 1967 to 1972, Secretary from 1972 to 1974 and Deputy Principal from 1974 to 1982.

Profile

Deputy Registrar: 1961 - 1967
Registrar: 1967 - 1972
Secretary: 1972 - 1974
Deputy Principal: 1974 - 1982

On the retirement of Margaret Telfer in 1967 the Deputy Registrar, Hugh George McCredie, was appointed to the position of Registrar.

Educated at Fort Street Boys' High School, McCredie had joined the New South Wales Auditor-General's Department on leaving school. He worked there from 1938 to 1941. During that period he had completed the qualifying examinations for the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. In the early 1940s McCredie joined the A.I.F. and served in Australia and New Guinea (1942-1946). He achieved the rank of Lieutentant and remained on the Reserve of Officers until 1965.

In 1946 he commenced his legal studies and in 1948 completed the four year Law degree with honours at the University of Sydney under special provisions made for ex-servicemen and women. In 1948 he became a trainee executive with the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited and then in 1949, Secretary of G.H. and J.A. Watson Pty. Ltd. and Associated Companies.

Prior to the Second World War McCredie had qualified as an accountant, cost accountant and secretary.

McCredie returned to the University in 1950 on his appointment as Assistant Registrar under the then Registrar, Harold Maze, and was at various times over the next few years Secretary to the Faculties of Arts, Law, Economics, Dentistry and Science.

In 1961 he was appointed Deputy Registrar under Margaret Telfer who had succeeded Maze as Registrar.

In 1963 McCredie completed a British Council course on university administration and as both a Carnegie Travelling Fellow and a British Council Scholar visited universities and other institutions in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America.

McCredie also kept in touch with the teaching side of academic life: during 1954 to 1961 he held a part-time lectureship in Accounting and from 1955-56 he was a Part-time Lecturer in Commercial Law at the New South Wales University of Technology. He was Chief Examiner in Commercial Law for the Australian Society of Accountants from 1957 to 1966. In addition from 1955 he had been Honorary Acting Secretary, then Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Committee, Secretary of the Rothman's University Endowment Fund and from 1966 the University's representative on the Bursary Endowment Board.

McCredie was also involved in the social and sporting life of the University. He was Secretary of the Sydney University Staff Club [now the University of Sydney Club] in its formative years and a member of the Committee for two years. A keen sportsman, he was President of the Sydney University Sports union 1961-1963 and then Senate Representative; he was also President of the Sydney University Lawn Tennis Club. During these years prior to his appointment as Registrar he had become a Senior Associate of the Australian Society of Accountants; an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Associate of Cost Accountants of Australia.

By 1967 he had published twenty-two papers and articles, one book and was co-author of one other book.

In 1967 the selection committee was unanimous in its recommendation that McCredie be appointed Registrar. He was to hold this position until 1972 when he was appointed Secretary prior to Maze's retirement. In 1974 McCredie was appointed Deputy Principal - the transition from academic to financial administrator was complete.

In 1988, the then Vice-Chancellor, the late Professor J.M. Ward, said of McCredie, as a Registrar, Secretary and Deputy Principal, he was:
"... an outstanding example of a career administrator, tireless in trying to establish a more efficient University. Paper never sat long on his desk, though not all of it was moved during normal working hours. A familiar brown briefcase was his regular companion and into it went any papers not attended to by the end of a long day. Those who worked for him could be sure that next morning all these documents would have returned to the University with instructions annotated upon them. Despite the extremely heavy workload that he imposed an himself, Hugh McCredie was always to be found with an open door to hear anyone's problems, both personal and professional. Compassionate and sensitive solutions were regularly found. Both as Registrar and later as Deputy Principal, Mr McCredie brought a special blend of sensitivity to the academic needs of the University, well-based skills in financial management, and an independent mind dedicated to improving the University's efficiency and effectiveness and fostering its good relations in the business and rural communities."

In recognition of his services to the University Hugh McCredie received the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) on 16 April 1988.

By Ursula Bygott, Record, University of Sydney Archives, 1992