OBITUARY JIM WRIGHT, LIFE MEMBER OF THE ABA. AUGUST 27 1938 – MARCH 28, 2025.

My first awareness of Jim Wright, AM, MD, paediatric surgeon and passionate erudite beekeeper, was through one of his patients who had done really well after major paediatric surgery performed by Jim in Newcastle. Then there were others who followed. All sang his praises as a down to earth approachable man who was patient, kind, considerate and had the human touch. It isn’t easy to do paediatric surgery as it requires a close-knit team including specialised anaesthetists and nurses which he organised after training in Australia and the USA.

Jim was 12 years old and living on a farm near Coffs Harbour when a neighbouring farmer gave him his first swarm of bees, and the farmer neighbour on the other side had given him a box and a homemade hive tool. He used to ride his horse to school and collected the next swarm he saw on his way to school!

Jim therefore had bees at around the age that Bruce White OAM got bees (11 years old!). Jim was passionate about bees, although he didn’t have any whilst training - he soon got bees again when he moved to Newcastle with his wife and five children. He was an active member of the ABA and was secretary for a period of time both of the Hunter Valley and NSW executive.

Jim attended Tocal and wrote many assiduously detailed articles about the Tocal field days for the association. He presented at children's events in schools, fetes and field days. He wrote about the history of beekeeping and many other articles published in the agricultural newspaper “The Land”, Honey Bee New, the Australasian Beekeeper (ABK) to name a few. Jim wrote a very detailed book “The History of the Amateur Beekeepers Association of NSW 1954-2017” which is in many club libraries. This 180-page book soft cover contains many cartoons, photographs illustrations and quotes, including one from Virgil, 1st Century BC, originally contributed to The Amateur Beekeeper buy Ian McLeod in April 1990: “In the bee-world, we find so many of the characteristics we ourselves crave for, selflessness, fearlessness, contempt for danger and death, pursuit of the work ethic, and an obsession for cleanliness and good order. The bees work is on a small scale but their glory is vast.”

This shows the thinking and education of the man.

I quote his own words in describing how he wrote about the matters he covered in his book and articles including the acrimonious split of North Shore Beekeepers from the ABA. “Recording these events factually, fairly, and hopefully with a degree of tact, given the highly emotive nature of some of the issues, provided a major challenge. “ Jim also stated that verbal contact with involved members and beekeeping personalities was a personal delight for him.

Because he lived in the Maitland area, he was able to document the early history of the Maitland Penders Beekeeping suppliers in 1892. As a sideline to their firewood business the brothers William and Robert began making bee boxes for the commercial beekeepers in that area who had started in the 1860’s.

Jim will be fondly remembered by many of us as a witty humorous wise erudite man who was unsparing of his time, happy to share his knowledge and educate many different circles about bees and beekeeping and he did this always with kind words and graciousness. For those of us who had the fortune to meet him, he will never be forgotten.

Written with much love by Lamorna Osborne, with help from Linda Winn, Bruce White and Vincent Schnyder.