Ron McCallum, AO, LLM’74, LLD’16, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Law of the University of Sydney, penned his memoir, Born at the Right Time, a book that has been called “a fascinating and inspiring life story.” In the week of September 23, he’ll be in residence at Queen’s Law, where he will engage with students and faculty as the William R. Lederman Visitor.
Ron McCallum, AO, LLM’74, LLD’16, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Law of the University of Sydney, penned his memoir, Born at the Right Time, a book that has been called “a fascinating and inspiring life story.” In the week of September 23, he’ll be in residence at Queen’s Law, where he will engage with students and faculty as the William R. Lederman Visitor.

“A brilliant man who often ‘saw’ the needs of our world more clearly than the sighted people around him.” Those are the words used to describe Ron McCallum, AO, LLM’74, LLD’16, by the Honourable Michael Kirby, former Justice of the High Court of Australia. 

While made blind due to a medical mishap shortly after his birth, McCallum didn’t let that stop him from excelling both professionally and personally. He went on to become a professor and then Dean of Law at the University of Sydney, chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva, the recipient of a Centenary Medal, and the 2011 Senior Australian of the Year. Now, Allen & Unwin has published his memoir, aptly titled Born at the Right Time. 

Two underlying reasons inspired him to write his memoir. First was to share the fundamental importance of computer-based adaptive technologies, which he took full advantage of when they became available in the late 1980s. “These devices enabled we blind persons to have read out to us material on computer and smart phone screens in high-quality synthetic speech,” he says. “Never before in the history of our world had we blind been able to read the printed word. This change profoundly altered my life and opened up huge opportunities.” Second was to set forth his 33-year marriage to Professor Mary Crock of the University of Sydney. “Many of we persons with disabilities do not have the opportunity of partnering or parenting,” he says, “but I was given these special gifts in abundance.” 

Queen’s Law opened the door to academia and beyond for McCallum. After earning his LLB in Australia, he decided to become a law teacher, but to do that he would need postgraduate qualifications. “I chose Queen’s for an LLM because I wanted to specialize in labour law, and Queen’s had a big labour law program as it does at the present time with its Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace,” he says. “I also received a welcoming letter from Professor Bernard Adell, who assured me that Queen’s would be happy to have a blind postgraduate student.” 

At the age of 25, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, offered him a tenure-track position teaching Labour Law and Administrative Law. “Without the Queen’s LLM, I would never have had this type of academic career.”

In September, he will return to his alma mater – this time as the William R. Lederman Visitor. “I will be teaching a short labour law course on the changes that have been brought about through the performance of work in the Gig Economy,” he says. “The approach will be comparative, and we will examine legal decisions in Canada of course, but also from the courts of Britain, Australia and the United States.

“I also look forward to catching up with friends,” he adds, “and seeing if the John A Macdonald Tap-Room still exists.”

When asked about his aspirations for his memoir, he responds: “I hope that readers will enjoy the book and learn that few opportunities come our way and that we should grasp them with both hands.” 
 
By Lisa Graham