Honorary Life President, Professor Malcolm Chaikin AO OBE FTSE of the Technion Society of Australia (NSW) passed away on Saturday, 5^th January 2012 after a long illness. His involvement with the TSA extended over four decades.

Dr Ruth Ratner, TSA President, conveyed the deep loss felt by the Technion family for Malcolm, whose energy and enthusiasm for the Technion and Israel was only diminished in recent years due to ill health.

The following tribute was sent by Technion President Peretz Lavie.

It is with great sorrow that I learned about the passing of Malcolm Chaikin, the pillar of the Australian Technion Society for many years. Malcolm won the heart of many on the Carmel campus by his love and dedication to the Technion and the State of Israel and by his warm and outgoing personality.

Born on the 16^th December, 1923 between the great wars in Shanghai, China, Malcolm just reached what could be considered the grand age of 88. There are many who reach such an age nowadays and so, that in itself, is not what is exceptional in his life. What is exceptional is what he managed to do in it.

On reading his c.v. we know that he passed his public school examinations with exemption. This was the beginning of impressive educational results followed by an equally impressive academic career.

He completed his Doctoral dissertation on the topic “Stress Pulse Propagation in Fibrous Materials” in the University of Leeds in 1953 which half a century later bestowed on him the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, as one of their most successful graduates. When he moved to Australia  Malcolm became the youngest professor in Australia when, at 31, he was appointed to a Foundation Chair of Textile Technology. He soon became known as Australia's foremost authority on textiles.  Malcolm was ahead of his time: he was among the first to recognize the benefits to higher education of increased commercialization and knowledge transfer activities, and the protection and application of intellectual property. He was the Head of the School of Textile Technology at the University of New South Wales from 1955 to 1984 and from that year until 1988 he was the Pro-Vice Chancellor for external affairs of the University.

As impressive as his academic career is the list of honors he received, his appointments to various Scientific and Technological Institutes, the good causes he supported and his authorship of numerous research papers.

It is certain, to be sure, that his work and contributions to wider society led to the honor of the Order of the British Empire (the O.B.E.) in 1979 and in 1988, the Order of Australia (the A.O.).

For us here at the Technion we will remember his contributions from 1973, until he was too unwell to travel, as a member of our International Board of Governors and its Academic Committee. This work was underpinned in Australia through his involvement in the Technion Society of Australia of which he was the Vice President until his appointment in 2009 as Honorary Life President.

His philanthropy also supported us through his contributions to a number of worthy causes. Most importantly, Malcolm used his extensive contacts to facilitate Israeli-Australian academic relations and  supported many academic initiatives to strengthen the ties between the two countries.  His support of the Rabin desalination research laboratory in the Technion Water Research Institute has made it one of the most important research laboratories of its kind in the world.

For his work for the Technion he was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in 1991.

There is a Jewish belief that when a person dies, they go on a journey during which they revisit their life, putting right those things which they believe they may have done wrong and making even better those things which they had done right. They then reach the world to come happy with their life and at ease.

In the case of Malcolm we can be sure that those things which he needed to put right were few but those which he may have wished to improve would be many. That was his way – to make the best out of everything he did.

He will be greatly missed for his human endeavors in a life of many achievements.

On behalf of the Technion, I thank him for all that he did for us. We were fortunate to have him as our devoted friend and supporter and I feel blessed to have known him. We hope Malcolm's legacy will live on.

To his wife, Lyn, and his family, children, grand-children and grand-grand children we convey our deepest sympathy. We hope that only happy memories support them at this time. May they be spared further grief for many years to come.

Malcolm, we hope that you have come to the end of your journey rightly satisfied with all that you have done. Rest in peace in the knowledge that the world is a better place for the contributions you made to it.