How a Melbourne cancer victim used his lucrative investments to help others after his death

He couldn’t save himself from cancer but reclusive psychologist Dr Barrie Dalgleish made sure the millions he made in life helped others after his death.

Reclusive but generous multi-millionaire Dr Barrie Dalgleish with relative Pam Dalgleish, before his death.

A shy recluse who lived a frugal life has left one of the largest ever bequests to support cancer research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

The extended family of the Melbourne-born psychologist and academic – who divvied up just $91,000 of the estate between them – say they are delighted that the bulk of his $15 million fortune is being used to establish a research centre that one day may help find a cure for the cancer that claimed his life.

Dr Barrie Dalgleish died of Multiple Myeloma in August 2021, two months shy of his 80th birthday. The same cancer that also claimed his much-loved father, Walter.

A bright only child who never married, he directed his executers to: “Establish a foundation for the promotion and funding of innovative research into the treatment and prevention of Multiple Myeloma and other blood cancers.”

Shy Dr Barrie Dalgleish has left one of the largest ever bequests to support research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Picture: Supplied

Dr Dalgleish also asked for it to be collaborative so that the best and brightest could come together in a quest to understand the cause of Australia’s most deadly blood cancer.

To this end, the virtual Barrie Dalgleish Research Centre for Myeloma and Related Blood Cancers opened last month at the Peter Mac in Melbourne. Its inaugural director is Professor Ricky Johnstone who, coincidentally, grew up in the same suburb where the Dalgeish family shoe business was located. Friends say he would have liked that connection.

As directed by Dr Dalgleish, the centre will partner with scientists and clinicians at the WEHI, his alma mater the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital.

“It is a wonderful legacy,” Professor Johnstone said. “Collectively it is about being more than the sum of the parts. It is a reflection of a different way of using donations and funding.”

Around 1100 Australians die every year from Multiple Myeloma and it remains an incurable disease.

Cousin and executor of the estate, Peter D’Ambrosio, said although he knew the estate was large, it was more than the family expected.

Asked how his relatives felt about receiving a fraction of the estate, he said everyone was very happy and, in fact, some had returned their own bequests to be included in the donation.

“We all saw this as a very good cause,” Mr D’Ambrosio said.

He remembers a cousin who was shy; a gifted academic who found it difficult to make close friends easily: a lonely person who lived much of his later years in Queensland.

Mr D’Ambrosio also described an astute investor with a passion for real estate and the stock market, but one frugal to the point of obsession.

Long-time friend and his accountant for over 30 years, Peter Ryan watched him not only amass, but also manage, a multimillion-dollar equity portfolio.

Mr Ryan said he was also a successful options trader, but that Dr Dalgleish never learnt to use a computer and didn’t even have a mobile phone until 2018.

“Barrie was very frugal,” he said. “He would visit me by catching public transport. He was not one to spend money unnecessarily and perhaps it showed in his fashion sense, but he certainly didn’t care what others thought.

“I am sure the casual observer … could have mistaken Barrie for a poor homeless individual. They would never have suspected that he was a man of substantial means that had a noble desire to put all the wealth that he had accumulated over many years to good use for the benefit and health of others in the community.”

Barrie Dalgleish graduated from the University of Melbourne. Picture: Supplied

Barrie Dalgliesh as a baby with his mum Helene in Northcote. Picture: Supplied

Peter D’Ambrosio’s grandmother Maude and Dr Dalgleish’s mother Helene were sisters, two of 10 children who grew up on a farm in country Victoria. A devastating bushfire in 1900 saw the family sell up and move to Carlton.

It was here Helene met and married Walter Dalgleish and they moved to Whalley Street, the same street where three of her sisters, including Maude, also lived with their families.

“Walter had a shoe manufacturing business in Preston for 40 years; he had about 30 people working for him making Stately Women’s Shoes,” Mr D’Ambrosio said.

Their only son went to the local Northcote High School where he was dux of the school and went on to study at the University of Melbourne and then in Canada and London where he gained a masters and doctorate in psychology.

Returning to Australia around 1965, Dr Dalgleish accepted a position lecturing in psychology at the University of Queensland.

Close friend Helen Arthur, a director of the Barrie, Walter and Helene Dalgleish Foundation, met him on the day he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in 2008.

“He thought he had just injured his back lifting a heavy object at home,” Ms Arthur said. “He did not believe that there could be no cure for myeloma.”

It was around this time that he also reconnected with his stepsister Pam Dalgleish, who was adopted by Walter Dalgleish and his second wife.

Ms Dalgleish said her stepbrother loved nothing more than a chat over tea and cake on his balcony overlooking the beach where, blessed with a remarkable memory, he would share stories of his experiences and friendships.

“He was reserved, sometimes cheeky, always observant, incredibly loyal and while he may not have been verbal about it, he gave a lot of love to those he cared about.

“I’m very pleased that his legacy will live on as he hoped.”

Peter Mac’s chief operating officer Karen Fox said investments in cancer research were pivotal to securing better outcomes for the next generation of cancer patients.

“This new centre will translate Barrie’s vision and generous contribution into discoveries and innovations that change our understanding of myeloma and other blood cancers and lead to better outcomes for patients,” Mrs Fox said.