Ron Camplin received an Honorary Doctorate degree from Charles Sturt University Bathurst at Last week’s graduation ceremony.

The citation for the award reads:

Ronald Barry (Ron) Camplin has been in the radio industry for over forty years. He began his career as an office boy at Radio 2CH in Sydney and held announcing positions at 2XL in Cooma and 2MG in Mudgee. In 1958 at the age of 25, Ron acquired his first radio station by becoming part owner of Radio 2MG in Mudgee. He then acquired 2LF in Young and currently owns Radio 2BS in Bathurst.

Apart from his remarkable commercial success, Ron’s career in radio has been characterised by a warm and gentle nature that has constantly promoted and encouraged those who have shared his passion for radio. Many of today’s radio station managers, sales managers, agency personnel, and even television personalities, have benefited from his guidance. He has promoted and encouraged young people to join the industry, and has made a particular contribution by helping individuals who have overcome disabilities to achieve prominence in their field.

Ron’s enthusiasm for radio is boundless. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the industry from his involvement in the International Broadcasters Idea Bank, of which he is the foundation Australian member. He has been a Federal Councillor with Commercial Radio Australia.

Ron has committed himself and his radio stations to supporting the rural communities of New South Wales. He founded the Christmas Miracle Appeal, the Farmer of the Year and the House of the Day awards and his radio station continues to provide community service promotions worth significant sums of money. He has been, for many years, a strong supporter of Legacy. Ron’s contributions to his community have been recognised by conferral of the Order of Australia Medal, and as recently as this year through the Premier’s Award for Services to the Aged.

Ron’s contribution to Charles Sturt University, and his interest in Mitchell College of Advanced Education, reflect his deep interest in the communication industry and his support for young people. In the twenty years that he was President of the Mitchell Foundation, the Trust that he helped to establish, it provided students with over two million dollars in scholarships, giving them opportunities Ron never had himself. Ron did not enjoy many advantages as a young man, having spent all his early life in orphanages, Dalmar, Dalwood, Warrawong and finally Fairbridge Farm at Molong where his mother was a Cottage Mother.

This lack of formal education clearly had a profound impact on the man Ron has become, a man prepared to direct enormous energy to encouraging young people to pursue formal study, to overcome disadvantage, to strive to excel and to rejoice in the success that comes from that effort. He can rightly stake claim to having introduced commercial radio as a university discipline in Australia when he persuaded many of his colleagues, and indeed competitors, in that industry to sponsor the establishment of a commercial radio course at this University. He ensured that this course has more scholarships than any other course at the University.

There are many graduates of this university who have benefited from Ron’s experience, his wisdom, his interest, his support and above all his enthusiasm and encouragement.

Chancellor, I present to you for conferral of the degree Doctor of Arts (honoris causa), altruist, university benefactor and education pioneer of commercial radio in Australia, Ronald Barry Camplin.