Stan Robson Rural Pharmacy Equity Scholarship

Overcoming distance

This $4000-a-year scholarship is awarded every year to a school leaver, from a rural or isolated area, who commences the first year of a pharmacy course at the faculty.

The four-year scholarship supports students facing financial hardship, with special consideration given to Indigenous students.

How you can help

Dr Graeme Robson generously established the scholarship to honour his father, Stan Robson, a 1931 Victorian College of Pharmacy graduate, who practiced pharmacy in Hamilton, western Victoria, for 60 years.

You can donate online to this scholarship, or download and fill out our donation form (pdf, 94.2kb) and post it to:

Stan Robson Rural Pharmacy Equity Scholarship
Victorian College of Pharmacy Foundation
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Monash University
381 Royal Parade
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia

Please make cheque donations payable to Monash University and include your name and address to receive a receipt. Donations of $2 or above are tax deductible in Australia.

To discuss setting up or supporting a faculty fellowship, scholarship, bursary or other award, please contact the Director, Foundation Projects, Gillian Swinnerton, Tel: +61 3 9903 9090,  Email: gillian.swinnerton@monash.edu.

A Stan Robson scholar says thanks

'I am from a big family, so the costs involved in moving to the city from the country meant that, without the scholarship, I would never have been able to come here.'
Lee Ross, inaugural recipient of the 2009 Stan Robson Rural Pharmacy Equity Scholarship

How to apply

Find out about applying for the Stan Robson Scholarship.

Stan Robson – a life of kindness

Dr Graeme Robson of Ripplebrook generously established the scholarship to honour his late father Stanley George Robson, a former Victorian College of Pharmacy student and much loved pharmacist.

Stan owned and operated pharmacies from 1935 until his passing in 1995 in Hamilton, western Victoria, where a pharmacy continues under his name.

He was born in Stawell in 1910 into a family of eight. After graduating from Stawell High School in 1926, he chose an apprenticeship with Tom King's pharmacy in Stawell over a position in his father's monumental-mason business, G H Robson and Sons.

Stan moved to Melbourne in 1928 to continue apprenticeships with pharmacists Alex Holmes and later A Mansell. He graduated on 8 July 1931 as the first member of his family to enter a profession.

Stan excelled as an apprentice and Victorian College of Pharmacy student. He came second in his class in his final year and won certificates of honour in Chemistry and Materia Medica, the Lecturer's Prize in Botany, the President's Prize in Practical Pharmacy and the Sigma Company Prize in Organic Chemistry.

Stan was also a talented footballer and played in the seconds for the Hawthorn Football Club, while working in a pharmacy in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn.

He graduated in the depths of the Depression and spent five months regularly riding his bike 13 km from Burwood to the city in search of work. His luck changed in February 1932, when he became manager of a pharmacy in the Federal Hotel in Collins Street. While there, he completed a Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria Fellowship in June 1934.

After he and his new wife Bessie had scraped together 600 pounds in savings, a Sigma drug company manager encouraged him to open a pharmacy at Hamilton, Horsham or Warracknabeal; towns in western Victorian where the company was not well represented.

Sigma offered him three months free credit on their products if he set up in the town of his choice. After inspecting his options, he chose Hamilton, and on 14 November 1935, with Bessie's help, he commenced business at 164 Gray St.

His first day's sales amounted to four pounds, seven shillings and one penny (about $360 in 2010). One of his first customers was Mrs Reg Ansett, the wife of the Ansett Airlines' founder.

Stan's pharmacy prospered. In 1958, he acquired Rountree's Pharmacy at 124 Gray Street, which he ran with one of his former apprentices, Lloyd Hocking. Stan also trained his eldest son, David, and, in 1963, all three men became partners in the 124 Gray Street pharmacy, which was later renamed David Lloyd and Co.

In 1968, David Kennett, another former apprentice, joined the partnership before Stan's son David left in 1970, after graduating in medicine.

During the 1960s, Robson's Pharmacy moved to 160 Gray Street. In 1966, Stan acquired a farm on the outskirts of Hamilton, where he spent much of his time until his retirement in 1980, but he remained an active manager at the pharmacy until his death in 1995.

Stan trained many apprentices over the years, including Ted Dempster, Irma Rashleigh (Mrs Tattersall), Lloyd Hocking, Don Schultz, David Kennett, Alan McCasker and John Strangio.

Stan also ran a photographic division at his pharmacy, selling cameras and initially developing and printing films on site. His other interests were St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, where he was treasurer, the Hamilton Golf Club, where he was president, and his farms – first, a bush block at Heywood, then, Glencotta at Hamilton.

Two of Stan and Bessie's sons, David and Graeme, studied medicine, while their youngest son, Ross, graduated in law and commerce before becoming a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. All three boys attended Geelong College and the University of Melbourne's Ormond College.

Stan was a true gentleman renowned for his warmth, cheerful manner, integrity and sincerity. He achieved great success in his chosen profession and was committed to his customers and the Hamilton community. His favourite saying was, "It's all done by kindness".

When establishing this scholarship to honour his father, Graeme Robson said:

"I want to acknowledge the generous and thoughtful support given to me by my father in encouraging my career and fostering those values of fairness, loyalty, personal responsibility and integrity that he regarded as so important to living.

"I wish to acknowledge this by awarding a scholarship in a sphere of interest that was particularly dear to my father: the practice of pharmacy and the intellectual stimulation of the science of pharmacy. I hope to assist those who are less fortunate, in particular, rural students and Indigenous scholars who may wish to obtain training in pharmacy."