The WEHI community mourns the passing of former WEHI president, Sir Andrew Grimwade CBE. Sir Andrew served on the WEHI board from 1963 until 1992, including 14 years as president.

Sir Andrew was an Oxford-educated scientist, chemical engineer, philanthropist, businessman and cattle breeder.

During his time on the WEHI board, he was known for improving circumstances and opportunities for scientists, including supporting Professor Don Metcalf’s election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He was on the board that appointed Sir Gus Nossal as director in 1965 and worked tirelessly to implement a massive expansion of the Parkville campus to accommodate more scientists, with a new building (now called WEHI 1) completed in 1985.

Sir Gus Nossal in his book, Diversity and Discovery, attributed Sir Andrew’s WEHI legacy to three main things: the development of improved superannuation for WEHI staff, his initiative in forming a Human Ethics Committee and his masterminding of the WEHI 1 building.

Sir Andrew was chairman of the Felton Bequest which supports WEHI research. The Felton Bequest was the first donor to commit to a Centenary Fellowship in 2014, which was awarded to Ian Majewski and $1 million from the bequest was pledged in 2022 to WEHI’s dementia research led by Melanie Bahlo.

The WEHI community extends its sympathy to the Grimwade family.