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Hugh Ennor, who had been knighted in 1965, was Dean of the John Curtin School in 1966 (he preferred the title of Dean, rather than Director). He had been appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 1964 and hoped to be appointed Vice-Chancellor. However, Sir John Crawford was the obvious choice for that post and, in February 1967, Ennor accepted an invitation from Senator John Gorton to become the first Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Education and Science.
Professor Colin Courtice was appointed Acting Dean, and the position of Director of the John Curtin School was advertised in Australia and overseas. I had spent a large part of my time in 1966 and 1967 working on the book, The Biology of Animal Viruses, and felt out of touch with bench work, so I decided to apply for the position, and was appointed, with the title of Director, for a period of seven years. At the time I thought that I would want to spend some time at the bench and arranged that I should also have a chair and access to a laboratory in the Department of Microbiology. I also arranged for Colin Courtice to be my deputy, if I were to go abroad.