Biographical notes on
Br Martin Reginald Keogh
1914 - 2005
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Reginald Harold Keogh - familiarly known as "Rex" - was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 14 September 1914. His parents were Michael Keogh and Margaret Keogh (née Sullivan) who had six other children, four boys and two girls. Reginald's primary education in Dunedin was received from the Dominican Sisters and his secondary education from the Christian Brothers. After a few years of work on leaving school, he applied to join the Dominican Order. He was a novice at St Dominic's Priory at Camberwell in Melbourne, receiving the religious name 'Martin'. He made his first profession on 12 October 1941, being one of the very first Dominicans to make profession in the recently-established Australian Vice-Province. (Candidates had previously been sent to Ireland). At the end of his process of initial formation, Brother Martin remained as a co-operator brother at St Dominic's assisting with the administration of the house in the later 1940s and early 1950s. In 1954 he was assigned to his native city, Dunedin, where he was on the staff of Aquinas College, a residential college managed by the Dominicans in association with the University of Otago. The Directory of the Australian-New Zealand Dominican Province for 1965 lists Br Martin as being at St Dominic's Priory at Blockhouse Bay, a suburb of Auckland. By 1971 he had been reassigned back to Aquinas College where he discharged a number of responsibilities as infirmarian, guest master, archivist, chronicler and a member of the House Council. In 1977 he was appointed as Business Administrator of the College and bursar to the Dominican community. A few years later he was made Deputy Master of the College and, as such, was given membership of the Association of Heads of Colleges of Universities of New Zealand. After over 25 years working in New Zealand, Br Martin was sent back to Australia in 1981, to St Dominic's Priory in Melbourne where he carried out the offices of conventual bursar and member of the House Council. Three years later he moved again, this time to St Laurence's Priory in Adelaide which proved to be his last assignation. His functions included bursar, chronicler and a member of the House Council, of which body he was also the secretary. In addition, he was responsible for the house archives and carried out an important work of organising and classifying the material. Br Martin was in continual poor health in the last years of his life and in 2003 he took up residence at the Flora McDonald Nursing Home in Cowandilla. He passed away there on 5 July 2005, in his ninety-first year. Carmel Rolevink, who cared for him for many years, was with him when he died. Br Martin Reginald Keogh's Requiem Mass was celebrated in St Laurence's church, North Adelaide, and his body laid to rest in the Dominican plot at the Adelaide City Cemetery. Christopher Dowd, OP Provincial Archivist/Historian 12 July 2005 |
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