Diana Riddell - Student Association Secretary and Arts Centre Manager

Abstract

Diana Gould was born in Chelsea UK in 1929. After attending state schools in London, Di matriculated from Wimbledon Girls' Grammar then worked as a receptionist in a cancer clinic. She married John Riddell, an economist, in London 19xx and had two sons. In 1963 John was recruited by Treasury in the Australian Government and the family moved to Canberra, where Di became attended to her sons as they adapted to life in Canberra; later, she worked part-time as a doctor's receptionist. The family bought land in Wongoola Close, in O'Connor, and built a family home in which they lived for more than 30 years. They moved to a smaller house in Nicholls, in the Gungahlin area in Canberra's north.

Di was Administrative Secretary in the Student Association in the Australian National University from 1965 until 1990, then Manager of the ANU Arts Centre until compulsorily retired by the university in 1995. Since then, she has been a board member of the Canberra Labor Club and the ACT Drug and Alcohol Agency, Justice of the Peace in the ACT Magistrates' Court, membership secretary of ANU Emeritus Faculty, and full-time carer for her husband John Riddell in the final years of his life, to 2008.