‘The best of us’: We’re all poorer for the loss of the unstoppable Richard Scolyer

June 8, 2026 — 1:52pm

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And so it’s happened. Three years after a devastating brain cancer diagnosis, Professor Richard Scolyer has gone.

I won’t be alone in finding the news of his death, at the age of 59, raw and numbing. It was expected given how much his health had declined in recent weeks but it still feels shocking and sudden and sad.

There is often widespread mourning when a celebrity dies – an actor or a musician we feel like we know from their work. Rich was not a celebrity. He spent all bar the last three years of his professional life virtually unknown outside the medical and cancer research communities.

But there will be grief around the country that this brutal disease has taken his life.

Former Australian of the Year Professor Richard Scolyer dies

Some mourners will be fellow cancer patients and their loved ones who saw his attitude and achievements since diagnosis as inspiring. His positivity was a lantern in the enveloping darkness of serious illness.

Others will have been moved by how Rich opened up when he and Professor Georgina Long were jointly named 2024 Australian of the Year.

“I........

© The Sydney Morning Herald