Reverend
- Born
- 9 December 1925
Queensland, Australia - Died
- 23 May 2004
- Summary
In April 1958, Reverend Robert Richard (Bob) U'Ren was appointed Research Worker for the Brotherhood of St. Laurence's study of community life. With the assistance of numerous community leaders and officers of organisations, U'Ren developed a comprehensive and relevant questionnaire. The interviewing commenced in August 1958 and most of the work was completed in three and a half months, with the results eventually published in 1962.
During this period, Reverend U'Ren was involved in two other studies. In January 1959, he embarked on a research project offered by Geoffrey Sharpe in the Social Studies Department at the University of Melbourne. The topic - epilepsy and prevailing community attitudes to epilepsy - was not entirely popular and the findings were never formally published. And in 1960, the year U'Ren was appointed Minister of the Richmond Methodist Church, he conducted a study on church and people in Richmond with the Reverend Alan F. Reid of the Presbyterian church.
Details
The son of a Methodist minister, Robert Richard U'Ren was born on 9 December 1925 in Queensland and educated in Melbourne. By 1953 he had completed three years of a Diploma in Civil Engineering at the Ballarat School of Mines. Apparently U'Ren had misgivings about his chosen vocation and in 1954 he joined the Methodist ministry. In accordance with the church he began his six year probationary period and enrolled at the University of Melbourne. The ministry advised that their students complete four years at Queen's College studying theological and university subjects. Motivated by an intense interest in social and political issues, U'Ren began a B.A. Diploma in Social Studies, majoring in psychology.
After graduating, U'Ren was appointed Research Worker in April 1958 by David Scott, the Director in Social Services of the Brotherhood of St Laurence. The research study had developed out of the Brotherhood's interest in community life, leisure time and concerns about the needs of an Australian housing estate. Early in 1958 and under Scott's direction, L.J. Tierney, Director of Social Work of the Citizen's Welfare Service, and Dr. P.J. Fensham of the University of Melbourne, agreed to act with David Scott as a Steering Committee. U'Ren constructed and modified the detailed questionnaire, consulted with community leaders and officers of other organisations, supervised the eight recruited interviewers and co-wrote the report's analysis. Over 200 respondents living in the suburb of Braybrook provided the basic data for the report and contributed a total of approximately 350 hours through sessional interviews.
In 1959 U'Ren resigned as the only full-time member of the study and embarked on a new research project conducted by the Acting Professor, Geoffrey Sharpe from the Social Studies Department at the University of Melbourne. The emphasis was on epilepsy and the prevailing attitudes and prejudices the condition provoked in the wider community.
As a consequence of U'Ren's new study, the completion of the leisure survey was a part-time venture. It was eventually published in 1962 under the authorship of David Scott and Robert U'Ren and called "Leisure: A Social Enquiry into Leisure and Needs in an Australian Housing Estate".
In 1960 U'Ren was appointed Minister of the Richmond Methodist Church. A decade later he became the Director of the Hanover Welfare Services which further compounded his concern and interest in social and political issues. Reverend U'Ren retired in 1992.
Reverend U'Ren married Nancy Morris Barton in Launceston, Tasmania. The couple had four children, Rachel, Allison, Greg and Andrew.
Prepared by: Rachel Tropea and Ann McCarthy
Resources
Books
- David Scott, Robert U'Ren, Leisure: A Social Enquiry into Leisure and Needs in an Australian Housing Estate, Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1962. [ Details... ]
Online Resources
- Fay Anderson, Ann McCarthy, Michael Jones, Reverend Robert Richard U'Ren Guide to Records, The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre, 2009, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/guides/uren/uren.htm. [ Details... ]
Created: 25 August 2009, Last modified: 10 September 2009