Bill Gunn has carried out a request by his late brother Dr John Gunn and bestowed a book written by Dr Gunn to the Forbes library.
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The 500 page thesis ‘Australian Vocabulary: A study of land settlement, stock raising, and the wool industry’ discusses the history of Australian language in agriculture and the origin of Australian terms.
Mr Gunn said that as a former Forbes boy, Dr Gunn wanted to leave something to the community.
“It was his request to donate the book and for it to go to the Forbes library,” Mr Gunn said.
It is believed the book is one of only six remaining copies left.
Forbes librarian Bronwyn Clark said Dr Gunn’s thesis was a welcome addition to their book shelves.
“It [the thesis] will be a useful addition to our local studies section and will be very beneficial to people researching in that area [of study],” she said.
Dr Gunn grew up as the eldest of eight children in Forbes and left to join the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II.
Following the war, Dr Gunn obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in arts at Sydney University and later became a lecturer at the Bathurst Teacher’s College.
Dr Gunn began teaching in the English department at Sydney University as a lecturer in 1961 and became a senior lecturer in 1965.
He was promoted in 1970 to Associate Professor of Early English Literature and Language and retired in 1988.
His thesis was published in 1996 and the copy donated to the Forbes Library has been sent to Orange to be catalogued but will be available for use in the near future.
