Memories of anOld Colleague and Friend]Desmond J. Brown

then became a staff member at the University of Newcastle, where he rose to become Professor of Organic Chemistry. He describes himself as a ‘Bush Chemist’, with his research focusing on resins of grass trees (Xanthorrhoea), where he described several new species. I amvery happy towrite a fewwords in this issue of theAustralian Journal of Chemistry dedicated to the memory of Des Brown, a colleague and friend from long ago. My first contact with Des was in the early 1940s when he was a research assistant with Professor J. C. Earl, the Department Head of Organic Chemistry (Pure and Applied) at the University of Sydney. While I was still an undergraduate (1940–1943), I had heard of Des, but we were not acquainted until I joined Adrien Albert’s team as a senior student to completemyM.Sc. studies. Des was always busy in the laboratory and active in devising experiments, and was very helpful in every way. Des’s interest in natural products enabled him to participate in many of the research activities in the department. In 1946, Des and I were in a team together with Dick Rogers and Dave Magrath under the guidance of Adrien Albert in his Chemotherapy Unit (see Figs 1 and 2).Weworked on the synthesis of various heterocyclic substances which contained amino groups, and which possessed chemotherapeutic activity. Des and I did not wor