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RADAR
FEATURES
COMMENT
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| | OBITUARY VALE RONALD JAMES VOLLER 1915–2006
| Ronald Voller, an exacting architect and sartorial gentleman, was part of a Brisbane architectural dynasty. He is remembered by his son Jon Voller. |
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Ronald Voller recently passed away
peacefully just a few weeks before his 91st
birthday. Jean, his wife, unexpectedly
passed away 22 years earlier and Ronald’s
loneliness since then had been quite
palpable at times. He is survived by his two
children, Jon and Rosalind, four grandsons
and three great-grandchildren.
The brother of Ronald’s grandfather,
Walter Voller, was the first in the Voller
family to practise architecture in south-east
Queensland. That was during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Walter’s son, Roderick Voller, commenced
practice in Brisbane in the 1930s. At the
end of the 30s Ronald became the third
generation of Voller architects, his son Jon
the fourth, and soon his grandson, James du
Plessis, will graduate from Queensland
University to become the fifth.
In the mid-1930s Ronald was one of the
inaugural students in the Diploma of
Architecture at the University of
Queensland. At that time UQ was
co-located at the end of George Street with
the Technical College – now QUT. He chose
not to complete this course and went to
Sydney, where he found work with the
architect James Black. While working in
Sydney he passed the Board exams and thus
became an architect.
In 1939 Ronald was offered a position in
Perth with the Government Architect’s
Department. While in Perth he met and
married Jean Hayles. He returned to
Brisbane in 1946 to set up practice in Queen
Street with Rod Voller, as Voller & Voller.
This practice became The Architects Group
and by the beginning of the 1950s had
become Ronald J. Voller Architect. At the
end of the 1950s Ronald amalgamated his
practice with Bligh Jessup Bretnall &
Partners and soon after became a partner
himself. He remained a partner in BJB&P
until his retirement in 1985. Jon had joined
him at BJB&P in 1972 and this practice
continues today as Bligh Voller Nield.
Throughout his life as a practising
architect, Ronald set very high professional
standards for himself, and from very early
days he was a member of both the
Australian and British Architectural
Institutes. He always aimed for the highest
level of integrity in all personal and
professional endeavours. He was
knowledgeable in all aspects of the practice
of architecture and in his later years gained
a reputation as a “tour de force” in technical
matters and specification writing.
He was a sartorial gentleman who always
insisted on being addressed as Mr Voller
when on site to administer a contract.
Although demanding when carrying out
such duties he was always fair in his
interpretation of the contractual documents.
He was lucky to work in an era of trust,
when both architect and builder worked
with a common purpose and concern for
getting the job completed properly and
ensuring that the client would be happy.
Ronald might be somewhat out of place in
today’s more litigious environment, working
with less explicit documentation.
Even though Ronald often worked six and
seven days a week he did find time to spend
with his family and to be involved in many
extracurricular duties. These included his
local St Lucia parish of the Church of
England, the Royal Australian Planning
Institute, the Brisbane Development
Association and the Rostrum Club.
His work over fifty years of practice
encompassed an eclectic mix of building
types. There were numerous houses, a
number of Brisbane Fire Stations, buildings
at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, the First
Year Sciences Building at UQ and the one
he regarded as his most satisfying: Christ
Church St Lucia, where his ashes will be
interred. He was my dad and our family and
his friends called him Ronald.
JON VOLLER FRAIA IS RONALD VOLLER’S SON.
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Copyright © 2010 Architecture Media Pty Ltd
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