Why Ray Williams is still my
hero
We wouldn’t be able to do any of the stuff we do with kids if it wasn’t
for the support we get from local business people in our community. This
is not a shameless plug for our sponsors, just recognition of the fact
that whatever we’ve been able to achieve in Dulwich Hill has been a team
effort between church and community.
People often ask me, “I suppose the church pays for all this, do
they”. I tell them straight, that our little church in Dulwich Hill
has never been able to properly afford even the minimum wage for their
priest, and that the Church with a capital ‘C’ (ie. the Anglican
Diocese of Sydney) has contributed next to nothing. No. Almost all our
support comes from the three local pubs – the Gladstone, the
Royal Exchange, and the Henson Park Hotel – and from the
local RSL club (Petersham). The rest of it we pick up through the
Christians vs. Lions fight nights we put on, and through other
community events (eg. the Mayor’s golf day, the annual community
Street Fair, etc.).
It wasn’t always this easy. In the early years we really struggled to
keep the Youth Centre open. Then we caught the attention of one
corporate benefactor, who was able to keep us going long enough for us to
put the other support in place. That benefactor was Ray Williams, former
chief executive of HIH insurance – one of the most gentle, caring, and
humble men I have ever met, and currently one of the least popular men in
the country.
It amazes me when I think about it. Some of the best people I have ever
met are people with terrible reputations. In each case of course their
reputations have been largely media-generated.
When my mate Jim got shot, one of the major Sydney newspapers ran story
entitled “Evil Villain Gunned Down”. It featured a picture of Jim
carrying an automatic weapon. The picture had been taken many years
earlier during Jim’s time with the Australian Army. I thought ‘You
bastards! That’s not the man I know.’
When Morde was on trail in Israel I read a variety of articles that
spoke about him as being a sophisticated spy - working for the Arabs and
out to destroy his country. I thought ‘You bastards! You have no idea
who you are talking about.’
Now I read stories about Ray – about how he manipulated the market to
line his own pockets and how he deliberately defrauded millions of people,
and I think again ‘You bastards’.
Ray was sent by God to help us. I have no doubt about that. I first met
him through a fight I took, though Ray himself was no fan of boxing.
The story of that fight was in itself quite bizarre.
I had been sitting with the Archdeacon in my office one afternoon. He
was wagging his finger at me and telling me that I’d have to close down
the Youth Centre. “You just don’t have enough money to keep it going”
he said. And he was right. We were exactly $1000 short of being able
to pay our youth worker’s wage for the next month. I was feeling rather
nonchalant about it all and was telling him to have more faith. At exactly
that moment Kon, my trainer, came to the door.
“Dave, do you want to take a pro fight?” he asked. “No”
was my knee-jerk reaction. I’d just completed my fight career (I’d
thought) with a shot at the NSW super-welterweight title in kickboxing.
The law in this state at the time was that you had to hang up your gloves
when you turned 35. I was 34 and nine months at that stage. “How much
are they offering?” I asked Kon. “$1000” he said. I told him
I’d take it. We raised close to $50,000 for the Youth Centre through that
fight. More than half of that money came through Ray.
A guy by the name of Jeff Wells wrote an article about my fight that
was published in the Sydney Morning Herald one Saturday. After that,
cheques for as much as $1000 started arriving in the mail! Then one
morning a courier turned up with two cheques – one for $10,000 in the name
of HIH insurance, and another for $15,000 in the name of a Mr R. Williams.
I remember trembling when I received these cheques. I’d never seen that
much money before in my life.
I had never heard of Ray Williams, but his business card was attached,
so I rang the number and got one of those classic receptionist voices,
saying “Mr Williams is busy at the moment. Can I take a message?”
Then I mentioned my name and all of a sudden I was speaking to
Ray.
“Ah … hi … do I know you?” I started. “No. I don’t think
so,” he said. “You’ve just sent me cheques for $25,000” I said.
“Yes” he said. “Um … are you a local from around here? Have you
been watching our work?” I asked. “No” he said. “Well … are
you connected with the church or with youth work around here?”
“No” he said. “Well … are you a fight fan?” I asked,
scratching for some point of connection. “Not at all” he said.
“I read an article about you in the Herald and it looked like you
needed some help.” “Yeah, I do” I said. “Well, will that
help?” he asked. “Oh yeah” I said, “that’ll help.”
That’s how our relationship began. Over the years that followed Ray
took a keen interest in our work. As things at HIH became tighter, we
didn’t receive any further support from the company, but Ray himself would
generally turn up to our fundraiser fight nights, and he wouldn’t leave
before slipping us a cheque from out of his own funds. It’s what kept us
going while we searched for more stable sponsorship from the local
community. We owe a lot to Ray.
And it wasn’t just the money. It was the man too. He was inspiring in
his humility.
At the time of the first donation we had a guy in our church who worked
as one of the chief accountants in the public hospital system. “Oh
yeah” he said to me one Sunday. “If it wasn’t for Ray Williams,
half the hospitals in Sydney might be closed.” And then he added
“but he never likes to have his name mentioned. He hates the
limelight”
We found
this to be entirely true. We managed to get him on stage once to present a
trophy to one of our fighters, but it was a tough job. He really hated
being at the centre of attention. It’s one of the things that makes this
Royal Commission so odious to him.
I still can’t believe the way the media have gone after him –
vigorously attacking him for his generosity to hospitals and charities.
It’s not as if he was giving away money that should have gone to insurance
claimants. If he hadn’t given it away, I guess it would have slightly
increased the dividend paid to the shareholders, and he himself must have
been one of the largest shareholders. I still find it preposterous to
think that the media should have acted so self-righteously indignant about
the fact that the poor shareholders were losing potential income because
it had gone to the children’s hospital. It’s just ridiculous.
But it wasn’t only the media that crucified Ray. Once the news about
HIH’s collapse became public knowledge, former colleagues deserted him,
old friends and associates turned their backs on him, and charities that
he’d been supporting for years all of a sudden didn’t want to know him.
Ray had been on the board of the Children’s Hospital for as long as
anybody could remember. They sent him a letter saying ‘thank you but
your services are no longer required’. Nobody waited for the results
of the Royal Commission. Nobody waited to see if perhaps he wasn’t the
real villain in the piece. Everyone distanced themselves, not wanting
their own reputations to be tarnished.
I seriously can’t understand that attitude. I know I’m capable of doing
some stupid and selfish things, but deserting a mate in his time of need
is not one of them. When I think about all the people that Ray must have
helped over the years, I just can’t believe that none of them thought to
ring him up and say ‘How are you going, Ray. Perhaps it’s my turn to
give you some support?’
Anyway, my point here is not to spit my dummy. And I’ll be the first to
admit that I don’t have a clue about big business, insurance laws, or
anything of the sort. But I know a good man when I meet one, and Ray
Williams is a good man and someone whom I’m proud to call my friend. And
I’ll be buggered if I’m going stand by and listen to people pouring crap
out on a mate of mine without saying anything.
To be truthful, I don’t expect that Ray will ever fully regain his
former reputation or standing. I know too much about how the media works
and about how our court system works to ever expect real justice. As with
my friends Jim and Morde, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the truth
to come out. No. I’ll look to the day when the kingdom of this world will
become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. When that day comes, all the
crap will be sorted out.
You have just read an excerpt from '
Sex, the Ring & the Eucharist',
a book by Father Dave, the 'Fighting Father'
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