Gwenyth and Kevin Bray’s connection with Burgmann College began in the late 1960s when the College was still only a concept. Decades later, Gwenyth volunteered as a member of Burgmann College Council and served on the Bursary Committee. During our 50th anniversary celebrations in 2022, Gwenyth and Kevin reconnected with the College and soon after began to support our Bursaries and Scholarships Program. The College is honoured to share this story of Gwenyth and Kevin’s loving partnership, and their inspirational lives of generosity and selfless service.
Gwenyth Bray and her late husband Kevin Bray both grew up in small towns in Western Australia, and their paths first crossed during secondary school.
Gwenyth grew up in a modest, working-class family in the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. A few hundred kilometers away in the tiny wheat belt town of Merredin, Kevin Bray was a promising student whose primary school principal advised Kevin’s parents that their son would benefit from a secondary school education that offered higher level maths and science.
His parents, unable to afford a boarding school, asked kindhearted relatives in Kalgoorlie if Kevin might live with them during his high school years, and he was readily accepted.
Gwenyth and Kevin first met at the local Church of Christ in Kalgoorlie. Gwenyth was 14, Kevin only 12, and Gwenyth admitted she barely noticed him until a girlfriend mentioned ‘the new boy’s lovely brown eyes’.
Their friendship eventually blossomed into a short dating relationship just before Gwenyth left for teachers’ college, and the two kept exchanging letters. Their dating relationship resumed after Kevin started university.
Young and in love: Kevin and Gwenyth. Kalgoorlie WA, 1957.
The young couple was married during Kevin’s second year of study, and Gwenyth said her influence and support helped him achieve First Class Honours in Physics by the end of Kevin’s fourth year.
Kevin was awarded a scholarship to study a PhD in Nuclear Physics at the Australian National University.
Following the conferral of his PhD, the family travelled to Canada and lived two years in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and two years in Edmonton, Alberta, where Kevin completed Post Doctoral Fellowships and Gwenyth taught.
While his plans were to pursue a career in academia, Kevin eventually abandoned these plans and instead found a meaningful career in the Public Service, which included a six-month placement in Rome, Italy, through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, focused on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices.
Kevin and Gwenyth lived in South Yorkshire England for a year where Gwenyth did exchange teaching.
The Brays’ life was full of adventure, travel, intellect, wonderful friendships and happy memories with their two children, but they never wavered in their commitment to giving back. Both tithed to their church as young children, mirroring the value of charity they saw in their own financially modest families, and continued to live frugally, even giving Gwenyth’s entire teaching salary each year to charities and living on Kevin’s earnings.
Through their connections at the University of Western Australia, the Brays generously established a bursary for Indigenous students in honour of Gwenyth’s father who had learned so much from the Wongai people with whom he worked, including fluently speaking their language. The Brays are also active supporters of The Smith Family Charity.
‘So many people have the ability to excel, but don’t have the opportunity,’ Gwenyth said. ‘It’s a crucial thing, I think, to provide money for the people who need it. And [it needs] to start at an early age.’
Their Christian faith remained a cornerstone throughout their lives, with both Gwenyth and Kevin being active members of the Church of Christ. It was through their involvement with the Canberra Church of Christ that they became aware of an inter-church initiative to found a residence on the ANU campus. Through his involvement on the ACT Churches Council and his church, Kevin contributed to what would later become Burgmann College.
Photo 1, below: (Front row, L–R) Kevin Bray (Churches of Christ), Bishop George Browning (Anglican), Thorwald Lorenzen (Baptist), Campbell Macknight (Uniting), Rev Joy Bartholomew (Presbyterian), Peter Garrett, Kevin Rudd.
Photo 2, below: Kevin Bray leading prayer at the launch of the Postgraduate Village Project in 2003.
After retiring from teaching in 1993 and at the encouragement of church friend and Burgmann Council Member Heather Jauncey, Gwenyth joined the Burgmann College Council in 1997. She later joined the Bursary Committee in 2001 and remained on both the Burgmann Council and Bursary Committee until she retired from her roles in 2004. Gwenyth has fond memories of sharing lunch with her fellow Council members during these years.
After attending the 50th Anniversary Memorial Service at Burgmann College in 2022, Gwenyth and Kevin contacted the College with an interest in supporting our bursary for Indigenous students and established an annual recurring gift to the College’s New Beginnings Flexible Bursary.
After 62 years of marriage, sadly Kevin died from a long-term and rare cancer in November 2023. Gwenyth remains committed to honour their legacy of giving back. Soon after Kevin’s death, Gwenyth chose to continue the couple’s annual contribution to the College’s Bursaries and Scholarships Program.
Gwenyth Bray and former Principal Mr Colin Thomson AM at the opening celebration of the refurbished Undergraduate Courtyard, November 2024.
In reviewing the needs of the College in 2024, Gwenyth chose to support the replacement of aging hot water units in the Village. This important sustainability project will help upgrade our nearly 20-year-old hot water systems with more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly units.
Reflecting on the remarkable life she and Kevin built together, Gwenyth found joy in watching their adult children earn PhDs and launch successful careers. Gwenyth marveled at the surprising course of their lives; from small towns in Western Australia to an adventurous life filled with giving back and living around the world.
Gwenyth and Kevin on a holiday trip to the Malaysian State of Sabah in 2019.
'We've done amazing things,’ she said with a grateful smile. ‘When I think about growing up in Kalgoorlie and becoming a primary school teacher, getting married, and having kids like we all did in those days, that was it, as far as I was concerned. But I happened to marry Kevin, who made life very different.’
Burgmann College is deeply grateful to Gwenyth and Kevin for their incredible support and to Gwenyth for her continued generosity, which has allowed the College to commence the first of a suite of philanthropically funded Sustainability Projects and strengthen our Bursaries and Scholarships Program.
