Obituaries Australia

Sir Roderick Proctor, for many years Queensland's senior professional director, died on Friday. He was 77.

Sir Roderick, a long-time trustee of the Bjelke-Petersen National Party, who resigned in 1986 after accusing the party of cronyism just days before an election, was knighted for service to business in 1978.

An accountant and former senior partner of Hungerfords, now KPMG Peat Marwick, Sir Roderick sat on or chaired a myriad of boards. These included those of Bundaberg Sugar, Jennings Industries, Macquarie Bank, TWT Ltd and Jupiters Trust.

At Jupiters he fought a bitter battle, backed by the then Liberal Party Treasurer, Sir Llew Edwards, against a rival consortium led by Mr Eddie Kornhauser and backed by National Party minister Mr Russ Hinze for the Gold Coast's casino licence.

This, and an earlier unsuccessful fight for Queenland's Winchester South coal deposit - Winchester South was won by a consortium including Sir Joh's old friend, Sir Leslie Thiess - led to his disillusion with the Nationals.

Sir Roderick, who served many long-established companies, also backed a number of younger entrepreneurs, serving on the boards of Mr Peter Laurance's Pivot and Seaworld groups and Mr Mark Hohnen's Quality Pacific. Not all these involvements were as successful as he would have liked, however.

Until he became too ill earlier this year, Sir Roderick was campaigning to defeat a bid for Quality Pacific by Mr Brian Coppin and Mr Hohnen.

Sir Roderick, a champion rower in his younger days, was educated at Perth's Hale School and Melbourne Grammar. He leaves a widow, Jan, and four sons from his marriage to his first wife, Kathleen, who died in 1978.