This biography was compiled by Dawn Elder from secondary sources.
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1947 graduate
Helen McCreanor graduated in 1947 with distinction in medicine and surgery. She worked as a house surgeon at Wellington Hospital until she married Jack McCreanor in 1949 — they had met at medical school. (1) They travelled to England, where she cared for their growing family. (2) When the family returned to New Zealand, McCreanor returned to work in the department of pathology at Wellington Hospital in 1966, where she was encouraged to establish a medical genetics unit. McCreanor completed her MD later in her career, in 1972, titled ‘Studies in the Human Karyotype: A Contribution to the Study of Robertsonian Translocation in Man’.
She did not continue in research but spent the rest of her career focused on clinical work. She was greatly respected by her peers and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1977. (3) After her death in 1979 at the age of 55, Jack McCreanor endowed funds to the Royal Australasian College of Physicians to establish the Dr Helen Rarity McCreanor Travelling Fellowship to support postgraduate research and training in human genetics.
References:
- “Helen Rarity McCreanor,” Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, October 31, 2016, https://www.ccdhb.org.nz/about-us/history/wellington-hospital-smo-archive/appointments-made/1961-1980/medical-admin-clinical-support-services/pathology/mccreanor-helen-r/.
- “John Donal McCreanor,” Royal College of Physicians, accessed August 9, 2024, https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/john-donal-mccreanor.
- “Obituary. Helen McCreanor (Née Young),” New Zealand Medical Journal 89 (1979): 402–3.
