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Neil von Schill: Polio sufferer dedicated to helping others
July 2, 2014
It is hard to bypass the death of a mate. And for this writer, Neil von Schill was a real mate, from the age of three, when the two of us played together and he got polio and I did not.
NEIL von SCHILL, 19472014
It is hard to bypass the death of a mate. And for this writer, Neil von Schill was a real mate, from the age of three, when the two of us played together
and he got polio and I did not.
Polio went on to dominate his life, first as a victim, then as a fighter for fellow sufferers. Von Schill, in keeping with the Teutonic/Scottish heritage implicit
in his name, fought back all his life. Handicapped by a wasted left leg, which required him to wear a calliper throughout his childhood, he went on to
graduate from university, enter the teaching service, marry, become a school principal and campaign for the handicapped.
He was for 11 years vicepresident
of the Physical Disability Council of NSW, for 12 years secretary of
the NSW Polio Network and a Canberra lobbyist for Polio Australia. ''He was an absolute stalwart,''
AnnMason
Furmage, of the Physical Disability Council, said. ''He assisted us greatly in our
consultations all round the state. Neil was a vital part of that. His contribution was immense.''
Neil Palmer von Schill was very much a babyboomer.
His father, Carl von Schill, grandson of a
German migrant, had spent more than three years as a Japanese prisonerofwar.
When he returned
to Dubbo, he weighed just 42 kilograms, giving his longsuffering
wife, Jean (nee Copland), some
urgent cooking to do. Neil was born on April 30, 1947. This writer, also son of a returned serviceman,
was born 29 days later and lived in the same street.
Von Schill recovered from the worst of his bout of polio and completed his schooling, and we
remained mates, involved in long discussions about the meaning of life. Like all the von Schill children,
Neil learnt about Carl's imprisonment (''a handful of dirty rice a day''), about Emperor Hirohito and
about how to spell his name (''ch'' just as in ''school''). He later became a JP, graduated from Bathurst
Teachers College and started out at Nyngan Central School in the state's far west.
In 1970 he took on a oneteacher
school at Corinella, near Forbes, and in 1975, after graduating in
arts from New England University, became assistant principal of Hay School. There he married Gail
Clifton and adopted her daughter, Beverley. He became deputy principal at Broken Hill North Pubic
School, then principal of Culcairn Public School.
Polio stays in the body and its symptoms return. Suffering again, von Schill decided something more
needed to be done, for the sake of others. In 1990 he became secretary of the NSW Polio Network,
looking after the interests of thousands of survivors. ''Half a million Australians have had polio,'' Gillian
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It is hard to bypass the death of a mate. And for this writer, Neil von Schill was a real mate, from the age of
three, when the two of us played together and he got polio and I did not.
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Neil von Schill: Polio sufferer dedicated to helping others
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Neil von Schill.
Thomas, vicepresident
of Polio Australia, said. ''There are no new cases in Australia but it is still
overseas and could be reintroduced. Neil was dedicated to helping his fellow polio survivors.'' In 2004
von Schill was elected secretary of Polio NSW and set about organising and coordinating
polio
networks.
In 1995, when the effects of polio made the physical demands of teaching too painful, von Schill
retired and devoted himself fulltime
to polio sufferers and the handicapped. In 2007 he was involved
in bringing all polio networks in Australia together for a national conference: ''Designing the Future.''
''All the interstate networks decided to form Polio Australia,'' Ms Thomas said. ''He went down to
Canberra for us to lobby, to have services put in place so that the condition for late [recurring] polio
sufferers could be diagnosed and properly treated.''
In 2000 von Schill became vicepresident
of the Physical Disability Council of NSW and in 2011,
because of his years of dedicated service, he was elected a life member of Polio NSW. But that year
he suffered a debilitating stroke and had to resign from his many positions, which by then included the
Country Conferences PostPolio
Network.
In his last infirmity, living in Albury, fondly supported by the many he had taught and helped, he gave
no vent to selfpity.
Neil von Schill is survived by Gail and stepdaughter Beverley, and siblings Graham, Christine and
Dianne and their families.
Malcolm Brown
Claudia
Stock
