Member Profile - Geoff Steinicke

 

 

I do care about people and their health. I remember our ex-president Nino Sofra telling me, Geoff, no matter what you say to people they won’t change, but that’s not entirely true. Sometimes something happens and they get an alert and they do change. I provide information and an opportunity. My goal is to remain healthy and to see that others are well looked after, as best as possible.

 

 

After completing an Applied Diploma of Chemistry at Swinburne and then a Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University, I was employed as a chemist at Sigma Pharmaceuticals. My job in the lab was to develop pharmaceutical products. Frankly, I was a bit apprehensive about working on drugs in the laboratory because I wasn’t trained in pharmacology, nevertheless my chief chemist said to treat them as like any other low toxicity chemicals, and so I began developing liquid suspensions of penicillin and other drugs for oral use.

 

After attending a lecture in the 1970’s about the need for alternative products to pharmaceuticals, I saw a business opportunity and in 1979 Judy and I began Melrose Health out of our garage. We were also concerned about the widespread use of many damaging pesticides and weedicides that were being applied to crops from seeds to harvest so we joined a new organisation - Organics Australia, which was initiated by a group of five farmers.

In our garage laboratory we made shampoos, conditioners and body foams without damaging chemicals. Our early products included powdered 100% vitamin C, green products high in chlorophyl and additive free nut spreads. We were the first in Australia to distribute flaxseed oil, which is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.

 

After over 30 years in the industry, I sold the business and retired two years later at age 82.

 

 

Yes, my family became pescatarian when the kids were young. We were camping down at McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula. We took our sailing boat out for a fishing expedition with the four children, who were aged from 9-14. Judy and I never got our baits in the water because we were too busy baiting the kid’s hooks and unhooking the fish they caught. Rosemary, who was 13 said she wouldn’t go again because it was cruel, so we didn’t. She declared she would be a vegetarian and so did Andrew, our youngest.

 

Judy began cooking for meat eaters and vegetarians so I said this is too much for Mum; let’s compromise and have fish. Everyone agreed and the whole family has been pescatarian since. I’m almost 91 and my regimen of good food and seafood, the daily half teaspoon of vitamin C, and flaxseed oil on my cereal for its antioxidant properties, has kept me pretty healthy.

 

Being happy helps as well. I love seeing quality things and until lockdown and the loss of Judy, we would go to the Melbourne Theatre Company and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concerts regularly. It’s wonderful to experience people doing things well; people who are outstanding in their trade.

 

 

Judy and my daughter Jenny, who died of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) August 2020, left me a wonderful legacy. When Judy returned from rehabilitation after having a stroke, she’d sit in her wheelchair in the corner of the kitchen instructing me. I enjoyed these times with her and learnt that there were things women understood about cooking that were not written down in the recipes; things they just knew. This concept was familiar because when I’d compound substances in the laboratory at Melrose, my technician would question me as to why I added certain products to others - like with cooking, I intrinsically knew the way it was going to work.

 

Being a chemist, I’ve always been an experimenter. Sometimes Judy and I would cross swords because although I needed her advice, I’d still want to work out my own ways of doing things. She would often say it was wrong, but I’d try it anyway to see what happened.  

 

I even made food she’d never cooked such as curry prawns and prawns with green beans. Soups are another specialty; cauliflower and broccoli soups, red lentils and beans are essential ingredients. I make enough to last three days including plenty for visitors and for Jenny when she was sick. She’d comment on whether there was enough seasoning in the food. I used to write these comments on the recipe so they were there for next time.

 

 

The MND research at Howard Flory Institute interested me so I went there to see what they were doing. I discovered that there were five types with the most common being ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), which is what Jenny had.

 

My regret was not having taken blood samples from Jenny before she died because it was familial MND – the mutant gene had also been passed to Judy’s cousin.  I learnt that the gene can be snipped out of a woman’s eggs so that future generations are protected from the disease.

 

Jenny was courageous throughout her illness and died at age 62. It took 12 months for the doctors to be certain she had MND. Jenny wished she’d known earlier because she would have taken more holidays; she was single and a good traveler.

 

 

My children keep me busy with endless projects. For instance, we’ve been fixing up my youngest son Andrew’s house for sale. He’s moving from an Ascot Vale warehouse to a bigger property in Williamstown to house his collection of vintage cars.

 

I’ve been involved in so much in Rotary; Judy and I went to nearly every District 9800 conference. The quality of our guest speakers and the convivial atmosphere of our weekly meetings is joyful. There’s a lot of comfort in seeing everyone and communicating regularly. I also have a Zoom meeting with my church every Wednesday throughout lockdown. I’m a spiritual person but not deeply religious.  

 

Jesus was a good man, and that’s the fundamental thing; I’m a follower of Jesus spiritually.  He was a great teacher who often used parables to explain what was right and wrong.