Born 13 March 1922 in Alt-Bensdorf in Germany, Angelika ‘Kay’ Friedrich later migrated to Australia, arriving by herself in Melbourne in December 1951.
Kay found employment as a secretary, including time at the Commonwealth Railways in Queensland, before commencing work at UNSW in 1961. By her retirement in 1983, Kay had worked across a number of areas at UNSW, most notably in the Tertiary Education Research Centre (TERC), the Faculty of Medicine, and the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). She served as secretary to Fred Katz, Director of TERC, to the Head of the School of Physiology and Pharmacology, and from 1975 to the AGSM’s founding Director, Phillip Brown, as well as to its second, Jeremy G. A. Davis, who, together with Jessica Milner Davis (then Deputy Chancellor of UNSW), donated funds to commemorate Kay and her service to UNSW.
Kay passed away on 27 September 1983. The Kay Friedrich Garden near the AGSM Building was dedicated to her memory in 1986. Its original plan featuring stones, water and trees as a place of reflection was designed by Gareth Roberts, former UNSW Dean of Architecture. The Garden’s dedication ceremony was intended to honour not only Kay Friedrich, but all secretarial staff throughout UNSW’s history upon whom its operation depends.
