39Sydney 1985
Peter Mathers told Bruce Fraser that, by 1985, he was ready to retire. He didn’t tell him everything, but enough for Fraser to understand how things had changed for the doctor.
Mathers doubted if anyone took him seriously. He felt people thought he was a dinosaur. It was not how he saw himself. He still viewed himself as a leader in asbestos medicine. He still sedulously read every article on the subject that crossed his desk. There were many. He went to all the meetings, maintained his memberships to the various thoracic and occupational medicine societies, and was utterly professional in his dealings with the state and federal health departments in his capacity as chief medical officer overseeing the medical surveillance and industrial hygiene programme of Henry King Indu
