11 June 1918–26 April 2020
Ted Milliken, a foundation member of the Australian Psychological Society, was born in Springshaw, 200 miles west of Rockhampton. At the age of 14, Ted took up his first full-time job in the State Taxation Department. Doing matriculation and studies towards a Bachelor of Commerce at night, his first professional qualification was in accountancy.
He enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy (1942–1947), where he achieved significant roles in the MV Krait mission and the US Navy’s planning for the invasion of Japan.
Through the Naval Education Service he had ‘kept his hand in’ with external subjects and in 1944, he finished a Bachelor of Arts with majors in Psychology and English.
Upon his return to Australia, the Navy sent him to the University of Sydney for a three-month intensive refresher in psychology to begin, unknown to him at the time, a life’s work as a psychologist.
He began his psychology career working as a naval psychologist in Brisbane and continued as a practising psychologist in Queensland and South Australia. This was followed by a Directorate in the Northern Territory in 1955, undertaking research and development programmes for Aboriginal communities, where he spent many years of what he regarded as perhaps the most productive period of his life.
During his work as a psychologist, Ted was engaged in clinical, neuropsychological, selection, medico-legal and teaching psychological work. When the Northern Territory introduced registration for psychologists, his registration number was ‘2’. In 1978 he became the foundation Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Darwin Community College. On his ‘retirement’ from this, he went into private practice.
“I became the only privately practising psychologist in Darwin… To serve my clientele I had to call on my knowledge and experience gained since 1946. As early as 1949 I had become a confirmed brain-function/behaviourist. But in 1984… I realised (this) fell short of the service that many of my clients needed. Murray, Beck, Meichelbaum, Lewissohm, Luria and Wolpe… via their books and the British Journal of Clinical Psychology and its overseas contributors became my early-days tutors. I was, and am, an inveterate user of a wide range of psychological tests”– Memorable Moments in a Psychologist’s life, E. Milliken, 2006
Ted epitomised the scientist-practitioner psychologist. His services were sought well into his 90s, and he humbly shared his knowledge and his incredibly sharp mind with his peers in private practice, as well as consulting to the Northern Territory Psychologist Registration Board. He was a supervisor, mentor, role model and dear friend to many psychologists across Australia.
In the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours list, Ted received the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the community of the Northern Territory as a psychologist, to education and health policy development, and to church and social welfare organisations.
Ted was a Fellow and Life Member of the APS having held continuous APS membership for more than 68 years.
Prepared by his friend and colleague Marshall O’Brien MAPS