Why Ray Williams is still my hero

We couldn’t do anything we do with children if it weren’t for the support we receive from local business people in our community. This is not a shameless giveaway to our patrons, just an acknowledgment of the fact that all we have been able to accomplish at Dulwich Hill has been a team effort between church and community.

People often ask me, “I guess the church pays for all this, right?” I tell you straight out that our little church in Dulwich Hill has never been able to adequately pay even minimum wage for its priest, and that the Church with a capital ‘C’ (ie. the Anglican Diocese of Sydney) has contributed almost nothing. No. Most of our support comes from the three local pubs: the gladstonetea royal Exchange, and the Henson Park Hotel – and from the local RSL club (ratin). The rest we collect through the christians against lions fight nights we host, and through other community events (e.g., the mayor’s golf daythe annual community street fairetc.).

It wasn’t always so easy. In the early years, we really struggled to keep the Youth Center open. We then came to the attention of a corporate benefactor, who was able to keep us going long enough for us to put the other support in place. That benefactor was Ray Williams, former CEO of HIH insurance, one of the kindest, most caring, most humble men I have ever met, and currently one of the most unpopular men in the country.

It amazes me when I think about it. Some of the best people I’ve ever met are people with terrible reputations. In each case, of course, their reputations have been largely generated by the media.

When my partner Jim was shot, one of Sydney’s major newspapers ran a story headlined “Evil Villain Shot to Death”. It featured a photo of Jim carrying an automatic weapon. The photo had been taken many years earlier, during Jim’s time with the Australian Army. I thought ‘You bastards! That’s not the man I know.

When Morde was in Israel, I read a variety of articles that talked about him as a sophisticated spy, working for the Arabs and out to destroy their country. I thought ‘You bastards! You have no idea who you’re talking about.

Now I read stories about Ray, about how he manipulated the market to line his pockets and how he deliberately defrauded millions of people, and I think again. ‘You bastards’.

Ray was sent by God to help us. I have no doubt about it. I first met him through a fight I took, although Ray himself was not a fan of boxing.

The story of that fight was itself quite strange.

I had been sitting with the Archdeacon in my office one afternoon. He was pointing fingers at me and telling me that he would have to close the Youth Center. “You just don’t have enough money to keep it going” he said. And he was right. We were exactly $1000 short of paying our youth worker’s salary for the next month. I felt quite indifferent about everything and told him to have more faith. Exactly at that moment Kon, my trainer, arrived at the door.

“Dave, do you want to take a professional fight?” I ask. “Nope” was my instinctive reaction. I had just completed my fighting career (I thought) with a shot at the NSW super welterweight title in kickboxing. The law in this state at the time was that you had to hang up your gloves when you turned 35. I was 34 and nine months old at that stage. “How much are they offering?” I asked Kon. “$1000” he said. I told him I would take it. We raised close to $50,000 for the Youth Center through that fight. More than half of that money came from Ray.

A guy named Jeff Wells wrote an article about my fight that ran in the Sydney Morning Herald on a Saturday. After that, checks for up to $1000 started arriving in the mail! Then one morning a courier showed up with two checks: one for $10,000 made out to HIH Insurance and one for $15,000 made out to Mr. R. Williams. I remember shaking when I received these checks. I have never seen so much money in my life.

I had never heard of Ray Williams, but his business card was attached, so I called the number and got one of those classic receptionist voices, saying “Mr. Williams is busy right now. May I take a message?” Then I mentioned my name and suddenly I was talking to Ray.

“Ah…heh…do I know you?” I started. “No I dont think so” he said. “You just sent me checks for $25,000” I said. “Yes” he said. “Um…are you a local around here? Have you been checking out our work?” I asked. “Nope” he said. “Well… are you related to the church or youth work around here?” “Nope” he said. “Well…are you a fan of fights?” I asked, looking for some point of connection. “No problem” he said. “I read an article about you in the Herald and it looked like you needed help.” “Yes, I do” I said. “Well, will that help?” I ask. “Oh yeah” I said, “That will help.”

This is how our relationship began. Over the years that followed, Ray became very interested in our work. As things at HIH got more difficult, we didn’t get any more support from the company, but Ray himself would usually show up at our fight nights for fundraisers and not leave before handing us a check from his own funds. It’s what he kept us going as we sought more stable sponsorship from the local community. We owe a lot to Ray.

And it wasn’t just the money. It was the man too. He was inspiring in his humility.

At the time of the first donation we had a man in our church who worked as one of the main accountants in the public hospital system. “Oh yeah” He told me on a Sunday. “If it wasn’t for Ray Williams, half the hospitals in Sydney might be closed.” And then added “but he never likes to have his name mentioned. He hates being the center of attention”

We found this to be completely true. We did manage to get him on stage once to present a trophy to one of our wrestlers, but it was hard work. He really hated being in the spotlight. It’s one of the things that makes this Royal Commission so hateful to you.

I still can’t believe the way the media went after him, strongly attacking him for his generosity to hospitals and charities. It’s not like he’s giving away money that he should have gone to insurance claimants. If he hadn’t given it away, I suppose he would have slightly increased the dividend paid to shareholders, and he must have been one of the biggest shareholders himself. It still seems absurd to me to think that the media should have acted so sanctimoniously outraged that the poor shareholders were missing out on potential revenue because they had gone to the children’s hospital. It’s just ridiculous.

But it wasn’t just the media that crucified Ray. Once news of HIH’s collapse became public knowledge, former colleagues of his abandoned him, old friends and associates turned their backs on him, and the charities he had been supporting for years suddenly didn’t want to meet him. Ray had been on the Children’s Hospital board of directors for as long as anyone could remember. They sent him a letter saying ‘thank you, but your services are no longer needed’. No one waited for the results of the Royal Commission. No one waited to see if perhaps he wasn’t the true villain of the piece. They all distanced themselves, not wanting his own reputation to be tarnished.

Seriously, I can’t understand that attitude. I know I’m capable of stupid and selfish things, but abandoning a partner in their time of need is not one of them. When I think of all the people Ray must have helped over the years, I can’t believe any of them thought to call him and tell him ‘How’s it going, Ray? Maybe it’s my turn to give you some support?’

Anyway, my point here is not to spit my fool. And I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea about big business, insurance law or anything like that. But I know a good man when I meet one, and Ray Williams is a good man and someone I’m proud to call my friend. And I’ll be screwed if I stand by and listen to people giving shit to a colleague of mine without saying anything.

To be honest, I don’t expect Ray to fully recover his old reputation or position. I know too much about how the media works and how our judicial system works to expect real justice. As with my friends Jim and Morde, I’m not holding my breath waiting for the truth to come out. No. I will wait for the day when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. When that day comes, all the rubbish will be taken care of.