Remembering Matthew Quirk, a true gentleman.

I don’t think “RTO Administration Officer” was on Matt’s career bucket list.

When we first met, this tall, fit and fiery redhead’s warmth left an immediate and profound impression on me. It was around 2018 and at the time, his wife Jasmin had not long started working with Accellier. Matt had stopped by the office in his ute (loaded with firewood, if I recall), wondering if he could steal Jasmin away for a sneaky lunch date.

I’ll always remember how Matt looked you in the eye and made a point of using your name when he spoke to you. In conversation, he had a way of making you feel like you were the only person on the planet who mattered.

I enjoyed chatting with Matt in those early days. He’d often drop into the office after doing the school pickup with his 3 beautiful children.

Around this time Matt was running the family business, QDimensions. He produced stunning bespoke industrial CNC routed designs for commercial fit outs, as well as a range of intriguing creations such as his signature meditation labyrinths. You can see some of these below. Matt and Jasmin also had an old Parsley farm that they were in the process of converting to grow flowers.

A few years ago, Matt faced a health challenge when a rare cancer led to complications. Though he overcame the disease, he was advised to seek less physically demanding work. When a vacancy arose at Accellier, Matt stepped up. His energy and can-do attitude wouldn’t have allowed him to sit idle.

His only admin experience at the time was a bit of bookkeeping for QDimensions, and programming the computer that ran his CNC router to cut out the timber for his designs. I firmly believe skills and techniques can be trained, and recruiting people based on attitude and aptitude is far more important. After considering other candidates we placed Matt into the role.

We hired him with one condition: he had to share an office with his wife!

While the office is not Matt’s ‘natural habitat,’ like all things he did, he did it well. Our students got to meet him at the two most exciting parts of their journey with Accellier – when they enrolled, and when they graduated.

“How’s it going sharing an office with each other?” I asked Matt and Jasmin one day during a meeting.

While I think many married couples would take that opportunity to make a tired old joke about the “nagging missus” or “lazy husband,” they shared how privileged they felt to be able to spend more time together, and how it enriched their connection and conversation in and out of work.

At the time I couldn’t have imagined the value this extra time together might have had for them.

Just over two short months ago it was confirmed that an aggressive cancer had taken hold of Matthew.

Despite a courageous fight, he passed away on 31 July 2024, with Jasmin by his side.

As a small and close-knit team, we feel the weight of this loss profoundly.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to know and work with this absolute gentleman. I will forever cherish his memory and hold him in the highest regard.

Sincerely,

Paul Pellier.

PS Matt was a creative soul and here is one of the many ‘doodles’ found on the back of an envelope at his desk!

Also, see below some of Matt’s wonderful creations through QDimensions. Accellier was fortunate enough to purchase some of these from QDimensions before he stopped making them.