{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} '''Renfrey Curgenven <!--not Curgernven--> De Garis''' {{Post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} (12 October 1921 – 5 February 2007), generally known as "'''Ren DeGaris'''", was a businessman, pastoralist and politician in the State of South Australia.<ref>The "DeGaris" is problematical. Many newspaper reports and official documents use "De Garis", and that was how his father wrote out his own name. Once, this hardly mattered, but now any computer search must explore both possibilities.</ref>
==History== He was born at "Tremorvah", Millicent, a son of Ralph Edwin DeGaris and Mrs DeGaris née Curgenven.
On leaving college,<ref>a.k.a. High School. His father attended Prince Alfred College (PAC), so he almost certainly did too.</ref> he worked for the Millicent branch of the family firm of DeGaris, Sons & Co., (in 1947 merged into Elder, Smith and Co.)<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147242777 |title=Passing of Mr. L. A. DeGaris |newspaper=The Narracoorte Herald |date=29 March 1951 |access-date=15 December 2014 |page=12 |via=Trove}}</ref> stock and station agents of Naracoorte.
He enlisted with the RAAF in 1941. His younger brother William Sowden DeGaris, also with the RAAF, was killed over Germany in 1945.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78098388 |title=Death of W/O Bill DeGaris. |newspaper=Border Watch |date=15 December 1945 |access-date=15 December 2014 |page=1 |via=Trove}}</ref>
He served as councillor with the Millicent District Council from 1948 to 1954.
He was elected in December 1962 for the Liberal and Country League (Liberal Party) to a Southern district seat in the Legislative Council, and remained a member, through the reversion in 1975 of that House to a single constituency, until November 1985. He served as Chief Secretary, Minister for Health and Minister for Mines from April 1968 to June 1970.<ref name=former>{{Cite SA-parl |pid=2517 |name=Hon Renfrey Curgenven De Garis AM |former=yes |access-date=14 November 2022}}</ref> As Leader of the Legislative Council, he clashed with Premier Steele Hall, a fellow Liberal, over the latter's plan to reform the franchise of the Upper House, a move that severely disadvantaged his own party's gerrymander.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107068335 |title=Greener fields for Dunstan? |newspaper= The Canberra Times |date=17 August 1968 |access-date=15 December 2014 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref><ref>He continued to defend, or at least attempt to minimise, what Flinders University academics Neal Blewett and Dean Jaensch termed as the Playmander. {{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110823607 |title=Gerrymander in SA |newspaper=The Canberra Times |date=31 August 1976 |access-date=15 December 2014 |page=2 |via=Trove}}</ref>
==Recognition== He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 1981 "In recognition of service to the community and to parliament and government".<ref>{{Cite It's an Honour |ausawardid=884405 |date=8 June 1981 |recipient=Renfrey Curgenven De Garis |award=Member of the Order of Australia |postnominal=AM |citation= |access-date=14 November 2022}}</ref>
==Family== He married Norma Florence Willson, <!--eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. Willson--> of Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island, around 1950.
== References == {{Reflist}} {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef|before=Don Dunstan}} {{s-ttl|title= Father of the Parliament of South Australia|years=1979{{ndash}}1985}} {{s-aft|after=Murray Hill}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:DeGaris. Renfrey Curgenven}} Category:Australian pastoralists Category:Liberal and Country League politicians Category:Members of the South Australian Legislative Council Category:1921 births Category:2007 deaths Category:People from Millicent, South Australia Category:20th-century Australian politicians Category:Members of the Order of Australia