"The doleful future of our honorary jobless" was the attention-grabbing headline over the picture on the front page on this day in 1992.
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The article looked at the challenges faced by older Canberrans - including the highly qualified - in finding and maintaining work.
Dr Philip Spradbery "shatters our preconceptions of unemployment" by virtue of his qualifications and his contribution to a leading scientific organisation - all without drawing a paycheck.
In 1992 Dr Spradbery, an expert in entomology at the CSIRO, was four years on from having taken a redundancy from the organisation. He had returned as an unpaid honorary researcher.
"I just can't survive on what we've got at the moment," he said of the struggles of working six days without income.
Dr Spradbery made the case that people doing important voluntary work, as he was, should be considered for social security support.
Canberrans may have later known Dr Spradbery for his expertise in dealing with the threat of European wasps.
Dr Spradbery became a regular go-to for this newspaper on matters of wasps and creepy crawlies, appearing frequently in articles when he'd identified a monster wasp nest that needed his attention.
Dr Spradbery died in early July this year after a life of contribution to science.
