Love signs off
• Galloway’s pharmacist Stephen Love is retiring and selling the business after 34 years.
May 20, 2020
Scottsdale pharmacist Stephen Love will hang up his white coat for the final time this week, as he retires from his role at Galloway’s Pharmacy, which he has owned for 34 years.
Stephen Love and his wife Tracy decided the time was right to sell Galloway’s and Scottsdale Pharmacy and enter the next chapter of their lives.
Over the years Mr Love has taken pride in getting to know his customers, even if it meant he often got a ‘hurry up’ look from his staff to stop talking and get back to his scripts.
“The business has changed over the years – when I first arrived I was often dealing closely with local farmers making potions and creams for their animals,” he said.
“This probably seemed strange for a city pharmacist to be interested in but I grew up on a dairy farm in Timboon so I felt well at home.
“Pharmacy is different now as you don't do much compounding these days, but in the early days compounding was a good portion of pharmacy.”
These days he said there are more preventative health programs and technology is used increasingly.
“With all the changes Galloway’s Pharmacy has seen I have been lucky to have really good, supportive staff, some of whom have been with me for many years and have become lifelong friends,” he said.
A highlight of his career was combining the two smaller pharmacies in Scottsdale, which enabled them to offer a greater range and quality of health services to the local community.
“[It] has made it easier to access the pharmacist for advice as we have two, sometimes even three pharmacists on duty at one time,” he said.
As a young man, Mr Love set out to enroll in physiotherapy, but when he arrived at the university, the queue was so long that he decided to go next door and check out pharmacy.
While it wasn’t the career path he had imagined, he said he has never looked back.
“I would encourage any young person thinking of pursuing pharmacy as a career to go for it as it is very rewarding,” Mr Love said.
“Pharmacists are in high demand and hard to secure, especially rural community pharmacies who are continually on the lookout for passionate young pharmacists to join their team.
“It is a great career with endless opportunities.”
As well as his contributions to the health sector in the North-East, Mr Love has been central to a number of community developments.
He lobbied to get mobile service in North east Tasmania 1994 and Galloway’s Pharmacy was the first business in Australia to be hooked up to the NBN in 2011.
As the chairman and founding member of the Dorset Economic Development Group, he was instrumental in getting the Scottsdale Irrigation Scheme up and running.
After 11 years of hard work, he is pleased to see the project has now come to fruition.
Mr Love is a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club of Scottsdale, which he was the president of for two years.
He was also the Aminya Board chairman for many years, and along with the other members fought hard to keep the facility open when it was threatened with closure.
It’s fair to say Mr Love leaves a shining legacy within the North-East, having touch many corners of the community.
Stepping into the next chapter of his life, Mr Love said his days will likely involve spending time with his soon to be four grandchildren and helping out at Little Rivers Brewery, where he is part owner.
Galloway’s and Scottsdale Pharmacy will change hands on Monday May 25, 2020.