Ray Lowenthal

Brief bio – Ray Lowenthal
After leaving NSBHS I went straight into Medicine at USyd and the Royal North Shore Hospital. After graduation I did 2 years internship at RNSH. In 1967 I married Dianne Price, a nurse from RNSH; we immediately left Sydney and spent 12 months travelling overland across 29 countries to England, with various adventures en route. We lived in the UK for 7 years where I worked in hospitals and postgraduate institutions in London and Reading, and produced 2 children. We returned to Australia in 1975, where I took up a post in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tasmania in Hobart; we have been here ever since and produced 2 more children. The children in turn have produced their own and we now have 3 lovely grandchildren with another on the way!
We have remained in Tasmania which has been a wonderful place to live and bring up children. I am still working full time (for how much longer I’m not sure) as Director of Medical Oncology at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Clinical Professor at the University of Tasmania. I have been fortunate to be able to spend sabbaticals working in various countries including the USA, France, Germany and Israel, as well as having two trips to Antarctica as ship’s doctor! I have also been able to indulge research interests which have been mainly in leukaemia, bone marrow transplantation and clinical trials of new cancer treatments. Along the way I have been lucky enough to pick up a few gongs including an AO in 2006.
Outside medicine my avocations have included bushwalking (for which Tasmania is a paradise), cooking, and the arcane sport of Real Tennis of which Hobart boasts the oldest court in Australia. (and although you might think otherwise, this is the real reason I took my French sabbatical in Bordeaux).
NSBHS seems to have prepared me well for what has turned out to be a ‘fortunate life’. Even Latin has come in handy from time to time (though not my experience in the Cadets). As the offspring of refugees, I count myself as privileged to have lived in a country that presents everyone with opportunities.
9/10/08

BRIAN MITCHELL

How remarkable it is to be trying to convey enough pithy detail about myself to a great group of guys that I once shared five years school with and mostly have not seen since. The exceptions are Conrad Emert and Doug Aitken. Connie because we served together for so many years in the army and Doug because we really are dear friends and kept in touch afterwards in the UK and Australia.

I blame my parents and the 16 mile daily commute from Asquith to North Sydney High for my wanderlust. I’m now settled (for awhile) in my twenty-seventh house post NSBHS. I always wanted to see the world and I haven’t done so badly, having lived outside Australia for 29 years of the past 50. It all began because my “success” in the Cadet Corps at school led me to by-pass a very mediocre pass in the LC for a scholarship to RMC Duntroon. Duntroon was quick off the mark. They had me signed up in September 1958 long before the LC results! So I tripped happily off to four years of mild academics and lots of outdoor life, never realising the consequences of my commitment.

Six months after graduation I found myself in Malaya/Malaysia and Sarawak during the “Konfrontasi” with Indonesia, directing artillery at steep jungle ridges. After two years there, the reward was to be the aide-de-camp to the Chief of the Army which frankly was a bit too ceremonial for my liking. There followed a year in South Vietnam as the Adjutant (i.e. Operations Officer) of the Field Artillery Regiment during the Tet Offensive. On return they tried to capture my knowledge as an instructor at the Artillery School, North Head and subsequently as the Australian Exchange Instructor at the Royal School of Artillery, Wiltshire UK where I taught for two years. There followed a year’s study at the Australian Staff College, planning postings at Army HQ Canberra, six months study at the Joint Services Staff College, two years as CO of the 1st Field Regiment, Colonel Deputy Commandant Duntroon and then, Director of Artillery. This last job was the last straw for a non-ceremonial type. I resigned in August 1986 before my term was up.

I had two alternatives lined up. I had seriously prepared to set up an outdoors training company in south Queensland once I left the Army. I had studied by correspondence for four years to have a Diploma of Small Business Management but as my resignation date approached, I made a speculative application to join the United Nations in Jerusalem and was surprised to be accepted. I took the UN job, although I never filled that particular post until six years afterwards.

I was interviewed in Canberra and told the Jerusalem post might be filled internally but there was a similar post vacant in Cyprus/ Beirut. Within a month, I was employed by the United Nations Refugee and Welfare Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as the Field Administrative Officer in Beirut when by the best count of the day, there were 79 different factions contesting in the civil war. On my first day in the office we were evacuated to avoid the artillery that was misdirected at our premises. Such irony to have left the army, yet to be on the receiving end!

UNRWA HQ was in evacuation in Vienna and after 18 months in Lebanon where I gained a reputation as a management trainer of executive staff, I was transferred to Austria to establish an Agency-wide staff development programme – we had almost 20,000 staff members at this point. Over the next four years, I shuttled between Vienna and the Near East (Egypt, Syria, Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, and Cyprus) conducting week long seminars for senior management after which I was rewarded with the post in Jerusalem that I had applied for back in 1986! The first Intifada and the first Gulf War had just ended leaving a highly suspicious population and it is an understatement to say that keeping hospitals, health centres and schools operating then in the Occupied West Bank was a challenge too often ending in total frustration.

In August 1995, I was head-hunted by UNHQ New York to administer the peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon (UNIFIL). The area was part of the Israeli Security Zone constantly under fire and over-flights but gracefully by both sides, not often directly at UN installations. For security, all International staff of UNIFIL had to reside in Northern Israel and cross the border daily to get to and from work, quite often being halted at the border to await the exchange of fire to stop. Although the situation may sound frightening such that only someone with a death wish would want to stay, it was a rewarding job and mostly an enjoyable experience working with a multi-national group in a diplomatic setting. We had lots of high ranking visitors and I met many heads of state, prime ministers and government representatives.

Much changed when the Israelis withdrew and instantaneously a hush came over South Lebanon while Hezbollah sauntered in to fill the vacuum. The changes were ominous. Shortly afterwards I talked my way into a transfer to New York as the Chief of Civilian Training in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and after three years at UNHQ, they retired me on age. When my wife passed away from breast cancer three months after I stopped work, I moved to Florida and formed a consulting HRD company. I currently manage part of a distance learning programme that puts out courses on aspects of peacekeeping. The parent non-profit organisation is called “the Peace Operations Training Institute” which proudly boasts over 20,000 world-wide enrolments per annum. I am able to work part-time from home while at other times my new wife, Ann, and I are trying hard to carve a track through the Country Club golf course.

I have three kids, two in Australia (a lawyer in Sydney and a geologist in Canberra) plus a 12 year-old in the USA and two grandchildren.
Life is wonderful and NSBHS has a lot to answer for.

ALAN TILLEY

Alan Tilley, 5 April 1942 -


We all know what happens When Ordinary People Achieve Extraordinary Things but what about when an ordinary person ordinarily runs late achieving pretty ordinary results? When I see and hear what my remarkable fellow 1958’ers have done, perhaps I am extraordinarily ordinary but, c’est la vie.

I’m ordinary enough not to have a white picket fence out front – nor 2.2 kids (we, Robyn and I, had 2 – I say had, because they’re not kids any more).

I once thought that someone like me, who as a 14 year old took a lead role in a small group involving ‘sulphuretted hydrogen’ being generated in ‘our’ classroom just before it was to be used for the weekly English Honours class of ‘Sago’ Rice, would be destined to a career in chemistry - but no. Nor did I go on to earn any fame as a serial nuisance or troublemaker. (I might add as an aside, the incident did raise my respect for Stony Mason, who despite a classical education, was able to momentarily delay the infuriated Sago as he worked up a head of steam for the canings, by observing succinctly, but with some sense of pride with his knowledge, that sulphuretted hydrogen was “H2S”.)

In 1959, I repeated the LC (voluntarily) to address several shortcomings that I then perceived (and I thank my late parents for their unquestioning acceptance of my decision):
• my error in not electing to do Maths I & II in ’57 & 58,(I scraped through both in ‘59)
• my failure to win a Commonwealth Scholarship in 1958 (I suspect I missed by more in ’59)
• never having made an effort to represent the school in a sport - never likely in rugby, cricket, tennis or swimming, so, athletics it was to be); and,
• relative immaturity. (The 1959 photo confirms that.)

At Uni, 60-63, (Sydney, chosen for its more prestigious athletic club than UNSW) I continued immaturely to vacillate about career aspirations between Science and Chemical Engineering, eventually leaving with no more than a University Blue in athletics. As a guilty response to my academic ‘philandering’ I did graduate years later through part-time study at NSW Institute of Technology, in Mechanical Engineering.

Moving on, I married Robyn Charles, a former Wenona girl, in December 1965, my life-time best decision, and lived in West Pymble for 7 years before living ever since in Gordon. Amongst an alumni since distinguished across the entire world, I have to admit the longest period I have spent out of Ku-ring-gai Municipality has been 3 weeks.

My early full-time jobs involved both Chemistry and Engineering, with James Hardie, then Abrasive Products. In 1972 I joined Rheem Australia as a mechanical engineer, in metal products manufacture. In 1983, I was offered a job by Rheem as an in-house intellectual property specialist, which I took. It then seemed a good idea to learn something about intellectual property so I studied privately at nights for several years and sat the Statutory examination program of the time, becoming a Registered Patent and Trade Marks Attorney, a relatively rare occupation even these days. Rheem was purchased in 1989 by SA Brewing, later Southcorp Limited. Southcorp divested piecemeal its diverse manufacturing, retaining only those assets which put it at the forefront of the world of wine. I therefore gravitated to making wine trade marks my specialty. Southcorp was purchased in 2005 by Fosters, whereupon I took one Friday afternoon a redundancy package based on 33 years service with Southcorp, then resumed the following Monday with a part time consultancy to Fosters. I presently consult also for a private practice firm of Patent and Trade Marks attorneys in Sydney and soon I expect to scale back gradually from my present 4.5-day working week.

Our elder son Charles (1974), a lawyer, and his wife Sal, a vet, have brought us the joy of a grandson, Robert, born June 2007. Our younger son Alex (1977) has inherited my indecisiveness and after graduating in biomedical science and journalism (post grad) now is well on the way to graduating part time in law while he works in the NSW Coroner’s Court. Robyn and I hope (privately) he will soon pop the question to his long-time partner Sara.

My pastimes currently are orienteering, including computer aided drawing of orienteering maps; bushwalking – mainly local; listening to music, mainly classical and opera but not too heavy and nostalgic ‘easy listening’; gardening, enough to get by; grandson minding and reading. I suffer from chronic hoarding of memorabilia and continually need to work on the problems that habit creates.

MARCUS VOWELS

Marcus Vowels

In the intervening period since the HSC did Medicine and although the vision was to become a GP, ended up in Paediatrics and then Oncology.

Professionally,
Established the first bone marrow transplant program in Australia and (later) the Banking of Umbilical Cord Blood Project in Australia. Order of Australia Award for the former.

Personally,
Happily married - second time lucky
3 children – 37, 34 and 25; 2 grandchildren

Medically,
2 shoulder reconstructions and almost a knee, all caused by skiing which has been relegated to the “not-to-do-anymore” basket.

Finally,
Retired 2008 to Jervis Bay
Family, scuba diving, gardening and travel (with the grey brigade) are the challenges; plus fighting cholesterol and outliving the children.

GRAHAM JEFFERYS

Graham Jefferys’ biographical note for NSBHS year of 1958 fifty years’ reunion

Began studying electrical engineering at UNSW in 1959. Became a Christian believer that year during the Billy Graham Crusade in Sydney. That resulted in a change of vocation for me. Studied at Moore Theological College, Newtown NSW, 1963-66, and was ordained to the Anglican ministry in Sydney, 1967.

Married Elizabeth Gerber in 1968. Three children were born to us: Andrew, Stephen and Catherine.

We went to Chile as missionaries in 1974 and served there from 1974-80, 1982-88 and 1994-2002. I was mainly involved in church leadership training, especially theological education by extension. We and our family lived in the Valparaiso region, central Chile, during the first two periods. Elizabeth and I lived in Osorno, southern Chile, during the third.

Between our periods of overseas mission venture-adventure, we served in churches in the Sydney area.

Elizabeth and I now live at Tahmoor, southwest of Sydney. Andrew and his wife and family live nearby at Bargo. Stephen and his wife and family live in Santiago, Chile. And Catherine, her husband and their daughter currently live in London.

To keep fit, I walk briskly – but not as often as I should!

DAVID COHEN

DAVID COHEN

The class of 1958 at NSBHS was something special. They were memorable years, and it is with a sense of anticipation to be sending this for the reunion some 50 years later.

After an undistinguished time at North Sydney Boys’ High, a Leaving pass of 4As and 2Bs was sufficient to gain a Commonwealth Scholarship. Hoping eventually to become a diplomat or a barrister, I planned to do Law, but at 16 was too young for admission into Law School. So I began an Arts-Law degree. After 2 years of Arts, perfecting skills at billiards rather than academia (even having to answer a question in English 1 comparing two of Shakespeare’s plays, only one of which I had read! I was grateful for having read ‘How to Pass Exams without Really Trying!”), I proceeded to Law School. At the end of that year, I was convinced that Law was not to be my chosen career, and not surprisingly, my examiners wholeheartedly agreed. Coaching tennis to support myself had not paid off.

I returned to complete my Arts degree, majoring in French and English, while teaching French (as Senior French Master – with three Leaving students, including the next Headmaster!) at St Andrew’s Cathedral School. In January 1963, I was married. I was appointed to Sydney Grammar School as an Assistant Master, as well as Warden of Latimer House Anglican Hostel for university students at Petersham. They were a tough couple of years.

Our daughter was born in November 1963, and the following June 1964, we were on our way to Mauritius to pioneer the work of the Bible Society in the Indian Ocean, covering such exotic outposts as Reunion, Rodrigues and the Seychelles. Our son was born in Mauritius in 1966, and at the end of that year, while on furlough in Sydney, I was ordained a minister of the Anglican Church in St Andrew’s Cathedral, having completed my basic theological qualifications by extension while in Mauritius.

After nearly 6 years in Mauritius, I was invited to New Zealand, to promote the work of the Bible Society there as Deputy General Secretary, and to open up the work in the French South Pacific: New Caledonia, New Hebrides (as Vanuatu then was), Tahiti and later extending to the rest of the South Pacific: Fiji, Tonga, Samoa…such a heavy cross to bear!

While still 29, and with another 4 years to go before the plan to take over as General Secretary on the retirement of my boss, he suddenly died. I was appointed as his successor, and within a month was in Addis Ababa for the World Assembly of the United Bible Societies. There I was invited (pressurized!) to become the Regional Director for Africa, with responsibility for the continent, based in Nairobi, Kenya. The job demanded 9 months travel a year, so we decided that the family would stay in Sydney with my wife’s parents. It was a bad decision, and a major contributor to the ultimate breakdown of our marriage.

After two years, and having found my successor, an Ethiopian who followed up with 16 years of distinguished leadership, I resigned from the Bible Society, and returned to Sydney to be with my family. I was appointed to a tiny parish in Sylvania for nearly three years, and was then invited to become Rector of St. Matthew’s Manly, a large and dynamic church closer to my original home base in Mosman. They were good years, but with growing marital and family tension.

Unexpectedly in 1985, I was invited by Scripture Union in the UK to become their General Director. I thought they had sent the letter of enquiry to the wrong person! Eight extraordinary years followed, with a steep learning curve, and opportunities I could only have dreamed of had I remained in Australia, including preaching in Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, and broadcasting regularly on the BBC.

But highs and lows tend to be companions in the journey of life. Our marriage had come to the point where my wife wanted to live apart. I was invited to join the staff of Tear Fund UK, a Christian relief and development organization, and ended up in Goma Zaire (as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was) following the horrific genocide in Rwanda in 1994. I was the team leader, living and working with 1 million refugees, in the most abysmal conditions, until the camps closed for political reasons in 1996.

On returning to Australia, ostensibly to care for my ailing mother, with little prospect of Christian ministry given my divorced status, I was invited to head up an organization called Christian Nationals Evangelism Council (CNEC)/Partners International, working in relief and development in some 60 countries around the world. Ten wonderful years followed. In 1999, at a mission conference in the USA, I met Kathi, and to cut a short and romantic story even shorter, was married 7 months later in April 2000, after only 14 days in the same country! She bravely came to Australia, sight unseen, as my wife, and is now a happily settled Aussie, delighting even in cricket, AFL, ARL and other Australian pastimes, not to mention her love of gardening, birds, sheltie dogs, and other Australian wild life. Together we have visited every State and Territory, as well as a number of countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific in the context of our work.

After 10 years in this last position, having taken the initiative to hand over leadership of the organization, in 2006 we formed ourselves into an incorporated, not-for-profit charitable association called Moringa Associates Inc., involved in leadership development, community transformation (primarily though micro-enterprise development in the developing world) and conflict management. Life is full and fulfilling.

Our home in Blaxland in the Lower Blue Mountains, gives us great delight. Our west wing/guest wing means we can have people stay, which we love, and we hope it will be our base for whatever lies ahead. ‘Retirement’ is n ot a word that has much meaning for us!

RONALD MORRIS

RONALD MORRIS
34 Ocean Ridge Terrace
Port Macquarie NSW 2444
Phone: 02 6582 7006
EDUCATION (Tertiary) 1991 University of Technology Sydney- Grad Dip. in Adult Ed.
1987 University of New England - B. Economics
1970 Sydney Tech College - Industrial Engin. Post Cert.
1969 Granville Tech College - Mechanical Engin. Cert.
EMPLOYMENT 1989-1994 TAFE Teaching (P/T) mainly at Port Macquarie, Hornsby & Wyong campuses
1989-1990 BP Aust Ltd Consultant - staff training, plant re- designing
1959-1989 BP Aust Ltd Various technical. administerial, technical and management positions after completing traineeship
ASSOCIATIONS Institute of Engineers, Australia
Association of Independent Retirees
Mixed Probus Club of Port Macquarie
Lake Cathie Bowling & Recreation Club
Port Macquarie Golf Club
PEERSONAL Married to Marjorie
3 children (aged 39 to 45), 8 grandchildren
4 step children
2 Cavalier King Charles spaniels
INTERESTS Lawn bowling, golf, gardening, managing own superannuation fund, travel (less now due to dogs)