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.