TOM CAMPBELL

CV - Tom Campbell

It's now 50 years since we all parted company, and it's true to say that I haven't kept regularly in touch with anyone since, apart from Brian Bagnall, the brother I never had.

Married Helen in 1966 - we are still together. Blessed with a daughter, and grand-daughters nine and seven. Pleased to have lived in Glebe for over twenty years.

Have always counted myself very fortunate to have been good at school work at Asquith Primary School, and to have been "selected" to go to NSBHS. This opened up for me the world of flush toilets, and the bourgeois view of life. I suspect that if I had gone on to Hornsby Tech, I might never have had the same opportunities for personal fulfilment that went in those days with the privilege of a university education, and the certainty of a secure, well-paid job which didn't require you to get your hands dirty.

Probably haven't changed much since 1958. NSBHS gave me the gift of the gab, a love of language (French in particular), a penchant for intellectual, cultural and philosophical posturing, a deep interest in music (I still play trumpet), a pathological dislike of organised sport, and a lifelong uncertainty about women.

I really liked school, and became a teacher of French and Latin. Worked in secondary public education for forty years, in a wide variety of roles which enabled me to lead and make something of a difference. For me, it was a sort of lay ministry, and I was very suited to teaching. NSBHS gave me another crucial leg up in 1987, when as Deputy-Principal I qualified for promotion to Principal. At the end of it all, retirement came without regrets. I owe NSBHS a lot. I've been very lucky.

I'm not a networker, so have never received an award, honour, or accolade. Resolutely secular, republican, I hate meetings, clubs, good works, chardonnay, Australian reds, commercial TV, fiction, games (whether sitting down or standing up), dancing, the theatre, the abomination which is popular music, and the posturing of public figures who demonstrably lack intellectual and philosophical depth. So there!

There is much that I do like, however. As a kid, I loved fishing and boating. I still do. I love my music. I also like to move, and so have been to lots of places. I cherish our current fleet of six Citroëns, three of which we've had for over twenty-five years. Helen and I have just spent a month on a rally in our 2CV in Western Australia with fifty-five others, on the worst possible roads the organisers could find. It was a great adventure and an endurance test not to be missed, if you like that sort of thing. There is another one in four years time. Will we still be able to put the tent up?

So, what is the meaning of it all? At university I was seduced for good by the absurdity of the human condition, Sartrian existentialism, and all that stuff. So I can't look at the night sky for more than a few seconds at a time - too perplexing. Perhaps Brian B. and I got it right when we decided at the age of eighteen that God only accepts those who have the courage to reject Him. Or perhaps Le Petit Prince by Saint-Exupéry says it all.