15 minute read
Obituaries
Margaret Joan Lowe (Kirkwood 1950)
24 November 1932 - 21 November 2020
Margaret’s parents were Archibald Kirkwood DCM, a Scottish civil engineer and WWI veteran, and Elsie Maisey, who was Anglo-Irish and had been raised on St Helena in the South Atlantic and, later, Gibraltar.
They made their home at 81 St Leonard’s Avenue, West Leederville, and Margaret, their only child, was born in 1932.
After the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, and of Broome a fortnight later, Margaret was among many children evacuated from Perth. She was sent to Merredin where she was billeted with Winifred and Newton Winton, who ran the No: 4 Pumping Station on the pipeline. She remembered it was a great year, during which she attended Merredin State School and enjoyed regular visits from her father as he continued his work, now as chief superintendent of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme.
Returning to West Leederville in 1943, Margaret, aged 11, then won a scholarship to start at PLC in 1944. During her seven years at PLC she forged many extremely close, lifelong friendships, found her intellectual interests were stimulated and her pursuits encouraged. She also loved playing tennis and learning to play hockey, and was a Prefect in her final year of 1950. Keenly intelligent, Margaret went on to graduate in Arts (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and began her Masters in Agricultural Economics. A difficult relationship with her supervisor curtailed her Masters’ study and, in mid-1956, she embarked on a wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable, 18-month trip to the UK. When not visiting relatives and sightseeing, she worked as a field research officer in Cambridge, interviewing and collecting data from local farmers.
Returning to Perth in 1958, Margaret worked as an economist at Wesfarmers but after her adventures in the UK, she found Perth a little too small and isolated, and soon took up a position with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in Canberra.
There, she met public servant James Lowe who, after witnessing several of Margaret’s previous beaux being knocked back, devised a plan which never risked him making a direct proposal, instead referring to ‘when we’re married’. He was delighted it worked, and they were married at St George’s Cathedral, in Perth, in 1962.
In 1964 they bought land in Hughes, one of the first suburbs developed outside central Canberra, on which they built their own home. In mid-1965 though, just as they had their home and garden as they wanted, James accepted an 18-month secondment to Melbourne where their first child, Michael, was born in February 1966.
950 Leavers in their Junior Year, 1948
Back, Left to right: Dee Schorer, Jeanette Rodda, Philippa Haesler Middle: Dawn Reid, Helen Andrew, Joan Hiller, Joan Wallace Front: Bettine Birdseye, Margaret Kirkwood, Jennifer Ledger Very front: Joan Rawll. ABOVE TOP: Newly engaged James Lowe and Margaret Kirkwood, 1962. Courtesy the Lowe family. ABOVE: Margaret and James Lowe, on their final big adventure, 2006. Courtesy the Lowe family.
In 1979 Margaret, James and the boys spent five wonderful months in the UK reconnecting with friends and family and revisiting the places Margaret loved so much.
On their return in 1980 Margaret became a scientific editor at CSIRO for the Division of Water and Land Resources. She loved the work, and the people, and retired in 1994, aged 62. She and James then further indulged their love of travel, overseas and locally, including a 2006 circumnavigation of Australia.
After James suffered a stroke in late 2006 Margaret stayed closer to home, but still attended exhibitions and shows, enjoyed her Scottish country dancing, catching up with friends, and pottering in her garden. James died in 2011, after which her travel further affield resumed - to New Zealand, Vietnam and Japan. Despite the distance, Margaret also kept in close contact with her WA friends and classmates, and frequently returned to Perth for reunions. Were it not for Covid, she would’ve been here in August 2020 for her year’s 70th reunion.
They returned to their Hughes home later that year and, as Michael got a little older, Margaret picked up occasional research assistant/editorial work through the Australian National University and Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
Their second son, Duncan, was born in April 1970 and Margaret, who had always wanted two boys, was delighted. In time, she returned to casual work with the CSIRO but on weekends they all enjoyed bushwalking, picnics and lunches by the lake. In 2012 she wrote to us, “I always look back on my time at PLC as most important. It gave us a great base on which to develop - both academically, and in our approach to life. Some of my dearest friends all come from those days.”
On Friday 20 November 2020, after a routine visit to her doctor’s, she began to feel unwell. Sadly, she collapsed at home the next day, and died with her son Michael beside her, three days before her 88th birthday.
With thanks to Ian Stimson (OSC 19481953), Michael and Duncan Lowe.
LEFT: A teenaged Trisha dancing with the WA Ballet. Courtesy the Kotai family. MIDDLE: JK and Jean Ewers with Trisha, c1945. Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, Image 109832PD. RIGHT: Trisha Ewers in 1950, aged 11. Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, Image 274363PD.
Dr Trisha Kotai-Ewers OAM (Ewers 1956), or Madame Kotai as many of her students and Summers House girls will remember her.
French Teacher 1979-1988; Summers House Advisor 1984-1988
17 July 1939 – 17 January 2021
Trisha was the only child of Jean nee McIntyre and John Keith ‘JK’ Ewers, a teacher, a literary legend, and the founding President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers of WA (FAWWA). Among the many books he wrote was ‘Living English’, a WA curriculum textbook in use for many years.
It was a mystery as to why Trisha only attended Kindy here briefly in 1943 until 2009, when our Archivist called and asked why. Trisha said her mother had come to pick her up one afternoon, and saw her precious Trisha (3) dancing along the top balustrade of Summers House with her arms stretched out, tight rope style, with a sheer 4-5m drop to the ground below her.
As the Ewers lived at 13 Keane Street, Mrs Ewers then sent Trisha to nearby Cottesloe Primary. Like both her parents before her, Trisha then received a scholarship to Perth Modern School, after which she trained as a ballet dancer, becoming a foundation dancer with the WA Ballet at the age of 16.
Later, she learnt three languages and became a French teacher, teaching here for ten years from 1979 to 1988. Madame Kotai was very well liked and respected by staff, who appreciated her great sense of humour and fun, and by students, to whom she became ‘Maman’. She organised all of the French trips and accompanied each trip, and was also a kind and caring Summers House Advisor from 1984 to 1988.
Trisha was on the FAWWA for more than two decades and, from 1988, its President for fourteen years. She was the driving force behind the 1990s relocation (from Clement Street, Swanbourne, to nearby Allen Park) and restoration of both Tom Collins’ and Mattie Furphy Houses, both of which now serve as FAWWA administration and events spaces.
Later, Trisha undertook her Masters in Philosophy and, at the age of 76, completed her PhD on the FAWWA.
A talented poet, Trisha’s poetry was published many times and, in 2007 she published her book ‘Listen to the Talk of Us: People with Dementia Speak Out’, which contributed to her being awarded an OAM in 2015 for service to literature and to people with Alzheimer’s.
Jenny Hetherington (English and Drama teacher 1979-2002; Director of Career Development 2002-2017)
and Trisha’s dear friend from their days together here, last saw Trisha in the middle of last year when, she says, while Trisha was becoming the tiniest bit frail, she was still “completely and marvelously herself”.
We understand the epilepsy with which Trisha had lived all her life, had begun to re-emerge and played on her mind. She was not afraid of death, and in fact welcomed going into the invisible realm with the certainty she would see her adored parents once more. She often spoke of her own death with her daughters, Haede, Kate Dawes (Kotai 1983) and Clara Kotai (1987), and received their blessing that it was ok for her to go if she wished, when the time came.
Trisha was adamant she would not leave her home and, as she wished, she died there on 17 January 2021, aged 81. Her funeral would have been very largely attended, but fell in the middle of our five day lockdown. Thus, her memorial service was held in March, fittingly in the grounds of Mattie Furphy House below a canopy of eucalypts and a circling flight of Carnaby’s Cockatoos.
Her passing has left a huge hole in the worlds of dance, teaching and writing, and we extend our sincere condolences to her daughters and granddaughters, her many friends, and everyone who loved her.
Merle Lorraine Page (nee Dorrington) LMus LTCL
Piano, Singing and Music Mistress 1954-1993 Honorary Life Member of the OCA 8 February 1931 – 1 December 2020
Music was Merle’s first love. The daughter of Percival and Ruby Dorrington, licensees of Boulder’s Shamrock Hotel, as a tiny tot she used to sit and strum an old bicycle wheel and sing and, at five, sometimes performed at family events at the Shamrock. Otherwise, because Percy and Ruby wanted their only daughter to have a refined upbringing, Merle was kept firmly away from the rougher side of life in the mining town, and also from most patrons and activities inside the Shamrock Hotel.
There were few opportunities in the country to pursue a love of music so strong, but Merle’s mother, Ruby nee Scott, was an accomplished pianist who, before her marriage, headlined her own orchestra. She was the consummate professional and saw to it that Merle had the musical education she desperately wanted. Aged nine, in January 1940, she began studying under Miss Olive Ruane LRSM LMusA and, 14 months later in March 1941, passed exams in preparatory theory (honours), junior theory (honours), preparatory piano (honours), University of WA Grade V, piano, honours (highly commended), and Grade VI, theory (credit) with Trinity College of Music, London.
In 1945 Merle won the local prize for the Intermediate Division, and soon began taking her own piano students in Miss Ruane’s premises in Piesse Street, Boulder. In 1952 she was awarded her LMusA with the Australian Music Examinations Board.
In the early 1950s Percy and Ruby sold the Shamrock and moved down to Perth; first to John Street, Cottesloe, but soon, to 22 East Street, Mount Hawthorn, where Merle lived for all but the last few months of her life.
In February 1954 Merle (23) joined PLC staff as a part-time Music Teacher and Accompanist, working closely with Miss
Dorothy Hutchinson (Music Mistress
1920-1965), still our longest-serving staff member and with whom Merle got along very well, and Mr Zdislaus
Ladomirska or ‘Mr Lado’ (Music
teacher 1950-1966).
In a 2011 interview with Grace Muir (2015) and Sally Mathwin (2015) as part of an Archives’ Centenary Project, Merle said: “When I came to PLC in 1954 there were four piano teachers and the piano rooms were situated off McNeil Street. (There used to be double gates going out onto McNeil Street.) There was a two-storey building; the upper floors occupied by domestic staff, and below there were seven piano rooms with four piano teachers. They were quite noisy, really, because the Leavings and SubLeavings had their classes to the left of our building, and they had their lockers situated along the walls of our music rooms, which were very small!”
At the time, PLC girls all had the opportunity to sing in the choir, but now that there was an accompanist, Miss Hutchinson saw the opportunity for PLC to compete in the WA Music Teachers’ Association’s annual Festival Choirs. Merle described 1954 as when the girls who couldn’t sing were released from the choir, leaving 35 of the purest voices. Lots of practise ensued, and our choir then competed every year between 1954 and 1967, during which we celebrated four firsts (1958, 1959, 1961 and 1966) and otherwise finished in the top three.
In 1971 the Junior (Year 10) and Leaving (Year 12) Certificates were abolished and replaced with the Achievement Certificate, for which music became a properly assessible subject, just like maths, literature or chemistry. This was the catalyst for positive change in the study of music, and the School aimed at bringing someone on board who could really launch a strong music programme to build on. Merle was delighted at this. She believed music is a universal language, and that everyone should learn music of some description.
Thus things changed dramatically in 1975, for both Merle and PLC’s Music programme, with the arrival of former army band master Eric Page (Director of Music 1975-1981) from Melbourne. In October that year his wife and daughter, Dawn Page (1978), joined him. Suddenly every girl who wanted to learn music, could, in addition to 25 girls being picked
from Year 8 to study an instrument, with succession planning built in. As a result, by 1979, some 350 girls were involved in instrumental music.
Along with this huge surge in the study of music came the start of Band tours and, wherever the Band went, with Eric, the Choir went, too, with Merle. While her own preference was for classical singing, she loved learning the modern songs the girls wanted to sing.
After Eric’s marriage ended in 1979, Merle and Eric got together. They married in 1981, and were blissfully happy until Eric died in July 1982, aged just 52.
Despite her grief, Merle resumed teaching later in 1982. It was the year
Maribeth Williamson (Music and
Singing teacher, 1982-2012) started at PLC. Merle welcomed her warmly, with her wealth of musical knowledge and imparting the tradition of music at PLC. Within months, vocal student numbers grew. The Chorale was formed, and they again entered choral festivals, with ensemble members competing as soloists, and taking their AMEB exams. Merle was their brilliant accompanist, working tirelessly with each girl to ensure they presented at their very best on the day, regardless of age or expertise. She also accompanied her own piano students to their exams in Nedlands, imparting wisdom and calm in the drive to and from PLC.
Merle continued to attend music camps, though not as many after Eric died. Kerry Jones (Pipe Band teacher 1982-2016) remembered the staff supper at the end of a long day at a Fairbridge music camp, with Merle, always the lady, “as pretty as a picture in her long nightie, embroidered dressing gown, matching slippers, and her beautiful hair neatly wrapped in a hair net.”
In 2011, long after her retirement in 1993, after 40 years here, Merle said she had loved every minute of her time at PLC. The years afterwards were spent very quietly at home, occasionally socialising with close friends such as Muriel
Gadsdon (Goodall 1952; Music teacher
1970-1984 and 1988-2004, dec) and, even more occasionally, attending a special PLC music event.
She is long remembered as strong minded and extremely talented. During her time here she added much to the success of her students, as well as to the Music Department, the staff of which considered it a privilege to have worked alongside her.
Merle moved into care at the end of 2020 and unfortunately died, very soon after, aged 89.
The song is ended, but the melody lingers on.
ABOVE: The first victorious 1958 Festival Choir
Back, L-R: Susan Gooch, Sandra Davy, Lesley Brodie-Hall, Eleanor Scrymgeour, Jennifer Staniland, Diana Chase, Sally Huelin, Gerry Avery, Judith Cammilleri, Margaret Dann Jillian Eyres, Teeny Law, Marg Gordon, Betty Malcolm, Miss Merle Dorrington, Miss Dorothy Hutchinson, Helen Boys, Sandra Duncan, Alison Ward Second row: Elizabeth Godsman, Anne ‘Tiggy’ Maitland, Jeannie Lyall, Jenny Meecham, Marg Dare, Rosalind Mayrhofer, Susan Crawley, Daphne Young, Marie Hitchings Front: Di Gribble, Helen Novakov, Jan McGregor, Colyn Grigg, Veronica Uren, Joy Owen, Jame Stimson, Elizabeth Liddell, Dorothy Inkpen.
We are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of the following Old Collegians:
Beryl Norma Edmund Anderson (Jones 1947)
2 September 1930 – 30 November 2020
Merilyn Bethea Butterworth (Waddell 1957)
15 April 1940 – 13 December 2020
Suzanne Margaret ‘Sue’ Carew-Reid (Copley 1947)
25 December 1929 – 24 December 2020
Paige Taylor Counsell (2012)
14 May 1995 – 16 December 2020
Joan Margaret Goad (Hiller 1950)
11 March 1933 – 29 January 2021
Marjorie Dell Hutchinson (Smith 1941)
14 July 1924 – 6 March 2021
Helen Jeanette James (Williams 1944)
15 April 1927 – 17 November 2020
Dr Patricia Jean ‘Trisha’ Kotai-Ewers OAM (Ewers 1956)
17 July 1939 – 17 January 2021 (see also staff, below)
Margaret Jean Howse (Eddleston 1962)
28 May 1945 – 11 February 2021
Shirley Catherine McKee (Edwards 1939)
10 December 1922 – 5 January 2021
Penelope Dawn ‘Penny’ Moir (Leighton 1977)
15 March 1960 – 11 January 2021
Doreen Joy Owens (Brockway 1946)
7 November 1928 – 1 September 2020
Sonya Pamela Rodgers (1988)
4 November 1971 – 31 December 2020
Jenny Sue Townsend (Clough 1971)
12 July 1954 – 10 February 2021
Kaye Sylvia Ward (Olsen 1966)
19 January 1949 – 5 March 2021
We are also saddened to advise the passing of some of our former staff:
Sally Patricia Alys Cook (nee Vardon)
Middle School Hygiene, English and History Teacher 1957-1962 27 March 1934 – 6 January 2021
Taryn Margaret Fiebig
Music Teacher (cello) 1992-1997 1 February 1972 – 20 March 2021
Merle Lorraine Page (nee Dorrington)
Piano, Singing and Music Mistress 1954-1993 Honorary Life Member of the Old Collegians’ Association 8 February 1931 – 1 December 2020
Dr Patricia Jean ‘Trisha’ Kotai-Ewers OAM
French Teacher 1979-1988; Summers House Advisor 1984-1988 17 July 1939 – 17 January 2021
