Jou r n e ys
It’s not about where we came from . . . it’s about where we are going.
ISBN: 978-0-9592758-5-8 © Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview Development Office, Tambourine Bay Road, LANE COVE, NSW 2066, AUSTRALIA www.riverview.nsw.edu.au Printed in 2011
‘Dear Lord, I expect to pass through this world but once; and any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to a fellow creature, let me do it now let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.’ Stephen Grellett, 1773-1855, ‘Finding God’s Traces’, May 7
Contents Christopher John Brennan (OR1888) ............................ 2-7 Bill Critch (OR50) .......................................................... 8-13 Kir Deng (OR2008) ...................................................... 14-23 Kevin Fagan (OR33) ..................................................... 24-29 Russell Fahey (OR39) ................................................... 30-33 Anthony Hourigan (OR98) ......................................... 34-39 Cyril Johnson (OR2009) ............................................. 40-45 Kevin Omoro (OR2009)............................................... 46-53 Ben Powell (OR2008) .................................................. 54-59 Tom Randall (OR2009) ............................................... 60-65 Ross Phillip Tumilty (OR40) ...................................... 66-71
Men for Others For 130 years, there have been students attend Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview with the assistance of the Jesuit and College Communities. The stories of these boys are as varied as their backgrounds, their achievements and their aspirations. But they have at least one common element; they were chosen to attend Riverview because it was perceived they and their families would enrich the lives of this College and the College, in turn, could enrich theirs. The following excerpts highlight the journey of only a few of those very many who have attended Riverview with some sort of financial assistance. Each of these individuals has been challenged in some way to nurture the spiritual, physical, intellectual, and artistic gifts they brought to the school and each has been given the encouragement and space to allow them to become men of integrity, educated in faith and for justice, committed to academic excellence and service to others. We trust you will enjoy their stories.
‘As much as you can do, so much dare to do’ 1
Were knowledge all, what were our need To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed? Christopher John Brennan 2
Christopher John Brennan (or1888) With a bursary from Cardinal Patrick Moran, Christopher John Brennan attended Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview as a boarder, from 1884-88.
Early Challenges
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hristopher John Brennan (1870-1932), poet and scholar, was born in 1870 in Sydney, eldest of five surviving children of Irish migrants Christopher Brennan (d1919) and his wife Mary Ann (d1924). His father was a brewer and later became a publican. Young Christopher was both sickly and extremely bright and his family saw him as intended for the priesthood. At the age of 11, Brennan went to St Aloysius’ College, where he first read Milton, whose poetry later had a deep influence on his own. The Brennan family were not wealthy by any means and could not have afforded the relatively high fees of the Jesuit schools. But when Riverview was founded there had been an agreement that the Catholic Archbishop (later Cardinal) Patrick Moran would give financial assistance for bright boys 3
who wanted to become priests and so Brennan was selected to board at Riverview on a bursary. Despite the fact that at the end of his school days Brennan announced that he no longer felt that the priesthood was his vocation, Moran never held this against him and they remained correspondents throughout Moran’s life. Christopher’s mother and father were somewhat less forgiving, however.
My Alma Mater Brennan’s years at Riverview are seen as the most formative of his life. At the end of his life, he wrote ‘Alma Mater is the name I always keep for Riverview.’ His life at Riverview, under then founding Rector Fr Joseph Dalton SJ was no picnic for Brennan but it changed him both physically and intellectually. He arrived still suffering from the effects of a bout of typhoid when he was six but left a strapping young man who ‘took like a glutton’ to swimming, rowing and handball. But he also underwent a significant intellectual awakening: the school gave him great intellectual freedom, and whatever he wanted he was given to read. It was Fr Patrick Keating, the classics master in whom Brennan found a great inspiration and the only teacher ever to make a deep impression on him. Brennan was captivated by his discipline, charm and elegance, and above all by his air of perfection, and was never to cease searching for that perfection, completeness and apparent infallibility which he had known in the faith of his youth, and in his favourite teacher.
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In his senior years at Riverview, Christopher Brennan was trusted with the freedom of the then Jesuit Library where he acquired encyclopaedic knowledge with ease. Brennan achieved an enormous amount in his life through the use of the knowledge he’d obtained from libraries – places that inspired him – and through his Jesuit education which encouraged him to question everything and to use his talents in the service of God. He was a noted orator though not, oddly, in the debating team, played the piano and was most likely in the choir. He was enjoying the full gamut of a Jesuit education. In his final two years at Riverview he was a joint student editor of the first two editions of Our Alma Mater, the College magazine. After he left Riverview, Brennan continued his affection for the College, publishing poetry in the College magazine in 1899, 1906, 1907, 1911 and in 1913.
Later Life In 1888, he went to the University of Sydney where to all reports he led an adventurous, wayward life. None of his university teachers could stimulate him profoundly. As editor of Hermes (1889-90) and as a prankster he seemed to his fellow students ‘just a rollicking carefree chap’. He graduated with a BA in 1891 with first-class honours and the University Gold Medal in logic and mental philosophy, but only second-class honours in classics. In 1892, he was awarded an MA in Philosophy. He spent short periods teaching in Goulburn and parttime at Riverview, and then studied at the University of
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Berlin in 1892-94. Brennan returned to Sydney, then in the depths of an economic depression, and took a position in the Public Library of New South Wales, becoming second assistant librarian in 1907. During this period he wrote poetry vociferously though some of it was considered rather ‘risqué’. His poetic output then declined as a marriage and family life became more difficult and he suffered deep periods of melancholy. He also returned to the study of classical texts, though never again with quite the thoroughness and delight that had marked his studies as a young man. Brennan did start to produce quantities of poetry again in 1915 and those produced in the 1920s are regarded as among his best but his life became increasingly lonely, purposeless and insecure, especially after he was dismissed from the University of Sydney for ‘incontinent, erratic behaviour’. He died, in relatively austere circumstances on 5 October 1932. Christopher Brennan remains one of the most illustrious graduates from Riverview, now recognised in the naming of the new library opened in 2009 as the Christopher Brennan Library. He was also an early giant of Australian poetry, although without the traditional focus on Australian landscape and society, and he rarely draws at all from Australian literature. He was, however, the first Australian to write within philosophical-poetic traditions of Europe, and remains recognised for breaking that ground.
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Sweet Silence after Bells! Sweet silence after bells! deep in the enamour’d ear soft incantation dwells. Filling the rapt still sphere a liquid crystal swims, precarious yet clear. Those metal quiring hymns shaped ether so succinct: a while, or it dislimns, the silence, wanly prinkt with forms of lingering notes, inhabits, close. distinct; and night, the angel, floats on wings of blessing spread o’er all the gather’d cotes where meditation, wed with love, in gold-lit cells, absorbs the heaven that shed sweet silence after bells. Christopher John Brennan 7
Bill and friends, 1947.
‘Saint Ignatius’ left me with a lifelong love of learning.’ Bill Critch 8
Bill Critch (or50) Bill Critch attended Riverview from 1948–50, on a Bursary. He now lives in Arizona with wife Bunny. Bill wrote an article for the College that appeared in the December 2008 edition of the Ignatian.
Refugees
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y father, mother, sister and I were refugees from the Great Depression in the United States. An expatriate Australian, my dad was unable to find accounting work in San Francisco and in 1938 accepted free passage home to Sydney on the SS Mariposa. Times were tough, but he managed to find work in Sydney and we settled into an apartment in Bondi Beach. Shortly after war was declared in 1939, dad enlisted but died a year later in the Repat Hospital in North Sydney – his spirit finally succumbing to the effects of his experience on the Somme, in World War I. We were alone and reduced to living in a small bedroom with a louvered kitchen porch, a penny-in-the-slot gas ring, a tin washing-up dish and a shared bathroom downstairs.
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Charity – Receiving and Giving The Legacy Club accepted mother and I for help: dental, medical, financial and social. The war had made it obvious that the wives and children of deceased enlisted men could not ‘make it’ on their own. Jobs were scarce for unskilled homemakers, so my mother became a domestic servant– a steep descent for a woman whose family in Bourke had owned farms and a hotel on the Darling River. In return, we sold Legacy buttons to the dockworkers and the generous Yanks. Legacy was grateful for our efforts and agreed to pay half of the tuition and board at Riverview, the remainder being covered by a bursary. Mother still had a great sense of style, and I don’t know where the money came from, but towards the summer’s end, I was introduced to Peapes – the Sydney equivalent of Brookes Brothers in the United States. At the Temple of the GPS – the Boys’ Department on the 2nd floor, I was outfitted in a Riverview grey suit. Several days later, I was interviewed by the Rector, Fr Johnston SJ, who, because he followed the previous Rector, Fr Hehir, aka ‘The Mouse’, was known as ‘The Cat’!
My Riverview Experience Old Boys will tell you that life at ‘View in the 30s and 40s was tougher. They will say, ‘WE slept in open air dormitories, 10
ate tinned baked beans on toast and endured ‘table wars’ for a limited supply of milk; had melon and lemon jam on dry bread for an after sport snack.’ Old men always had it rougher than today’s softies. Heads up, old classmates, today’s a different world! The expectations placed on today’s lucky few are beyond anything we could have imagined. A well-rounded education today involves travel, writing and research on a computer, a good diet and a healthy body. These are real needs for all the young men at Riverview. For a Bursary student, whose family is of modest means, not being able to participate in sports or having the right gear leaves them at a severe disadvantage. Believe me, I’ve been there! Having to borrow Brian Regan’s jacket was embarrassing in 1948 but today it would be humiliating. Not having easy access to a computer puts a man at a disadvantage not easily overcome. Today’s bursaries must include things which at my time would have been considered luxuries.
What did Riverview do for me? Saint Ignatius’ left me with a lifelong love of learning. I shall grow old remembering Fr. ‘Twit’ Dennett’s Ancient History classes; Fr Ryan’s encouragement to ‘write, write, write’; Doctor King’s world view; Bruce Kinnaird’s patience in Maths; and Harry Thomas’ attempts to eliminate ‘Strine’. These great men set us a great example. ‘View also left me with a sense of what was the right thing to do: to help someone who was
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less fortunate or had ‘lost the way’, to give without counting the cost, to never give in. When asked what our school motto Quantum Potes, Tantum Aude means, I usually reply that a loose translation is, ‘Give it a go, mate.’
What’s in a name? Years later, after I returned to the USA, I took an entrance exam en route to becoming a USAF pilot. The Air Force assumed that my listing of three years at Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview was three years of ‘college’ – the U.S. name for university. With my Jesuit grounding in the liberal arts, my test score was lifted above the other entrants. Once again, in a new country, the Bursary boy scored a try – his first, but one which built on the great Riverview foundation.
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Aerial view of Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview (c1950).
‘View also left me with a sense of what was the right thing to do: to help someone who was less fortunate or had ‘lost the way’, to give without counting the cost, to never give in. When asked what our school motto ‘Quantum Potes, Tantum Aude’ means, I usually reply that a loose translation is ‘Give it a go, mate’. Bill Critch 13
Kir Deng, Insignis 2008, with his sister and niece.
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Kir Deng (or2008) Kir was born in Sudan during the height of a brutal civil war. He came to Riverview in Year 7, graduated six years later and received the College’s Insignis Award – the highest honour the College bestows on a graduate. In 2011, Kir is completing his third year of a Nursing Degree at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney with the plan to move on to the faculty of Medicine in 2013. As a Year 12 student in February 2008, Kir told his ‘story’ as part of the ‘My Story’ segment of the College Assembly. Although it left him emotionally drained, he received a memorable, moving and sustained standing ovation at the end. Below is an excerpt from that speech and additional excerpts from his speech at the inaugural Bursary Donors Celebration in 2008.
My Story – Early Childhood
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was born in Sudan in 1990 in the capital, Khartoum – a time when civil war racked the country. Education, infrastructure, and the socioeconomic conditions were all but destroyed. Replacing them was severe famine, drought and the mass, forced displacement of refugees. 15
In my early childhood, at the age of six, I was diagnosed with Malaria – a disease that kills more than 1,000,000 African children every year – that’s more than 3000 every day. So, my chances of survival were not good. I tried not to think about coming face-to-face with God so early on in my life. But deep down – as the grip of malaria tightened its hold over me – I knew my death was a very real and daunting prospect. But thanks to a bit of luck, prayer and much support from my mum and dad, my three older sisters and younger brother, I survived.
Tough times in Sudan Soon after, I did experience death – with the loss of my father, Deng. Dad was very sick at the time when he died. Unfortunately – because of the hospital system in Sudan and because we had no money – we could not afford to keep Dad alive. I cannot tell you enough how devastated and upset I was – I was truly lost in my own grief – the pain, almost unbearable. It wasn’t only an agonising period for me, but also my family. It taught me the lesson though – very early on – that human life is so fragile that we can’t take it for granted. I think about my Dad every day. I carry a picture of him. I know Dad is in heaven watching over me – and is watching on proud. The death of my dad, Deng, was not only very emotional, it also made life more challenging. 16
My mother, Atong, had to work twice as hard just to keep the food on the table. Since mum couldn’t handle the responsibility of looking after all of us, my Uncle Wik stepped in and took on the role of being a father figure. Uncle Wik owned a video store, much like a cinema here today where he generated most of his income. But as his small business began to thrive, the local government decided to intervene, for no reason but because of pure greed and corruption. They took all his belongings, including his television and videos. As a result, Uncle Wik – and other extended family members who were working in the video store at the time – were arrested and taken to a prison in Khartoum. Behind bars, Uncle Wik was severely tortured, whipped and starved. I didn’t think Wik was ever going to get out of prison. But his courage, strength and resilience proved everyone wrong. Soon after, though, he was issued with a warning to leave the country and never come back or else he would be locked up in jail again – and for good. We straightaway made arrangements to leave the country and head towards Egypt, abandoning our friends, relatives, families and our possessions. That was a very hard time for me.
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Fleeing to Egypt We arrived in Egypt, in 1999, on a new beginning – starting a new life – one that granted us protection and freedom. But as we started to make ourselves feel more at home, things began to go in a different way to what we had expected. Egyptian citizens became unsettled by the number of Sudanese refugees entering their homeland. Streets turned violent. Fighting broke out often as racism and hatred took hold. I recall days when my sister and I would walk to school, only to be met by racist comments and have people laughing at us and throwing food from their balcony at us. This was because we because we were refugees and the colour of our skin made us inferior in their eyes. Meanwhile, my mum, Atong, worked around the clock as a cleaner – from early hours to late into the night – cleaning houses for little money. Uncle Wik worked as a welder, in atrocious conditions – all so that we could eat, have shelter and pay for our education. But as each day passed, our lives became more grim and uncomfortable Tension between the large Sudanese and Egyptian community worsened. It became no longer safe for me – for my family or anyone who was Sudanese – to walk down the street without the threat of being attacked. 18
Packing up our few worldly belongings and returning to Sudan seemed the only option. However, we learnt that the UN Embassy in Cairo was holding interviews for Sudanese refugees who had been displaced and needed urgent settlement overseas. Successful applicants were granted a visa to either the US, Canada or Australia. Uncle Wik immediately wrote an application to the UN explaining our case. Unfortunately, our application was not successful. We were rejected because the UN thought that our case didn’t present enough hardships, compared to other families. That day was very depressing and upsetting day for me, and my family, as we had nowhere else to go. From there on my life looked bleak, but I still clung to hope.
A New Start in Australia Sure enough – as my family and I were making arrangements for our return to Sudan, we received incredible news from Uncle Wik. A friend of his, from Australia, had sent a visa and several applications and said that if we filled them out correctly, we might just go to Australia. Uncle Wik carefully filled out the forms and sent them to the Australian embassy in Cairo. There they arranged an interview for us. When the interviewing day came, we made sure that
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we were as positive as possible and showed appreciation. Thankfully, the female interviewing us agreed to accept us to come out here. My family and I were so happy that day, knowing we were going to be safe. We abandoned our trip back to Sudan and focused our attention on getting medical checkups, to move to Australia. I came out here in 2001. Since then my family and I have had the privilege to call Australia home. However, there are still days when I think and reflect about my real home in Sudan – a place where I have left behind many relatives and friends, whom I miss very much.
Coming to Riverview The Jesuit education that I have received from Riverview has been enriching, enlightening, challenging, rewarding and one that will stay with me forever. Riverview is, without doubt, unique and special and has given me more than just a classroom education. It has taught me to become a man of justice, service, discernment, conscience, courage and to be counter-cultural. It has taught me to be a man for others, and for this I’m truly grateful and thankful. Having only been in Australia for 18 months when I was offered the Bursary, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think of coming to a school like Riverview. The whole opportunity came as a surprise, but at the same time I was overwhelmed with joy, gratitude and appreciation and I’m
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particularly thankful to everyone who has made it possible. I must admit that coming to Riverview proved to be challenging at times. Especially being in a totally different environment, different culture, people and lifestyle, but nevertheless I was able to embrace and have a go at all that Riverview had to offer me. I remember my first day clearly and how nervous I was. Everything was so different from back home. I didn’t know anyone and didn’t know if I would make it through. But now I look back through my years and wonder if I had not come to a school like Riverview, would I be the same person that I am now? I think not. Riverview has helped me to understand who I am and what my purpose is in life. I have come to admire and cherish this unique education and how lucky I am. I have become fully motivated, inspired and equipped with knowledge that will serve me to be counter-cultural, to seek justice, service and truth in the world in which we live. The Jesuit education has given me the means by which I can commit to the service of others.
Men for Others I can assure you that all the boys who receive these Bursaries are very thankful and appreciative of the wonderful opportunity given to us and we’re confident that each of us will do all we can to use it to fulfil our potential. Not only was I provided with a lifetime education, but the education we have all received at Riverview has inspired me to give 21
something back to my community. I can now confidently say that I can use my Riverview education to reach out to others in our society, to make a difference, to impact other people’s lives whereever I possibly can and to live out our Ignatian school ideal – ‘men for others’. What the Bursary Program has done for me and for many other students is not only extraordinary and worthy of gratitude, but it gives us unprecedented hope and confidence for what we can achieve in the future. I guess my way of thanking everyone, who helped me through my time at Riverview, was making sure that I made the most of every opportunity that Riverview provided me with. I promised myself that I would make the most of this opportunity and I will continue to do so throughout my life ,by simply serving others. From that shy young boy in Year 7, to a grown young man, I can honestly and confidently say that I can move on and look forward to the future and aspire towards my goals – and for this I thank you so much.
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Kir Deng and Ben Powell, at the Thank You Function for all contributors to the Riverview Foundation Bursary Fund, in 2008.
Riverview has helped me to understand who I am and what my purpose is in life. I have come to admire and cherish this unique education and how lucky I am. I have become fully motivated, inspired and equipped with knowledge that will serve me to be countercultural, to seek justice, service and truth in the world in which we live. The Jesuit education has given me the means by which I can commit to the service of others. Kir Deng 23
Dr Kevin Fagan
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Kevin Fagan (or25) With lit tle doubt one of the most celebrated of Riverview’s many famous alumni, Kevin Fagan was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1909 and entered Riverview as the recipient of a Dunne Bursary, available only to Tasmanian boys, in 1923.
A Man for Others
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f any Riverview student is looking for an embodiment of the role-modelling of ‘A Man for Others’, Kevin Fagan is the epitome of that sentiment. He was a brilliant student and scholar and was Dux of the College, twice, in 1925 and 1926, in his last year topping the College records in English, Latin, French, Mathematics and Physics. He came second in the State in Physics in that year. However, he was not an idle ‘bookworm’ and was also Head Prefect, Captain of Rowing and rowed Number 2 in the 1st IV and was stroke of the 1st VIII, member of the College tennis team and Captain of the 2nd XV. Kevin was also the debate Gold Medalist and played the title role in the College production of Hamlet. An ex haustingly competent all-rounder.
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Kevin received an exhibition to The University of Sydney to study Medicine in 1927 and as a resident of St John’s College was Captain of the Football team and stroke of the VIII. Later during his training, he was a resident student at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and graduated with first class honours, MB, BS, in 1933. Returning to Tasmania, he became Assistant Superintendent of Hobart General Hospital in 1937.
Major Kevin Fagan Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Army Medical Corps and, when posted to Singapore with the 8th Division, became a prisoner of war of the Japanese, at first in Changi and later on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. During the next three and a half years of captivity, Kevin Fagan’s name came to exemplify amongst his fellow soldiers the very highest ideals of medicine, and of being ‘A Man for Others’. His devoted care of the other prisoners, without regard to his own welfare, won universal praise, no less so than Russell Braddon, who wrote in his 1952 book, The Naked Island: Above all there was the extraordinary courage and gentleness, and the incredible endurance of the Medical Officer, Major Kevin Fagan. Not only did he treat any man needing treatment to the best of his ability; he also carried men who fell. He carried the kit of men in danger of falling; and he marched up and down the whole length of the 26
column throughout its entire progress. If we marched 100 miles through the jungle, Kevin Fagan marched 200 miles, and when at the end of our night’s trip, we collapsed and slept, he was there to clean blisters, set broken bones and render first aid. And all of it he did with the courtesy of a society specialist who is being richly paid for his attention and the ready humour of a man who is not tired at all. With Padre Duckworth of Kuala Lumpur, he is the most inspiring man I have ever met. Some 20,000 British and Australian troops share my view.
After his release in September 1945, he returned to Sydney, becoming Chief Surgeon at Prince Henry Hospital (1946) and practicing, from 1947, as a specialist in Macquarie Street and surgeon at Lewisham, Royal North Shore and Royal Prince Alfred Hospitals. He was an outstanding physician and surgeon. Professor Douglas Tracy, a colleague at Lewisham and Royal North Shore has written; It is fair to say that I have never worked for a surgeon who was more greatly revered by his residents and registrars than Dr Kevin Fagan. He was frequently the surgeon of first reference for surgical problems in their own families, and it was also obvious that this feeling of affection and admiration was shared by every person that he treated. Kevin Fagan never forgot his Alma Mater and continued to have great affection for Riverview and the education it had given him. 27
In 1952, Kevin Fagan was elected as President of the Old Ignatian’s Union and, for about 20 years, he was an honoured guest at the College Anzac Day Mass and Ceremonial. In 1987, he was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to war veterans, to medicine and the community. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious and rare Gold Medal of the Australian Medical Association, in recognition of his services to medicine. His name will live on at Riverview in perpetuity with the opening of the new, state-of-the-art Senior Boarding residence, ‘Kevin Fagan House’ being officially opened on 20 August 2000. After a serious illness in 1969, Kevin Fagan retired to his beloved property Cooinda at Bowning, NSW and spent the next 23 years there where he lived happily, raising fine wool sheep. Almost completely blind, in 1992 he suffered a stroke which left him unable to speak. He passed away on 18 June 1992, in Yass, NSW.
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Kevin Fagan House, officially opened on 20 August 2000.
Not only did he treat any man needing treatment to the best of his ability; he also carried men who fell. He carried the kit of men in danger of falling; and he marched up and down the whole length of the column throughout its entire progress. If we marched 100 miles through the jungle, Kevin Fagan marched 200 miles, and when at the end of our night’s trip, we collapsed and slept, he was there to clean blisters, set broken bones and render first aid. Russell Braddon ‘The Naked Island’ 29
GPS Athletic Team (Seniors and Juniors) Back Row: J Stenmark, E Bergin, T Hughes, I Hollingdale, R Fahey, M Scheil, Middle Row: G Yum, E Heaton, B O’Neill, J Finn, P Gillespie, N Morgan Js O’Riordan, D McKay Seated: G O’Shaughnessy, G Wootten, E Giblin, E Uechtritz, K McManus, J L L’Estrange, P Stevens.
I commend those who are in a position to contribute to the College Bursary Fund that they do so, to ensure that this great tradition may survive . . . Russell Fahey 30
Russell Fahey (or39) Russell was born at Boorowa, on the South West slopes of New South Wales, in 1922 and attended Riverview in the 1930s – graduating in 1939. He is the proud grandfather of two recent Riverview graduates, Morgan and Elliott Fahey (OR2009). Below is an excerpt of Russell’s ‘story’ that was published in the Ignatian, December 2008.
Ensuring this great tradition survives
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nitially educated at the Parish school in town, by the time I reached High School located in Goulburn, the Great Depression was having a profound effect on the entire rural community and the nation as a whole. I was extremely unhappy and indeed somewhat incorrigible at senior school, until a life changing event occurred. During a chance meeting at dinner in a Sydney hotel, my parents met with Fr Meagher SJ, the then Rector of Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview.
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During dinner, my parents expressed great respect for a Jesuit education but indicated that this was somewhat of a dream which, owing to their financial situation, would not be fulfilled. Dispensing with formalities, Fr Meagher immediately indicated that I was to be enrolled at the College at reduced fees. Little did I know that I was an early beneficiary of the type of largesse now more formally dispensed by the College Bursary Program.
A Life-Changing Act To say this act was life-changing is to understate the situation. In those days, the prospects for rural youth following schooling was to return to the property and undertake menial tasks such as ‘burr cutting’, but armed with a Jesuit education I was able to pursue a career on the business side of the pastoral industry located in Sydney and in which I am still active. My (now deceased) brother Rex followed me to the College five years later but by then the family was in a position to pay the scheduled fees. To me, the most meaningful legacy of those bygone years, of which I am very proud and privileged, is that my twin grandsons, Morgan and Elliott, had the privilege of attending Riverview under the tutelage of Shane Hogan and Fr Andrew Bullen (a classmate of my son John).
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A High Standard of Beneficiaries
Mine is but one small story amongst the hundreds who have benefited from this important component of St Ignatius’. Little did I know it at the time but I was the recipient of that great Ignatian ethos and embodiment of all that it means when we say ‘Men for Others’. I commend those who are in a position to contribute to the College Bursary Fund that they do so, to ensure that this great tradition may survive, so that the high standard of beneficiaries and outcomes will be maintained and indeed strengthened in the 21st century and beyond.
The Riverview grey uniform and straw boaters, introduced in1937.
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Anthony Hourigan with his daughters Isabelle (left) and Emily (right).
I am proud to say that I am now a donor to the program and will be a donor for life. I only hope that my contribution can help to give other boys the same opportunity, I was so fortunate to be given. Anthony Hourigan 34
Anthony Hourigan (or98) In 1996, Anthony came to Riverview in Year 10, from Coffs Harbour, NSW. He is currently living in Sydney with his wife, Sarah and young daughters Isabelle and Emily. Anthony works in the financial services sector. Anthony offered to tell his ‘story’ to the guests and donors at the College’s Bursary Celebration in 2010. Excerpts from his speech follow:
Traralgon to Riverview
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am the youngest of nine children, born in a small town called Traralgon in Southern Victoria. When I was six my family moved to Coffs Harbour where I attended the local Catholic primary school. The local state high school I attended, Orara High School, was ‘famous’ – but for all the wrong reasons. The culture within the school was not at all conducive to studying hard, or being a high achiever, quite the opposite.
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The ‘cool’ kids were in all the lowest classes, and the really cool kids had already dropped out of school and would occasionally drop by the playground on their way home from surfing or from the skate park across the road.
Wanting Something More When I was in Year 9, a friend of mine from Coffs was accepted to Riverview. I remember him showing me the information on the school and to me it just seemed like another world entirely. I kept in regular communication with my Riverview mate who would tell me what he was experiencing at Riverview and I could see our lives heading in distinctly different directions. I would listen to the stories he would tell me and I could only imagine what it was like. Of course, I wanted to be there myself but I never even entertained the thought because I knew that financially it was out of the question for us. However, this did nothing to dampen my interest in Riverview and, through my mate, I continued to acquire knowledge about the school. At some point, he and I hatched the plan that I would apply for a scholarship to Riverview – at the time I knew nothing of the Bursary Program and, unbeknown to my parents, I set about writing a letter to Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview. My letter to the College detailed the enormous respect I had for the College from afar, the significant disparity in opportunities between Riverview and Orara High School,
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my concerns around staying at Orara High School, and all I had to offer the College – a strong Catholic upbringing, some academic potential and potential on the cricket field. In addition to expressing my desire to complete my high school at Riverview, I explained why financially, being the youngest of nine children, it was not possible for us and asked the question – does Riverview offer scholarships? With all the confidence of a 15 year old boy, I put my case forward. We received a response in the mail from Riverview – at which point, I had some explaining to do to Mum & Dad. In the first paragraph, the letter mentioned that Riverview does not offer sporting scholarships. ‘Well that’s it then, I thought’. However, the letter went on to describe the Bursary Program and suggested I might be eligible. Mum, Dad and I travelled to Sydney for a meeting and I was absolutely blown away by what I saw: the beautiful main building; the immaculate sporting fields; and the hundreds of boys getting around who actually had their socks pulled up and their shirts tucked in!
I’m going to Riverview! I will never forget the day I walked in from school in Year 10 and Dad was holding a letter from Riverview and told me with a big smile that I had been accepted. It is difficult to describe how elated I was at this news and I just could not
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wait to get down to Sydney and start to experience everything that is the Riverview community. I remember clearly the first Saturday morning playing cricket on First Field and getting to the start of my run-up and looking around the grounds and up at the Gartlan Centre thinking to myself ‘I can’t believe I’m actually here’. One of the biggest differences that I noticed early on was that the ‘cool’ kids at Riverview were high achievers – strong academically and usually strong on the sporting field too. In other words, they were well rounded. And this was infectious – peer pressure can be a positive thing too. My marks improved significantly and I graduated in 1998 with a UAI significantly higher than what I might have achieved otherwise. I greatly enjoyed my time in the boarding house, which was a whole new experience for me. I made some great friends there, many of whom I am confident will be lifelong friends and it taught me a great deal about being part of a tight knit community.
After Riverview I completed a Bachelor of Business at UTS and managed to qualify for a scholarship to spend one of those semesters studying in Vienna. Upon returning to Sydney, I finished my degree, started working again at Macquarie Bank.
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My wife, Sarah and I were married in the Dalton Memorial Chapel, in January of 2008, by Fr David Strong SJ, and our daughter Isabelle was baptised there the next year. This would never have come about were it not for the Bursary Program and its generous contributors.
The life-changing Bursary My time at Riverview, although relatively short, is a time that I look back on and regard as life changing. I don’t say that lightly, I honestly do believe that. I wonder about the direction my life may have taken had I not come to Riverview. I am certain I would not have achieved the marks that I did, which would most likely mean I would not have moved to Sydney, got my first job at Macquarie and subsequently met Sarah. I cannot really say what I would be doing today under an alternate scenario, but what I do know is that I am incredibly fortunate to have had these opportunities presented to me, and will be forever grateful to the people behind the Bursary Program who made so much of it possible. I am proud to say that I am now a donor to the program and will be a donor for life. I only hope that my contribution can help to give other boys the same opportunity I was so fortunate to be given.
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Cyril Johnson, addressing the Bursary Thank You function, in 2009.
It wasn’t until I started going back over my life that I truly realised exactly how far I have come and how much further I can go. There are many disadvantaged children out there, living the life I used to. I really hope that in the future that I can give back and help all Australians, especially Indigenous Australians. Cyril Johnson 40
Cyril Johnson (or2009) Cyril is from Broken Hill and attended Riverview from Year 10. He was introduced to Riverview in 2006 by a Riverview family who knew the story of Cyril’s life and circumstances. Currently, Cyril is completing his second year at the University of Melbourne – one of 12 Indigenous students on a full scholarship doing a Bachelor of Arts Extended (a stepping-stone into mainstream uni courses). He will be undertaking three mainstream university classes and one extension class this semester. At University, he has also been involved in the formation of a traditional/contemporary dance group that he leads and has performed in front of most colleges at the University for ‘Reconciliation and Sorry Day’ and other events. Cyril is hopeful that, after his studies, he can continue to promote Indigenous dancing – perhaps through involvement in the Bangarra Dance Theatre. Cyril is keen to go on to do further studies and major in Primary Education and Psychology. His aim is to give ‘something’ back the community – both his own Indigenous communit y and the wider communit y around him.
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He hopes to help better the lives of both Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australian youth and to try to ‘close the gap’. Below is an excerpt from Cyril’s ‘My Story’ speech at a College Assembly in 2008.
From Pain to Hope
I
was born in Broken Hill and spent my early years in Wilcannia in an Aboriginal community. Life was hard. My mum suffered a mental illness and I know now that she didn’t understand what was happening to her and had little support. Life was hard for her and it was difficult for her to care for me. I often didn’t know where to go. I would usually go to relatives and my pop to get food and stuff. They would send me on my way and I would just walk around on the streets at night with nowhere to go. It was often cold, I’d wear the same clothes for weeks and I felt lost, annoyed and scared. I can remember walking around crying and shivering. As I got older, I started getting into a bit of trouble. My mates and I started stealing from the shops, smoking, getting into drugs, being cheeky to the police, and getting chased. We were bored.
A Lucky Break I ended up sleeping at my cousin Mervin’s – a stroke of luck that introduced me to Sue and Bucky, my adopted
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parents. Bucky was my cousin’s boxing coach and he was great with all the boys, who looked up to him like he was a god. At that point, I didn’t know where my mum was and I hadn’t seen her for ages. Sue and Bucky took care of me and I became a part of their family. Eventually, they adopted me – with my mum’s blessing. I’m so grateful to my mum for recognising what would be best for me and I know that handing me over to my new family was hard for her.
A New Start at Riverview My first days at Riverview were difficult – I was so scared. I hated it so much. I hated everything. It was so different. The city was big, flash, and full of cars. The school looked like a castle. I went into the dorms and they were really small, but I had this massive room to myself. It was one of the new flash ones. My city parents left me and I felt so lonely, empty and frightened. I didn’t move from that room for a week. I was shy. I didn’t speak to anyone, I wasn’t used to it. After a few days, Ed McManus came into my room and I asked him for some help to fix my fan. He really helped me and I think that was the first friend I made. I then started meeting more people and started coming out of my room more and more. Now I think Riverview was the best experience of my life. I now have a future, an exciting future. I have gone on to do a lot of things in my life.
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•
I have taken on a bus company when a group of Aboriginal kids, including me, were kicked off a bus because of our colour. The bus company were found to be in the wrong by the Antidiscrimination Board. • I have represented Australia at the Youth Friendship Pacific Games in swimming. • I was elected captain of my swimming club for three years straight and have travelled all over the country for swimming. • I have travelled around with the Thankakali Spirit Catchers, a traditional dance group. • I am the first person in my extended family to have received my School Certificate. The first to receive the Higher School Certificate and the first to attend University. • I have travelled overseas including the United States of America. It wasn’t until I started going back over my life that I truly realised exactly how far I have come and how much further I can go. There are many disadvantaged children out there living the life I used to, I really hope that in the future that I can give back and help all Australians, especially Indigenous Australians. My hope in telling you this story is for you to know that people do have hardship and difficult lives but that through compassion, understanding and support there can be hope and change.
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Cyril and other Indigenous students welcomed the World Youth Day Cross and Icon to Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview.
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Kevin Omoro, in 2011
I know the road ahead is still long and there will be pitfalls, however I have never been more hopeful than I am today that I will make some good progress. Thanks for the hope you have given me. Kevin Omoro 46
Kevin Omoro (or2009) Kevin was offered and he accepted a three year bursary at Riverview in 2007, commencing in Year 10. In 2011, Kevin is studying for a Bachelor of Commerce at Notre Dame University, combining his studies with work at least two days a week at Telstra, in a customer support function. This is a job the Foundation and the Old Boys managed to assist Kevin to find, after leaving the College. Kevin lives locally, renting accommodation in the home of a Riverview family.
Growing up
I
was born in Western Kenya near the shores of Lake Victoria; my family is from the Luo tribe, an ethnic group located in an area that stretches from modern day South Sudan and Ethiopia into Western Kenya. Sometimes called the ‘Nilots’, or from the Nile River, our family lives a subsistence lifestyle growing crops and fishing, perhaps why we are clustered along the Nile, a cultural lifestyle that has been passed on from generation to generation.
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I’m the last born of three siblings, my brother being the oldest, followed by a lovely sister, five years older than me. Being a single parent, our mother had to put an extra effort on top of her own struggle to look after each of us, often doing menial jobs like babysitting for other families and sometimes buying and selling domestic goods, like kerosene, to the locals. As a six year old kid, I didn’t have much role in the household other than play in the dirt with friends. I wasn’t allowed to go far away but sometimes, out of curiosity, I would follow my brother and other older boys whenever they went hunting or fishing and this seemed fun. I began to query her a lot during these times, why I had to go to school every day, when I didn’t see any benefits, when none of my friends or my brother were going to school. Being a nurturing and strict at times mother, she would explain to me that I didn’t understand anyone’s circumstances and that I would go to school whether I liked it or not. At times, I would end up with a whack, whenever I proved too difficult for her. She would check my books now and then, give me Swahili lessons most evenings, a regimen I offered stiff resistance to, but in response to every story I made up, she would forcefully let me know that this wasn’t fun for her either and that she ‘wasn’t in a mood to put up with some snotty attitude from me, was that clear?’ When I was twelve years old, our living conditions struck me a lot and I also began to fear for my mother’s health; 48
she was growing weaker and thinner. Most of the time, I would skip school to help her around the house, fetch water from the bore holes or go to the market to buy some vegetables. A year later, her condition had deteriorated; she was now a bedridden patient. She was taken to the hospital where she slowly passed away, in less than a month. Although she’s gone, I know and believe that she’s in a perfect place, I see her every day, her joy, her caring and loving nature. I won’t try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest and most loving person I have ever known and that the best in me, I fully owe to her.
Australia It was therefore left through her ‘Will’ that I be cared for by my aunty, an aunty who had moved to Australia through marriage and with her own family to worry about. She wasn’t wealthy, relying on menial jobs that she had and most often on social welfare, but, despite her own arrangements, I became one of her top priorities and she made sure that whatever little she had we shared and that I had the required books to study. After a while, she thought it would be best for me to move and stay in Australia, a plan which eventually worked out, after a four year long and tedious application and interview process, resulting in a permanent residence visa and then I relocated. English is my second language; I had studied a few phrases 49
back in Kenya but that didn’t seem to take me far socially, this became a major barrier as it slowed me down in adjusting to this new country, especially the Australian English accent, (how are you mate? Sorry it’s not mate, its Kevin, I would always be quick to correct the students at JJ Cahill, a school I was first enrolled in within four weeks of my arrival; this drew a lot of attention from students who would circle me trying to find out if I was a comedian, or just a pure fool). It was through my cousins’ connections with a Riverview Old Boy, who after hearing a story about me suggested that there could be a place for me at an excellent school called Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview. After a series of enquiries and applications, I was finally invited for an interview, and there I was, calmly seated on an armchair, (in an area I later learned to be called the main office), my feet barely touching the ground, I smiled at everyone that passed by. A man in a suit later walked from the opposite corridor, gave me a firm handshake as he introduced himself as Shane Hogan and that he was the Headmaster. Accompanied by my cousins, he led us into his office where an additional panel of three interviewers were already waiting. The interview was contrary to what I had predicted, the questions seemed to test my personality rather than how much of a clueless boy I was. ‘Are you a good boy?’ Shane Hogan would ask; ‘Yes’, I would instantly reply. ‘That’s the quickest response I have ever seen;’ he would draw laughter out of it. With some questions, I seemed to have clearly needed an explanation, if not a rephrase. (‘Where have you seen God
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in your life?’) I didn’t know God could be seen anywhere, I would be thinking to myself, as my eyes wondered around the room looking for clarification. So, when my acceptance letter came, I was quick to grab this once in a lifetime gift. A three year bursary that included boarding and tuition fees paid. This was a big jump of so many steps in my life. Academically, I was introduced to various subjects I had never done before, such as Australian geography, history, commerce and most challenging of all information technology. All these were alien to me. I made a lot of teachers sweat in class with constant need of extra explanation. It took the tutors at St Michael’s House a lot of effort to help me out with the English language, among other subjects. During the mid semester, my housemaster would review my progress to determine my weaknesses and draft out a plan of improvement which worked out very well. It didn’t take long before I felt a part of the Riverview communit y. I had made some good friends from all backgrounds around the College. After exams and graduation from Riverview, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, or where I was going to live. Life brought a different dimension of challenges; it was harder and much more depressing than ever, I was growing and I knew I had to start carrying out some responsibilities for myself. But how do I do it? Was this the transition from College life to the real world? I struggled to get a foothold
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in the job market to save up and get myself together before university. After constant search and enquiries, I managed to find a few casual labour positions but none brought any smile. I kept contacting everyone I knew before coming back to Riverview for some ideas.
Thanks for the hope you have given me Through the help of many at Riverview, I was introduced to an excellent work opportunity at Telstra and an appropriate course at University. After four months of full time work, I was now getting ready to undertake a course at the University of Notre Dame, where I had been enrolled in as a full time commerce student. Telstra Wholesale was kind enough to let me work part time during university studies, which I always do at least two days a week and full time during semester breaks. University life has been very fun socially, but a bit intense with studies especially towards the end of semesters. But I strive because I know that my future depends on it. Two more years to go, I can’t wait. I’m certain that it wasn’t according to my mother’s wish to pass me on as a burden to anyone, as everyone has their own plans and priorities and I try not to be a weight on anyone’s shoulder. But I express gratitude to everyone who has extended their support making sure that I’m not left dragging behind. It has been a pleasure sharing brief aspects of my life, over the past few years. I’m not definite what kind of lessons
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can be learned from it, but it has been a bigger deal to me having so many people holds my hands through the ups and downs of my life. We now live in a world where the most valuable skill you can sell is knowledge. Truly, in a generous community like Riverview, you don’t have to be rich, or of a particular race, to achieve your potential. Thanks very much to Shane Hogan and the Bursary Committee and donors; my debt to you is beyond measure. I know the road ahead is still long and there will be pitfalls, however I have never been more hopeful than I am today that I will make some good progress. Thanks for the hope you have given me.
As a six year old kid, I didn’t have much role in the household other than play in the dirt with friends. I wasn’t allowed to go far away but sometimes, out of curiosity, I would follow my brother and other older boys whenever they went hunting or fishing and this seemed fun. Kevin Omoro 53
Cardinal George Pell presented Ben Powell with the Archbishop of Sydney Award for Student Excellence, in 2008.
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Ben Powell (or2008) Ben grew up in Ballina in Northern NSW and attended Riverview on a Bursary in Years 11 & 12, graduating in 2008. He was also the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Archbishop of Sydney Award for Student Excellence. Recently, Ben wrote to the College to give us an update about what he has been doing since leaving Riverview. ‘Since the emotional night of the inaugural Bursary donor’s function, my life has been full of positive and memorable twists and turns. Throughout 2009, I completed a GAP year at Stonyhurst College in the North of England. Not only was it a fantastic year of work experience and a great stepping stone into the profession of teaching, but it also allowed me to travel and see the world – both opportunities that five years ago I would have not thought imaginable. I returned to Australia, at the end of 2009, to begin university in 2010. I am studying a Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Teaching and double majoring in History and Theology at the Australian Catholic University. My first year at University was very rewarding and I enjoyed the challenge of returning to study.
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Throughout 2010, I was also living and working at Riverview in Year 10 Boarding. This year, I have returned to England on a University exchange for 12 months. My affinity with England, and a girl I met on my Gap year, proved too strong. Since graduating from Riverview, I have been able to achieve so much.’ Below is an excerpt from Ben’s ‘My Story’ speech, which he delivered to a spellbound group of Bursary Donors who attended the College’s inaugural Bursary Donor’s Celebration in 2008.
Growing up in Ballina
A
s my father left when my mum was pregnant with me, it has always just been me and her. I attended Ballina High School and travelled frequently to Sydney, from the age of 13, to compete in athletics. It was those trips to Sydney, to compete in a sport I loved, that kept me out of trouble in Ballina and gave me the desire to get away from the negative influences surrounding me. Don’t get me wrong, my time at Ballina High School was good and I still have a lot of friends there, but out of 20 mates I was the only one not to have tried drugs – 15 of them being regular users. From my group of friends, there were only six boys able to hold down a part-time job – and that was only so they could afford their weekend alcohol. To put things in perspective, only 10 boys completed the HSC in 2008
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– the year I graduated from Riverview. I knew I had to get out. After many applications to Sydney schools had ended in disappointment, a family friend made contact with Riverview on my behalf. Not long after that, the school recommended that I give the Headmaster Shane Hogan a call. I didn’t want to get my hopes up again, but . . .
Mr Hogan’s Castle Shortly after, here I was in a phone interview with the Headmaster, who I thought (by looking at the College website), was in charge of a castle in Sydney. So far, my Mum did not have a clue about what I was planning. She didn’t know about the schools I had been applying to, nor did she know about my phone call with Mr Hogan. Over a month went by and I had not heard anything from the College, so I just thought it was another lost opportunity. But the next week, mum and I were on our way to Riverview, or Mr Hogan’s Castle, so I thought. We came to Sydney for the interview, and Mr Hogan started with, ‘Well we have decided to offer you a Bursary’. WOW, that’s all I can remember of the interview!
Unlimited Opportunities Riverview has created so many opportunities that otherwise I would never have experienced.
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While at the College, I had the chance to: • Become a Eucharistic Minister and an Altar Server • Play in many sporting teams • Improve my grades at school • Be a part of Ignatian service • Experience two Kairos retreats • Attend an Immersion to Cambodia • Be a part of an amazing boarding community Riverview has allowed me to gain a better understanding of who I am, and it has allowed me to grow mentally and spiritually. I applied to Riverview in the hope of becoming a teacher, but now I realise I’m not just here to be successful in a career, but I’m now a part of a brotherhood, in which it does not matter what happens, I will always have someone to support me. It is all the people who have supported the Bursary Program who made this possible. So I thank you all for helping to provide these special experiences. My time here has been much more than just a four digit number UAI. Donors to the Bursary Program have provided a blank canvas and the best sort of paint that has allowed me and so many other lucky students to paint a much brighter future for ourselves. You have all allowed me and many other Bursary recipients to explore the dimensions of our lives beyond what we thought was possible, to grow in accordance with this Jesuit education, to be nurtured in the most supporting environment, to be comfortable with who we are, and to prosper into men for others, in all aspects of our lives.
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What’s in a Bursary? I would like you all to realise that the funds you are donating are more than an investment of money; it is an investment of opportunities bestowed upon students. It provides the opportunity for young men to grow and strive to be men for others in an environment that would usually elude them. Your acts of generosity stretch far beyond the text books and the classroom; you have all provided greater opportunities for young men to grow in all dimensions of their lives. For me, it has meant the absolute world. The friendships forged, and the influences, have all affected my life in so many ways, and none of this would have been possible without the Bursary Program.
Riverview has allowed me to gain a better understanding of who I am, and it has allowed me to grow mentally and spiritually . . . I’m now a part of a brotherhood, in which it does not matter what happens I will always have someone to support me. Ben Powell 59
Tom Randall at the Bursary Thank You Function, 2009.
For the better part of a decade, this place, this education, these people, have been the most important things in my life. Tom Randall 60
Tom Randall (or2009) Tom Randall finished at Riverview in 2009, with a good academic record and having contributed very positively to the cultural and pastoral life of the College. For his ‘gap year’, Tom chose to work with the Jesuits on the relatively isolated island of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, at the Jesuit Xavier High School and Sapuk Elementary School. By his own account, the year in Chuuk was very eventful, very challenging and often quite difficult. Ultimately, it was a ‘priceless experience’ that he ‘wouldn’t trade for anything’. Returning to Canberra in 2011, Tom has currently deferred his entry to university to reflect on his year away and work his way back into a more ‘normal’ routine. This is an extract of the speech Tom gave at the 2009 Bursary Donors’ Function.
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A culture shock
I
arrived at Riverview – I arrived in Sydney – in 2004, from Gundaroo, a small village northwest of Canberra. From the very beginning, Riverview was a series of immense shocks to me. The size of the place was one – my primary school had just 60 students, a far cry from the 1500 here. But the culture shock was what affected me most. Don’t get me wrong, from the moment I received the Bursary, I was immensely grateful, and I couldn’t wait to begin here and to experience everything this great establishment has to offer. But I had some preconceptions, some prejudices against ‘rich’ people, as I perceived them. I thought that I would find sheltered, aloof, pompous people. Perhaps these were just the one-dimensional prejudices of someone with very little life experience. Instead, I have found generosity I could never have imagined, people who give, who understand, because they have the means, because they are true Christians. I have found people with a genuine social conscience, with an urge to contribute, and not just to me, but to the wider world. Yes, there will be those who do lead sheltered lives, who don’t embody the College’s philosophy, but that is inevitable. No, the overwhelming aspect of my Riverview experience has been coming to understand the Jesuit philosophy, and seeing it in action. Where would I be if I hadn’t been able to come to Riverview? I would have gone to a state school in Canberra,
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performed reasonably well academically, maybe got in with a ‘bad crowd’ if such a thing really exists, but probably not. I wouldn’t have done nearly as well academically as I have at Riverview, but it’s not like I would have failed or anything. But this kind of assessment provoked me to reappraise the true extent of my education here. I wouldn’t have gone on a Music Tour (and again, that was only thanks to the immense kindness of the Riverview community). I wouldn’t have sung in the Ignatian Choir for six years. I wouldn’t have done two Kairos retreats, an Immersion, the Arrupe Academy, College musicals and plays, not to mention countless homeroom and house retreats and masses, participated in the John Courtney Murray Centre, eisteddfods, sporting matches, debates, the list goes on.
Education of the whole person As much as I didn’t want to include any clichés, it is the only way to say it – I have received a true education of the whole person. I might have come out of a public high school in Canberra with decent academic results, but would I have my faith still? Would I have as deep an understanding of myself, God and others? Would I have come to appreciate other cultures to the same degree, or understand my ability to relate to and help the less fortunate in society? I’m about to leave the College now, and I still haven’t been fully able to say what these six years have meant to me.
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The most important things in my life Would I have encountered the same amazing people, the staff members who have not only informed my education but also shaped who I am? It’s impossible to list all those who have had such an impact; there have been so many. It is not just the experiences I’ve had, but the people I’ve met and learnt from who have been so instrumental in my complete education, and made me come to value my time at Riverview even more. For the better part of a decade, this place, this education, these people, have been the most important things in my life. All I hope to do is to take the lessons, the opportunities I have been given here, and use them to emulate some of the amazing people I have come across during my time here. If I can achieve that, the investment that has been made in my education, and in me, will certainly have been a wise one.
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From the very beginning, Riverview was a series of immense shocks to me. The size of the place was one –my primary school had just 60 students, a far cry from the 1500 here. But the culture shock was what affected me most. Don’t get me wrong, from the moment I received the Bursary, I was immensely grateful, and I couldn’t wait to begin here and to experience everything this great establishment has to offer. Tom Randall
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Flight Sergeant Ross Phillip Tumilty
Ross will not be forgotten at the school which had become his second home, and to which he was so attached. Our Alma Mater, 1944 66
Ross Phillip Tumilty (or40) Ross Tumilty was the only son of Leonard Ross Tumilty (1884 -1962) and Vera May Tumilt y and a brother to Patricia. When Ross boarded at Riverview, the family lived in Tasmania.
A student of promise
R
oss Tumilty was the last recipient of the Dunne Bursary which had, for more than 50 years, brought Tasmanian students of promise to Riverview. The Very Reverend William Dunne of Hobart left, in his 1881 will, a sum of £1000 for the Rector of Riverview to fund bursaries for ‘promising natives of Tasmania’. Previous recipients had proceeded to distinguished careers and they included Senator John Henry Keating (who sat in the first Federal Parliament of Australia in 1901), Professor John Fitzherbert (Professor of Classics at the University of Adelaide) and Doctor Kevin Fagan. Tumilty was recommended by the Dean of Launceston, Fr T J O’Donnell, who wrote to Fr John Meagher SJ, the Rector of Riverview, in 1937.
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‘ . . . he is a worker and should do well. He is a very fine cricketer . . . You are to take a special interest in him and to push him on, as good friends are making a sacrifice to send him . . . You will get a good boy and one I am sure who will be a credit to your College and an honour to Tasmania.’ Tumilty had shown much promise at St Patrick’s College, Launceston, passing his Intermediate exams in 1937, and captaining the College’s cricket and football (Australian Rules) teams. It was clear that Riverview would gain much and Fr Meagher warmly welcomed the bright new addition to Riverview in May 1938. His ability as a cricketer was immediately evident and he was to earn his position in the College 1st XI for three productive seasons, beginning in Term 3, 1938, with immediate success. His 75 not out and 65 in the 1938 Scots match gave much needed impetus to his colleagues and immense pleasure to spectators who marvelled at his elegant stroke play and adept footwork. Contemporaries consider him to be one of the best batsmen ever to represent the College. His humility, maturity and quietly spoken confidence endeared him to all. His father, Leonard, a left-handed batsman, as was Ross, had twice represented Tasmania, well before the State was admitted to the Sheffield Shield competition Ross Tumilty, however, had to contend with Riverview’s almost perennial lack of cricketing success in the late 1930s
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and he found himself having to carry inexperienced batting sides. He usually batted at first drop but quite often he was at the crease in the early overs and then battled to shield his partners from the inevitable collapses. In 1939, the 1st XI did not win a game and while Tumilty’s figures look modest (296 runs at 19.0 average), his was the best average in a defeated side. Returning to Tasmania in 1941, he began working as an Assistant in the State Mines Department in Launceston and commenced studies with a view to qualifying as a metallurgical chemist. He continued to play club cricket and was selected for the North of Tasmania representative team in January 1941. This may have eventually led to selection in the Tasmanian side in normal circumstances but the war had curtailed even further any opportunities to play First Class cricket for Tasmania. In February, he made an extraordinary 163 not out, in a club game for East Launceston. He opened the innings, was still there when the side was dismissed for 228 (the next top score was 9) and hit 15 fours and two sixes in a display of complete dominance. When he enlisted in the RAAF, Tumilty was posted to Canberra for training but still found time to play cricket and to travel to Sydney when on leave and to visit Riverview. There he played in the 1943 annual game between the Old Boys and the College 1st XI, reminding all of his class and his fine touch as a batsman. On Tuesday, 7 December 1943, Tumilty and four other
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RAAF Museum
RAAF personnel were in a Lockheed Ventura A59-55, which crashed during a training flight at Gundaroo, near Canberra. All five were killed. Ross Tumilty was buried at Woden Cemetery Canberra after a Requiem Mass at St Christopher’s Church on 10 December 1943. Tumilty’s death caused widespread grief. Boys at Riverview, in 1943, still remembered him clearly, as many had been at school in 1940, his last year. Some had played cricket against him only a few months before his death. The day after he was buried, cricketers in the RAAF team, which was playing in the Canberra competition, stood in silence for two minutes before their game as a mark of respect for their much loved colleague. His obituary in the 1944 Our Alma Mater concluded with these words: ‘Ross will not be forgotten at the school which had become his second home, and to which he was so attached.’
RAAF Lockheed Ventura A59-56
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Australian War Memorial
Members of No. 13 Squadron, RAAF (c1942). Standing, from left: Jack Lovell; Flying Officer Charles George Watts; FO Bruce Lionel Poole; William Law; FO Joseph Henry Hobba; Flight Lieutenant Douglas Frank Remington Shetliffe. Sitting, from left: Leading Aircraftman Ross Alexander Kennedy; Sergeant Ross Phillip Tumilty, accidentally killed at Gundaroo, NSW, on 7 December 1943; John Hunt; Warrant Officer Vivian Wilfred Myers.
. . . he is a worker and should do well. He is a very fine cricketer . . . You are to take a special interest in him and to push him on, as good friends are making a sacrifice to send him. Fr T J O’Donnell, Dean of Launceston 71
D
earest Lord, Teach me to be generous, Teach me to serve you as you deserve, To give and not to count the cost, To fight and not to heed the wounds, To toil and not to seek for rest, To labour and not to ask reward, Save that of knowing I do Your holy will. • Amen • Saint Ignatius of Loyola
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This picture encapsulates all that the Bursary Program is: the mateship, the teamwork, the dedication, the unity, and the striving to be better. Ben Powell
Ben Powell passes the baton to Kir Deng at the 2008 GPS Athletics Carnival.
Quantum Potes Tantum Aude
‘As much as you can do, so much dare to do’