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University of Kent / Philanthropy Impact Report
CRAIG READER – MEMORIES OF KENT AND WHY I DONATE Where to start? How about in Autumn 1974, and at Rutherford College. I had arrived at my landlady’s house in Hillside Avenue the previous day and on my first morning at university, walked along University Road to UKC (and ended up chatting to another debutante with whom I’m still in contact).
1974-1977 It follows that these three years must have been a magnificent experience in my life given that, 45 years on, I am delighted to donate funds for the benefit of the University and its students. The difficulty is to try to encapsulate this into one or two short paragraphs. I decided that I would try to summarise by highlighting some key memories. 1 I remember my first term because it was probably the loneliest period of my life. It took some time to make the transition from being a typical product of an all male private school to something closer to a normal member of society. Even now, some would say I have not been totally successful. Probably, though, this personal development was the most important part of the whole of the 3 year period at Kent, and why any memories of the University and Canterbury are very warm ones. 2 In February 1975 I asked a red haired girl called Janet out for a drink (to the Beverly, now Ye Olde Beverlie) just past Darwin College. A fatal mistake. We married in 1982 and are approaching our Ruby Anniversary. 3 On the work front, there were roughly 10 hours of lectures and seminars each week. I recall, in my final year, having only 2 days (including weekends) on which I did not undertake some studying. Time was in plentiful supply and mixing study and recreation was a wonderful way of life. It was greatly assisted by the weather in 1976 (a minister for drought was appointed – a most successful appointment because it started raining the next day); happily the summer of 1977 was just as good.
4 We discovered eating out in Canterbury’s hamburger restaurants (Quines, Browns, Radigunds) and at Sweeny Todd’s pizza parlour was both cheap and good fun, usually in groups of half a dozen or more. We would watch the New Avengers (starring a very young Joanna Lumley) at 7pm in the television room, then walk down to Canterbury to eat. And we would still be up at the crack of noon the next day to continue our studies. 5 Given the good weather Janet and I became frequent visitors to Joss Bay and Margate, using the slowest car on the road – a Hillman Imp. It had its engine at the back and at speeds over 45mph it overheated and ceased all operations. 6 I played in the tennis team for UKC for 3 years (usually at weekends). This meant frequent trips to local Kent tennis clubs meeting, generally, the English middle classes at play. Also, in a very weak year, I won the 1977 UKC tennis championship (I would have a small wager that there is no record of this).
7 Finally, the summer of 1977, finals, and Janet and I each achieved a 2.1 in Accounting. We had the same tutor, John Freear (who later moved to Vermont) and he was kind enough to break down our marks over our 8 subjects which showed that I was a close runner up in a two horse race. I think I took this dreadful news quite well, which means that I must have then been better at turning the other cheek.
Later life – work It will surely not come as a great surprise that, armed with an accounting degree, the next step was to become a chartered accountant. I had no great desire to remain in practice and, having qualified in 1980, set off into industry. It was a roller coaster of three insolvencies in double quick time (for example, does anyone remember Augustus Barnett and Son – an off-licence chain) until 1986 when I entered financial services where I would spend the rest of my career, retiring from full time employment in 2006 at the age of 50. At that time I had planned it as a gap year, but it has gone on a bit longer than originally envisaged.
