Marist Brothers High School Darlinghurst
Blue & Blue
March 2017
Gentlemen,
Welcome to the Autumn 2017 B&B edition. Hopefully you’re almost fulfulling all those New Year resolutions. Life wasn’t meant to
be
taken too seriously, as Malcolm Fraser almost would have said.
Following suggestions to have the reunion in the summer or autumn months
instead of mid-winter, we embarked upon the ambitious task of
co-ordinating people and factors with 90 days notice. It was like trying
to plug holes in the Titanic, so we reverted to July. Should there be a
substantial number of you preferring the warmer weather option, please
advise us so that we will have pleanty of time to prepare for future
reunions.
The next reunion
shall be on Tuesday, July 11th and please note the change of
venue. It will be held at Quay West, 98 Gloucester St, The Rocks
in the Harrington Restaurant, which is just a stumble back to St.
Patrick’s Church for those who may have over-imbibed, wishing to repent.
“Quay West” is highly visable from the street; “The Harrington” is not.
The 10.30am Mass at St. Pat’s, preceding the luncheon, will be
celebrated by Fr. Paul Chandler [Class of ‘67] . It will be a
fitting celebration for those of the Class of 1967, having their 50th
anniversary reunion.
We’re pleased to
announce that the Speaker for reunion will be the mercurial Kevin
Fitzpatrick [Class of ‘58], so please have ready whatever is
necessary for the inevitable stomache cramps, following bouts of
laughter interspersed with tall tales but true from his legendary
adventures in the Antarctic. Anecdotes from the audience will be
following, so have your best ready. Tony Smith has a ripper about the
short career of another altar boy, after he swapped the altar wine with
metho just before Mass.
People do change
over the years and, to assist with recognition of our upcoming Speaker
for those who may not have seen him in many years, we have included a
recent photograph of him wearing his highly-fashionable Australia Day
hat. As is often the case, an anonymous bystander crashes his way into
the publicity shot, trying to establish fame-by-association with the
famous
Kevin Fitzpatrick.
Time marches on.
Here we have, courtesy of Garry Cahill, 2 photos which are
decades apart of himself and 3 classmates of LC 1961. From left
to right we have Grayson Geary, John Hamilton, Garry Cahill and John
Grygiel. Photo
1 was taken in August ’65 on Grayson Geary’s 21st birthday
and Photo 2 was taken in March 2005, in the backyard of John Hamilton
who passed away in 2007. Garry was in the school band with Philip
Hogan [Class of 1960] who, as Drum Major, topped the Band Leaders'
course at Singleton with most cadet bands in NSW.
North Shore Health fanatics - be challenged!
Members of the Class of 1963
meet Wednesday mornings at the Nth Curl Curl Surf Club.
Bob
Brassil, Hughie Thompson, Graham “Percy” Jones
and Roman
Butchatsky have a mystery
physical-fitness challenge each time, just to keep the ticker pumping.
They’ve enlisted Butch’s young brother,
Oleh, to
set the pace and the out-of-shape
Bernie York to guard the rear.
Oleh Butchatsky
returned from France, where he visited
Marcellin
Champagnat Place, created on the right of the street of the
Annunciation and named in 1981 after Father Marcellin Champagnat
(1789-1840) co-founder of the Little Brothers of Mary [Photo-2].
OBU
legend, Warren Thomas [Class of ‘65], arrived back from Japan and
is rumoured to be now capable of drinking a schooner using chopsticks.
We are yet to verify this.
A most observant Peter
Downey [HSC 1970, Yr 10 in
1968] recognised the Darlo “Servo Fidem” crest on the shirt of a
youngster in cricket attire, appearing in the SMH last December and
correctly identified him as a student at Marist College Pearce in
Canberra. Peter would like to track down some classmates to get a group
together in 2018 for the 50 year mark of leaving Darlo.
Last week a group of the
Darlo LC class of 1958 got together for lunch at the Mosman Hotel.
Des Cannon
whose brothers Adrian, Bernard and Clive went to the old school was
visiting from Los Angeles where he lives after a career in teaching at
the Brentwood Academy. Also visiting Sydney was Terry Quinn who now is
retired and lives in Perth, no doubt happy with the weekend's election.
Michael Blakeney, a regular at OB gatherings, is still doing some
architectural consulting. Michael, son of a Darlo OB was, like Des, only
15 when he completed the LC and became the youngest architecture
graduate from Sydney Uni.
Compliments to those who recognised the “Mystery
Santa” from the previous edition. Yes, those ever-compassionate eyes
of the good Br. Norman were a dead giveaway.
The Blue &
Blue is now available in all editions, except pre-1944, digitised up
to the final year of 1968. It comes in thanks to Des Donovan
[Class of ‘50], Tony Smith [Class of ‘64], Reg Richardson
[Class of ‘53], Garry Cahill [Class of ‘61], John
Gallagher [Class of ‘67], the late John Chippendale [Class of
‘54] and an enormity of thanks is due to Philip Hogan [Class of
‘60] who did the laborious, lion’s share of the digitising.
After some
conjecture regarding the continued presence of the spiral staircase at
Darlo, it was confirmed by our
missed-his-real-calling-as-a-crime-reporter, Bernie York, that it
still does, in fact, exist there albeit covered by trees.
Photo-1. Now for a nostalgic
front view: Photo-2.
Vale Michael
Potter [Class of ‘67], who passed away on 22 February, 2017. Dearly
loved by his wife, Evelyn, and their three children, Michael was highly
respected by all who knew him at Darlo. He kept his family and many
friends close to himself.
R.I.P. Michael
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Post Memoriam:
Of
Michael Potter, John Gallagher writes, Today I attended
Mick’s funeral with Dennis Coleman and our wives Sue and Karen. Rest in
peace Michael, thanks for the memories.
Mick had
endured very poor health for many years and regrettably I had not seen
him since Dennis’s 50th when we were all in
our prime. Where have the years gone?Dennis and I started at Darlo in
January 1958 at the age of 7 and 8 and walked away in December 1967 at
the age of 17 and 18, in my case straight into the Army despite being
rejected as a cadet at Darlo. We grew from boys to men in the shadow of
World War 2, Vietnam, Bondi, Moore Park, the spiral staircase and Kings
Cross, Palmer Street and the cane. Ironically, I met Rosaline Norton in
the Bushranger Hotel on the outskirts of Canberra in 1968, while AWOL
from Duntroon. An interesting lady also known as the “Witch of Kings
Cross” who did “study trips” to Canberra occasionally with a harem of
young Gothic girls. During this ten year period at Darlo our class
comprised a passing parade of students, many of whom joined in 1962 from
St Anne’s at Bondi, to complete their secondary years. Mick was one of
these having moved to Bondi from Mt Isa with his family some years
prior. A friendly, tough but gentle bushie character who was good at
sport, ensured Mick quickly became popular in the class culminating with
him being school Vice-Captain in 1967.”
Unfortunately, due to the constraints of OBU finances & publishing
costs, the first paragraph only of this eulogy to Michael Potter by John
Gallagher is contained herein but this is a MUST READ
in entirety, which is now permanently located on the Darlo website. Read
on at
Mick Potter and Muddled Memories from Darlo Dayze 1958-1967
Of
Kevin Hornery, Kevin Fitzpatrick writes, “Kevin was one
of the great number who came to the school from out Kingsford/Maroubra
way. Kevin and Daryl Rees from the 1958 LC class repeated the following
year. Daryl's return would have been welcomed on the football field as
he was an athletics champ and speedy centre. He later played a bit of
rep football for Easts Union Club. His son Nathan became a short term
premier of our state and is numbered in the Choir of Acclamation at the
imprisonment of the king/deal maker, Eddie Obeid. We have had a number
of class gatherings in the meantime but could never contact Kevin.
John Murray is another member. His dad was a celebrated army general.
Had received the MC in WWI and was the Brigade commander of those who
held out Rommel at Tobruk. He later became AustralianTrade Minister to
Singapore and New Zealand. He was afforded a State Funeral.”
Fact:
For those who would enjoy a
Trip
Down Memory Lane please just click on the hyperlink or visit:
http://www.mbhsdarlinghurst.org/Humour-Non/memorylane.htm
Humour:
This was only performed once, on the Johnny Carson Show
in 1992. It was a good thing they taped it, because it was never done
again; Steve Martin, as The Great Flydini, and he doesn't say a word.
The Great Flydini
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
During a lull between the speeches at the recent presidential swearing-in
ceremony, Melania Trump leaned over to chat with the Secretary of State,
Rex Tillerson.
"You know, I bought Donald a parrot for Christmas. That bird is so smart,
Donald has already taught him to pronounce over two hundred words!"
"Wow, that's pretty impressive," said Tillerson, "but, you do realize
that he just speaks the words, ...he doesn't really understand what they
mean."
"Oh, I know," replied Melania, .........." neither does the parrot."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Servo fidem,
Marist Brothers Darlinghurst Old Boys’ Union
*LC Year refers to those who sat the LC or HSC in that year and also to their classmates who left school in earlier years.
President, OBU
Kym Derriman
9311 3344
Vice President
Tony Morrissey
9311 4598
Secretary/Treasurer
Bill Halcro
9661 7710
Marist Executive
Br. Paul Murphy
0449 640540
Tony Smith
Asst. Treasurer
Philip Hogan
Asst. Secretary
Bernard York
Board Member
Sports Portfolio
Jay Robertson
All mail to:
The Secretary,
MBHSD_OBU
20 Paterson St
Matraville 2036
eMail:
Old Boys' Union
Old Boys' Union