Marist Brothers Darlinghurst Old Boys Union

Blue & Blue - February 2006

Welcome to the first edition of your B & B for 2006.
From the executive:

For those of you who could not make it to the 2005 Mass & dinner, I can report it was a great success with over 75 in attendance. During the dinner we conducted an Annual General Meeting at which re-elected most of the executive. John Chippendale stepped down from committee and on your behalf I thanked him for his contribution over the last 3 years. John was instrumental in revising the OBU constitution and always gave considered input to the Committee.
Later at the Dinner, OBU President Warren Thomas announced two donations made from OBU funds on your behalf. Firstly, $2,000 was donated to an old boy Priest, Fr John Andersen to assist in his work in Peru. You may recall that Fr John was our guest at the OBU luncheon last July. I have an article on Fr John’s work in Peru and if anyone wants to obtain a copy, please give me a call. Fr John has passed on his thanks to the OBU and advised that the money would be put to use helping some of the 400,000 catholic Peruvians under his care.
Next we gave $1,000 to the Berne Education Centre at Lewisham. Br Michael Flanagan is Principal at this Marist project which provides special schooling and counseling for teens who have experienced problems with traditional schooling methods. Br Michael has also sent a thank you note and advises that the funds will be applied to offset the fees for one of the Year 9 students.
For all that, we remain solvent and the annual accounts have been audited by old boy John Bolster. We remain ready and able to again support Marist causes in 2006.

Membership Subscriptions – now due for 2006. Please complete the attached form and send it back to Larry.

Annual Luncheon – mark your diary now. This function will be held on Thursday, July 6th 2006. Details will be provided in the next B&B.

Annual Mass & Dinner – mark your diary now. This function will be held on Thursday, Nov 2nd 2006. Details later in the year.

From the Editor:

It is with sadness that I report the passing of old boy Paul Trainor (LC 45) in Jan this year. Paul was the brother of long serving OBU committeeman Mark. His other brothers were John and Luke. Classmates will remember Paul as Captain of both the 1st 11 and 1st 13 sporting teams in his final year and the former won the MCC comp and the other was runner up. Paul’s working life after Darlo was an amazing success story of a pioneer in the Australian medical technology industry. A short career biography is contained in the Australian Financial Review of 14/15 Jan 06. His company had at one stage 15% of the world market for heart pacemakers before he sold the firm for $180m in 1988.

Blue & Blue – February 2006 (cont)

Ron Yates (’40) reports he is recovering from heart surgery and things are looking up with two new valves. How many of us are alive due only to medical science advances. What was “open cut mining” of the heart 30 years ago is now almost day surgery with very little cutting, if any.

Fr John Doherty (LC ’63) has been a priest in the Archdiocese of Sydney for 31 years and is a classmate of Fr Andersen. He is involved in Parish ministry and Church Law (Cannon Law) and in charge of the Tribunal system in NSW and the ACT covering 11 Dioceses. He remembers other classmates, Peter Kearney, Ron Aitkin and Dennis Keep. Fr John is living at Oatley and can be contacted through the Secretary.

Another old boy Priest, Fr Tom O’Reilly CM (LC ’34), has recently celebrated 60 years of priesthood at his Parish in Marsfield. Many will remember Fr Tom has, until a few years ago, celebrated Mass at our annual get together. Old boys John Chippendale, Tony Minogue and John Madden attended the Mass and morning tea held in his honour at St Anthony’s church. Fr Tom spoke afterwards about his life and gave particular mention to Darlo, the brothers there and the positive influence the school experience had on him. Congratulation Fr Tom on a wonderful achievement of service to the Lord.

Patrick McDonnell (LC ’43) has given us a suggestion that we donate to the St Vincent’s Adolescent Care, Westmead, which is a division of Marist Youth Care. Any other suggestions?

John Ryan (LC ’44) has reported that he attended the Bowlers Club for last year’s luncheon and was turned away as we did not hold the lunch in the private rooms upstairs (we were in the Chinese restraint on the ground floor). I apologise for this mix up and will ensure clearer directions are given this year.

Len Lynch (LC ’65) has re-discovered the OBU but was unable to make the last dinner due to a work and pleasure trip to India. He tells classmates he would be toasting the brothers and the school somewhere in Rajistan on the night of our dinner!

Geoff Griffen (LC ’65) reminds us of the cost of getting older and attributes it to too many days on the beach at Bondi (cancers cut out); too many footballs kicked (knee joint work); too many cricket balls bowled (shoulder re-construction) and shoe laces harder to tie (buying slip-ons). Nevertheless he looks forward to his continuing ability to attend many more Sunday Masses and also the chance to share the odd beer or two with old boys.

Mons Vince Marley (LC ’41) writes to us from his home in a retirement village in Terrigal. He is unable to attend our annual Mass and dinner due to poor night vision and passes on his regards to all old boys. He is still able to assist central coast Parishes on Sundays. Mons Vince remembers Marist brothers of his day, Columba, Norbert, Ethelred, Ervan and James.

Wilf Byrne thinks he is the only one left of his generation at Darlo that moved to Canberra. He says those who passed away include Ned McGrath, Ken See, Jim Ryan and Laurie O’Sullivan. Good news for Wilf is that three of his grandchildren are enrolled at Marist Canberra with two of them joining Darlinghurst House.

That’s it for this edition – keep the news coming in………………………………………Warren Thomas

Warren Thomas
President