Two more BIOs from ex-students.

First we have one from  Richard Jessop:

Career:

BA (ANU), 1963-1968, which was nearly a record - majors in darts, snooker, table tennis and 500 as well as some history (medieval) geography and political science); Dip.Ed. (Sydney, 1969), Taught at NSW high schools (Belmore Boys' & Coleambally Central) 1970-1973. Joined technical staff of the School of Geography, UNSW, October 1973 and stayed until made an offer I couldn't refuse, December 1998. Duties mainly involved running the School's small library/map collection, although in later years there was help with fieldwork as well, especially at the Arid Zone Research Station near Broken Hill. Retired to a small cottage about 50km up the Derwent from Hobart surrounded by a fairly substantial personal library.

Social and Political:

Confirmed Bachelor (whatever that might mean). Fairly active in political and social causes in the 60s and 70s, but that flame has since reduced to a flicker. 

Sustaining Passions:

Apart from that flicker........Books, especially but not exclusively history ("all centuries but this and every country but my own"); classical music and films - in both case a wide, possibly eclectic, variety; and Carlton Football Club, which has delivered 8 flags since I've been following, and you have to be happy with that. I took up bush walking relatively late in life (mid 1970s) but made up for that by spending all annual leave for the next 25 years, (up to 6 weeks in later years) in the bush. Most of these walks were done alone many of 7-10 days and several of 12-14 days. Since high open spaces appeal, N.Z. , Tasmania and the Snowies were targets of choice, with the odd trip to desert ranges and one to Nepal. Have now slowed down a bit, unfortunately, and the Tas. Central Plateau (no hills) are my current favourite stamping ground.

Our second one for this posting come from  Helen Moebus now Ganter:

After finishing High School embarked on a Science career at the John Curtin School of Medical Research.

Direction changed when I left Canberra to accompany my Army Officer Husband Laurie, on numerous postings throughout Australia and overseas.

Finally settled in the beautiful Northern Rivers area of N.S.W. at Tweed Heads.

We are blessed with two Daughters and four teenage Grandchildren.

As a Lay Minister in the Anglican Church my days are very full and rewarding. Along with other Church commitments I am kept busy giving Pastoral care to the elderly in the local nursing homes.

I have a passion for singing and belong to the Murwillumbah Philharmonic Choir.

Keeping fit is a bit of an obsession, attend the local gym and enter as many charity fun runs that my busy life allows.

Please return soon to see if there are any more BIO posting.

Further BIOs from TPHS students.

This one comes from Phil Hohnen:

1963-77 Studies in Geology (ANU, Uni of PNG) and Civil Engineering (Uni of NSW) and worked at BMR, Canberra; PNG Dept of Lands, Surveys and Mines; Swiss Aluminium Mining, based in Mackay, Queensland.

1978-88 Prospected for opals in far western Queensland; marketed opals in USA and in Surfers’ Paradise; had a bad experience with others exploiting my opal claim.

1986-1998 opened and operated antiques business in Gold Coast; did furniture making and restoration.

1995-1997 Studied fulltime at Bible College.

Late 1997 Helped plant a church in the Baiyer River, PNG.

1999 built a sports car 'Aquila Audax' from scratch, an unfulfilled ambition. Registered and raced it early 2000. It was faster than a Porsche Carrera back in 2000.

In March 2000 I came to see what opportunities/challenges there were for me in the Missions area in Thailand, when I visited a refugee camp for the Karen on the Burma/Thailand border. I taught in their college, preached in their church and returned to Oz to have a fire sale of my antique business stock and house on 2.5 acres on the Gold Coast. In December I married my Thai partner Wanida, in Queensland and returned to Thailand and bought land at Hot, 111 km south of Chiang Mai.

Here Wanida and I have worked with a shared vision to help Thai orphans. We have built two dormitories; a Kindergarten; a Primary School for Grades 1-6, with playing field; a 150-tree mango orchard; a salt water swimming pool and various other facilities. We have taken in 25 HIV/Aids orphans and other, abandoned newborns, over the past 9 years, and are raising them as our own children and educating them at our own Government-approved school. We also have a registered charity, "Nurturing Children Foundation", and are licensed to care for up to 50 children.

We now take paying students from outside, to help with economies of scale, but it all keeps us too busy. I'm cook and in charge of the 9 car pool. Wanida is usually at the orphanage/school in Hot 2 hours away from 'home' where her three teenage children and I are weekdays on 5 acres we have developed in a mountain-resort area, 35 km out of Chiang Mai. In my spare time, I'm trying to develop 20 more acres of Macadamia plantation to supplement our income and give the 28 kids a future cash flow.

We have been partially supported over the past 9 years by friends on the Gold Coast, and from my nearly exhausted fire-sale funds! All done by faith. Gold Coast Christian schools visit twice annually to do voluntary work for a few days each, before doing similar things in the refugee camps. Oh, and we of course have staff, including 5 teachers (3 are sociologists too), nannies, a cook, and laundry lady.

Along the way, I have had some serious health issues and various operations. I’m still fighting fit and have driven 500 000km commuting in Thailand.

For those wishing to contact Phil, his "snail mail" address is: 28 Moo 7, Baan Pang Yang, T. Baan Pong, A. Hang Dong, Chiang  Mai 50230, Thailand and if you wish to contact him by email send to our blog address "tphs1962@hotmail.com" and we will forward it to him.

This one is back to Australia and from Richard Dash:

Newcastle

Community Welfare

After leaving Canberra and the public service in the 1970s I have lived mostly in Newcastle and worked mainly in welfare-related jobs.

My fourth marriage, to Stephanie, has lasted 27 years - so far, so good.

My interests include travel, food, reading and art. I have the largest collection of 'Vande' (vintage Australian pottery) in Australia.

For my sins, I am still working four days a week.

There are still more BIOs coming.... 

More for the TPHS BIO readers to consume.

Lynne Davis's  Biography:

My first contact with Telopea Park was in 1951 when my parents moved from Sydney to Canberra. I attended the school for one year, before moving to the north of the city. I don’t remember much from that time, apart from the fact that our classroom was in the church hall across the road from the school, and that the school dentist removed seven of my teeth in one day!!  I do still have my school photo from that year and it features many of the people with whom I later shared the high school experience. I’m sure that a number of them will be at the reunion next March, although none of us are likely to be recognizable as the little darlings in the photo.

I attended Telopea Park from my first day of high school at the beginning of1958 until I completed the Leaving Certificate in 1962. After that, I spent a few years at the ANU, acquiring degrees in Psychology and Sociology, before travelling overland on the old hippie trail to the UK, where I lectured for a time in a college in Yorkshire. In 1972 I returned to Australia to take up a lectureship in Sydney, where I mostly stayed for the rest of my career.

In Sydney I met Patrick, an Irish engineer who had arrived here to work on the Opera House. He had come for 6 months, but after marriage and two children he is still here, although he makes regular visits to Ireland and we have lived there for a short time. We’ve both recently retired and are in the process of working out what that means.  Our children are aged 24 and 32. Our son lives in New Guinea and our daughter in Sydney.

Apart from the usual aspects of moving through the life cycle – partnerships, children, career, changing shape and greying hair, and so on – one of the big changes in my life has been the loss of my sight in recent years. This has posed many challenges and much new learning, some of which I’ve enjoyed and much that I would rather not have done.  If you’re attending the reunion in March, please come and say hello – I doubt that your voice will sound quite like it did when I last met you, and even if you are still the gorgeous young thing you were then, I’ll have to rely on someone else to tell me that! Inside, though, we’re all still around seventeen, aren’t we?…

 

Marelle Willis (now Price) provided the following:

After first year at Coffs Harbour High and two highly enjoyable years at Telopea, I completed my schooling at Canberra High.

After leaving school I obtained a General Nursing Certificate at RPA, Sydney.  I also nursed at Royal Alexandria Children's Hospital.

Married current spouse, Glyn, in 1968.

Three children – sons in 1969 and 1971 and a daughter in 1973.

Six grandchildren – boys aged 11, 10,10 (twins), 9 and 8; and our first granddaughter, 4.

Worked part time as a receptionist at the Erindale Sport and Recreation Centre (where I  shook hands with Prince Charles and met Princess Diana – didn't curtsey) and later at the Canberra Magistrates Court as a court monitor recording court proceedings (where I encountered Canberra's criminal aristocracy).

Now contentedly retired.

Travelled to UK, Italy and USA in 1986.

Toured Europe in 1996.

Other trips to NZ and Singapore to see family.

More BIOs coming....

Our fellow students are an interesting lot!

This BIO posting is from Jill Moore Kashima:

I live a quiet life in the country. We have a biodiversity stewardship over our property, & I run a soil health forum as a volunteer under Landcare, focusing on the nexus between soil health & human health. Believe it or not, matters agricultural have been an underlying theme in my life - in fourth year at TPHS Adrienne Berry, Susan Miller & I fought tooth & nail to be the first girls permitted to study Ag. (We won, but the course & teacher were a great letdown.) Then years later, I dropped out of a Ph.D in medieval poetry to go farming.

Keep checking the BLOG for new BIO postings to come.

Herewith the third installment of BIOs

Another one of our fellow students Glenys James (now Clark):

I left Telopea Park High at the end of 1961.  In 1962 I was accepted into a secretarial course, under a bond to the Public Service, at the Canberra Technical College (now TAFE).

The Public Service had a scheme whereby at the end of eight months you were placed in a department as a stenographer/secretary.  I worked for four years in the Public Service until my resignation from a secretarial position with the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

During my marriage I had a number of varied secretarial positions, e.g. Health Insurance, a printing company, Legislative Assembly, Senate Standing Committees and the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the Canberra University).

I have two children and have resided in Port Macquarie for 26 years.  I am a keen golfer and belong to the Port Macquarie Golf Club where I have held positions on the Club’s Board of Directors and the Ladies Committee.

And our second BIO for this posting is from Graham Howe:

University of NSW Bachelor of Surveying 1968.

Registered Surveyor ACT 1969, NSW 1970.

University of NSW BSc Engineering (mining) 1972.

1967 Married Broken Hill lass whom I met at uni, moved to Broken Hill and a job in the mining industry 1970.

Two children of first marriage the first a boy with intellectual disability resulted in my presidency for 28 years of a Broken Hill Charity for Intellectually disabled people. My daughter is now a paediatrician.

Second marriage to another Broken Hill lass 1977 produced 2 girls the youngest now 30 married and living in England. The elder daughter is a graphic designer in the Central Coast of N.S.W.

In 1991 after 20 years in the Mining Industry parted company and formed a fulltime surveying consultancy in Broken Hill after having moonlighted in Surveying as a sideline to mining. I am now training a young protégé to take over on my retirement hopefully in a few years.

Now heavily involved in the Anglican Church but sadly single again.

More BIOs to be posted, so keep on checking the BLOG. 

Well, here is the second BIO posting.

The first one in this post is from Andrew Rowe:

I attended TPHS from 1960 to 1961, in classes 2C and 3C, and successfully completed the Intermediate Certificate, then I moved to Coffs Harbour where I completed the NSW Leaving Certificate at Coffs Harbour High School in 1963.

I subsequently returned to Canberra in late 1963 and have lived here ever since.  I joined the Commonwealth Department of Customs & Excise where I worked for 20 years. While working in Customs, I undertook a Bachelor of Arts in Administration degree part time at the then Canberra College of Advanced Education.

After Customs I worked with the Department of Industry and Commerce for four years and then transferred to the ACT Government where I worked for 14 years, mainly in the Registrar-General's Office where I occupied the position of Manager, Business Names & Associations.  I retired from the workforce in 2001.

I married Christina in 1975, we now live in Florey and we have three sons Ross (34), Ian (32) and Richard (30).  Ross is an Information technology contractor, Ian is a solicitor and Richard is a financial analyst with the Commonwealth Grants Commission.  We also have four grandchildren.

I always regarded TPHS as easily the best school I attended.

Since retirement, Christina and I have done some travelling both locally and overseas and I'm a keen lawn bowler.

 
and here is David Hoffman's BIO:
 

After  leaving TPHS, I did an Arts(Hons) degree at the ANU, spending the last three years at Bruce Hall, where I learnt to play bridge, and improved my billiards skills.

On graduating, I joined the Department of Mathematics, UNSW at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

When the Australian Defence Force Academy opened in 1984, I transferred to the School of Computer Science, UNSW. During the time there I had a stint as Head of School.

In the early 1970s I joined the Australian Society for Operations Research, for which I had a period as President of the ACT Chapter, and was for 11 years the editor of the Society’s Bulletin, for which I was granted honorary life membership.

Resigning from academia in 2000, I then worked for 7 years as Principal Operational Analyst for the largest gun running company in Australia, ADI, now known as Thales Australia, best known as the supplier of the Bushmaster vehicle, used with success in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Subsequently I have consulted with my old university, providing courseware and courses.

On the sporting and recreational arena, I played comp tennis and squash until my back went, then took up orienteering (otherwise known as cunning running, although if nobody is around it is more like walking), and am now seriously trying to reduce my golf handicap as a C grade golfer.

However my main activity has been bridge, representing Australia at world championships on and off since 1971, and winning a number of Australian championships for the ACT. I am also currently Immediate Past President of the Canberra Bridge Club.

Somewhere in between Julia and I have raised a pigeon pair, each of whom has also produced a pigeon pair. Fortunately they all live in Sydney, close enough to enjoy, but far enough away not to tie us down.

Check back soon, there are more BIOs to come!

Biographies

Well, we asked for "head shots" and BIOs, some are short and some are long so here we go:

The first is from Sue Upton (now King), and it goes like this:

After the Leaving Certificate, I received a teacher’s scholarship to Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College, where I spent possibly the best 2 years of my life. “Growing up’ without mum and dad hanging over my shoulder was certainly a bonus!

I only taught for 5 years here in Canberra at North Ainslie Primary as I married a young German guy, Gerd King, in 1969. My years in Enid Watson’s and Marian Ryan’s German classes certainly paid dividends! Shortly after marrying, we lived in Germany in the Black Forest for about 18 months.

As Gerd was a letterpress compositor, we decided on our return to Australia in 1971 to start our own printing business, which (we are very proud to say) we are still working at together! Retirement is somewhere in the future ………….

Our 2 children, Martin Wendelin 38 and Elizabeth Anna 30, have decided that Canberra is the place for their families to live. As grandparents living here, we couldn’t be happier.

Until recently, I was a board member of the Canberra Racing Club, as Gerd and I are keen racehorse owners and race goers. Skiing has been shelved permanently as the knees are not as good as they were, so going to the races is a very pleasant way to spend our leisure time together.

Life is good.

Another from Norman (Norm) Collings follows:

I was born in UK and came to Australia in February 1949 as a toddler hanging onto the hands of my Ten Pound POM parents. We came straight to Canberra and dad started up a building business and we lived in two different houses in Narrabundah and the family finally settled in Deakin. I have lived in Canberra ever since.

My education included Telopea Transition, Narrabundah Primary (1^st and 2^nd classes), Telopea Primary (3^rd, 4^th and 5^th classes), Griffith Primary for 6^th class and then five years at Telopea Park High School.

I joined the Department of Defence in 1963 and had a career in various aspects of Information Technology for 35 years.

During the time at Defence I obtained a Bachelor of Arts (part time) at ANU with majors in Psychology, Philosophy and a sub-major in Computer Science.

I have been married twice, divorced twice, have two children from my first marriage. Had several other “colourful relationship” experiences and am now in happy requirement with my partner of ten years, Liz.

I played hockey at school and on weekends and this continued until I was 33. I then developed a total bicycle life style: commuting to work, touring (nationally and internationally), training and racing both track and road. Competition cycling had to cease in 1990 because of medical reasons, but I am still social cycling.

Information Technology was my career, and is now my hobby. As a Rotarian I do voluntary work.

The important things now are health, family (now including grandchildren) and keeping active.

More BIOs to come in later posts....