↓ SECTION 06 — CURATOR
Dr Andrew Bickerdike (Cu’76) is Chief Executive Officer in Victoria of Relationships Australia, a leading provider of support services including counselling, resolution of family disputes, professional training, and education in relationships, based at 450 Burke Road, Camberwell. Dr Anne Pitcher née Nevile (Cl’77) died in May only days after being awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy by the University of Melbourne for her thesis “A Tapestry woven by Poets”, described as a “narrative in text and illustration in the Meliadus de Leonnois”, a 14th-century manuscript (British Library MS Add 12228) which is a pictorial record of the Arthurian age of chivalry concerned with the deeds of the fathers of the better-known Knights of the Round Table: Ban, father of Lancelot; Esclabor, father of Palamades; and Melyadus, father of Tristan. Anne was a daughter of Jane née Lewis (Cl’45) and the late Sandford Nevile OBE (Clyde School Council [chairman at the time of the amalgamation of GGS, Clyde, and The Hermitage]; GGS Council 1975-82), wife of Timothy Pitcher (a descendant of the 1850s GGS Trustee Mountague Pitcher), mother of William and Florence, and sister of Sarah Nevile-Lavingdale (Cl’80) and Richard Nevile (M’82). Asada Harinsuit (FB’78) in October 2012 became head of Royal Dutch Shell’s operations in Thailand (after 120 years of the company’s operations there). He is also global vice-president in specialties of RDS. Anthony Robinson (Cu’78) has been appointed Director of the Emerald Agricultural College in Queensland. Father Jeff O’Hare (Cu’79; Chaplain 2003-06), who is Chaplain to the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Vicar of St Philip’s Church, Collingwood, is the author of Brotherhood: Stories of Courage and Resilience (Viking, Melbourne, 2009). The Honourable Richard Marles (P’84), MHR for Corio, was Minister for Trade and a member of Cabinet in the Rudd administration between July and September 2013. He retained his seat in the September 2013 election. Dr Darren Fox (P’84) is a SquadronLeader (Medical) with the Royal Australian Air Force. See Births below for his and Jo’s four children. Sam Strong (P’96) is Associate Artistic Director of the Melbourne Theatre Company, for which he recently directed Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible.
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Leo Baker (Cu’97), an animator, has been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship for Victoria, taking him to Japan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Hong Kong, “to investigate methods for sustaining production and creative culture in the Australian animation industry”. Loren O’Keeffe (Fr’02), having recently won the Vodaphone World of Difference initiative which gives $70,000 towards a charity, is setting one up called the Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN) to provide a checklist for families as well as practical tools such as templates for media releases and missing-person posters. Each year recently about 35,000 Australians have vanished, among them in 2011 her brother Dan. Key projects include an on-line guide towards what to do when someone goes missing, promoting understanding of why it happens, and encouraging the public ”to keep a look out for our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers”. Nick Peardon (M’09), a qualified arborist, is the founder of Edge Trees, specialising in the pruning and removal of trees up to 150 feet in height, mostly in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs. He became fascinated by trees and tree-climbing, and “as a small business owner,” he says, “I have learnt how important it is in life to love what you do.” Mariah Kennedy (AYr11) is the editor of Reaching Out: Messages of Hope (Harper Collins, ABC Books, 2013), which began last year when, aged 15, she approached writers and illustrators of children’s literature for short stories, extracts, artwork, and poems that would help to highlight social injustice throughout the world. Her book, which includes 36 messages including her own eloquent introduction and a foreword by Norman Gillespie, UNICEF Australia’s CEO, is “dedicated to all the children who suffer and all the children who have the power to change things”. Appointed in 2012 a UNICEF Australia Young Ambassador, she attended an international children’s convention in Japan when she was 11, and in the five years since then she has raised money for various causes and run several youth advocacy groups.
Professor The Honourable Barry Connell (Staff 1951-57), who died in May, was educated at Melbourne Grammar School, which he represented at both cricket and football, and the University of Melbourne, from which, with an honours degree in Arts, he came to Corio to teach History, be a resident tutor in Manifold House, and coach the 1st XVIII. In 1958 he returned to Melbourne University to study Law, being admitted to the Bar in 1961 and appointed senior lecturer in the David Derham School of Law at Monash University in 1965. In 1968 he became international legal adviser to the kingdom of Lesotho, where he helped to review its international treaties at the time of its independence. In 1971 began a long connection with Nauru as Chief Secretary (head of the public service with a staff of some 600). An obituary by Helen Bogdan in The Age of 2 August recounted the importance of his work in that role. Later, from 2001-06, he was Chief Justtice of the Supreme Court of Nauru, after teaching and holding other posts at Monash. He is survived by his wife Marlene, his daughter, Jacqueline (by his first wife, Carmel), stepchildren, and four grandchildren. His Honour Judge John Nixon (M’53) gave a eulogy at a requiem eucharist in his memory at St Peter’s Anglican Church, Eastern Hill, where Barry had regularly worshipped. Associate Professor John McBain AO (husband of Dr Penny McBain [Foundation Board Member] and father of Iain McBain [Cu’03], Rosie McBain [Ga’06], Poppy McBain [Ga’09], and Anemone McBain [GaYr12]) was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queens’s Birthday Honours of 2013 “for distinguished service to reproductive medicine as a gynaecologist, particularly in the area of infertility, to medical education as an academic, and to professional organisations”.
BIRTHS (2013 unless otherwise noted) Annabelle née Brown (Cl’91) and Ross Agnow, a son, Lockhart Ian Owen, on 1 November 2011 and a daughter, Anastasia Sophie Thelma, on 9 January Lauren and Will Ainsworth (Fr’99), a son, Hugh William, on 13 May
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