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A CHAT WITH THE EDITOR SUSAN BECK
A CHAT WITH THE EDITOR
BY SUSAN BECK DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
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The Editor, David Goldwater (51-62), was initially reluctant to expand on his long and enduring connection with the School.
‘Ienjoyed my 11 years at the RGS and remember counting upwards of 40 clubs and societies, catering for every boy’s interest, from Astronomy to Zoology, Drama to Sailing; a pupil with no connection to any society would have been dull indeed.
My own interests included The Linguists and XX1 Club, the Observatory and Darkroom, where photographs could appear magically in the murky red light of the tiny underground room which forever smelled of Ilford ID-11 developer and Johnson’s Hypo fixing solution. But just when University was beckoning, my Dad died quite suddenly. I was 17 and there was pressure to enter the family business. The three years I spent in the Sixth Form were fun, but I never really worked hard enough to achieve the exam results I needed for Cambridge and decided to stay in Newcastle. When the family now repeats the old mantra that I’ve never really left school, I do look at the old place as having acted ‘in loco parentis’, having lost a father and best friend at a very crucial time. So, having never left Tyneside, when it came to joining the ONA and later the Bursary Campaign Committee, it was easy to re-connect to an institution for which I held only positive memories. It’s the place where I made and have continued to make so many friends.
David and his wife of 52 years, Maureen, raised three children, elder daughter Sarah and two ON sons Andrew (83-93) and Adam (87-97), who was ONA President from 2010-12. With eight grandchildren to care about, ‘I have to keep things in balance!’ David comments. He was delighted to have become ON President in the years 2000-02, at the dawn of the 21st Century, just as girls were admitted to the School for the first time. ‘With so many connections around the North-East and the country at large, editing the ONA Magazine is both a labour of love and a challenge. As a longtime amateur archaeologist at Vindolanda, I’m accustomed to digging into the past and the School has an amazingly long and illustrious history which is woven into the fabric of the local community in a unique way. Its task goes beyond the education of local young people.
The Bursary Campaign has demonstrated how one of the great Schools of the North can help the less fortunate members of the North-East community by offering places to young people who would otherwise be unable to access the RGS. The Covid-19 pandemic has afforded the RGS Pastoral Team and a team of volunteers the opportunity to help bursary families in a meaningful way by distributing food vouchers and parcels to those greatest in need. Truly a wider RGS family.’
