futurum
St Paul’s Grammar School Penrith
No. 41 Autumn 2007
international students staff retreat MR DON HARWIN 2006
A busy life of Service
Evelyn (front left) and Don Harwin (centre) and their extended family
FUTURUM INTERVIEWED SCHOOL COUNCIL CHAIR Mr Don Harwin on a day he had driven from his home of 40 years at Peakhurst Heights to attend a three-hour property meeting and school assembly at St Paul’s, would be attending a school function in Sydney that night and expected to be at a finance meeting the next day at school. The bruising pace for someone who has been retired for ten years was not a concern to him: his only regret was that he was missing out on reading stories to his grandchild, his regular practice on that day. Don Harwin, you grew up in Maroubra where your parents ran a mixed business during World War II? Yes. The business didn’t do so well and after the war, the family survived on my father’s storeman’s wage. I attended Maroubra Public School where one of my best memories was the scripture teacher I had. I became a Christian through the ministry of Rev. Dudley Foord, the catechist at St Andrew’s Sans Souci, where my future wife Evelyn and I were fellowship leaders – we married at ages 21 and 20 and have been together ever since. Such was the influence of that fellowship that ‘the golden oldies’ from those years meet a few times a year. After your schooling at Sydney Technical High School, you did Science at Sydney University? Yes, on a teachers’ college scholarship which paid me an allowance. I would have liked
to have specialised in Geology, but I was bonded to teach. I taught first for four years at Deniliquin High where we started our married life and that was followed by stints at Kingsgrove North High, Bonnyrigg and Peakhurst schools (where I was Head Teacher of Maths), Hurstville Boys (where I was deputy) and Macquarie Fields and Menai high schools (at both of which I was foundation principal). How did you feel about teaching? I always wanted to work in something that would help people; I wanted to put something back into the community – I thought about medicine at one stage. I saw education as a helping career. It was my mission in life, and I was able to develop relationships. I enjoyed each child I taught and was always sad when I left each school – I would shed a few tears. The experiences that stay most in my mind were the over 100 kids we had in the ISCF group I facilitated at Kingsgrove North High, and the fact that when I got to Menai High, the local clergy and I were able to do so much for the kids. How did you get involved with St Paul’s? John and Kate Collier’s and my paths had crossed through the Anglican Youth Department, through being at Macquarie Fields High with John and when I spoke to staff at the school where John was foundation principal some years before he came to St Paul’s. Although our paths had diverged a little
This edition of FUTURUM has been prepared by Ken Goodlet & Daniel Weatherhead for St Paul’s Grammar School Penrith.
before he came to St Paul’s, when I retired in 1997 I was asked by John if I would be interested in joining the council because of my educational skills. I was happy to do that. I had some concerns about not living in the area when I was asked to be chairman of the council after Adrian Fox resigned, but the school was reassuring about that. What are you doing in your so-called retirement? I am a member of the Anglican Schools Corporation, a home Bible group leader and church treasurer, a member of St George Rugby League; I babysit grandchildren two days a week; I play golf on Wednesdays; I spend a couple of days a week on council matters: I keep myself busy. Given that there are few obvious tangible rewards and you do this as a volunteer, why are you involved in the school council? I am able to give back to education what it gave me by using what expertise I have in this school. It gives me a chance to continue my association with young people and encourage them to have a faith that will sustain them through life, as I did at the school assembly this morning. I suppose I would have liked the opportunity to be a principal of a Christian school, but I thoroughly enjoyed my principalship of State schools and the chance to serve there.
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