7 minute read
We remember
Lois Dron (Eckert) 2 July 1929 – 6 July 2020
After spending four years in a one-teacher school at Lyndoch, Lois was called to St Peters by the Headmaster, Mr W Lohe, in 1947, as a Primary Teacher and remained until her retirement in 1994. Her teaching service was interrupted by her marriage to fellow teacher Carson Dron, who was to become Dr Dron, Headmaster of the College. She and Carson started a family, so in addition to her own teaching, she embraced the roles of mother and Headmaster’s wife.
Lois has been honoured, along with her husband, in the naming of the Dron Auditorium in 2018.
Norma Green (Zipf, 1949) 298 September 1930 - 2020
Norma was a founding student at St Peters, enrolling in the Scholarship class. She grew up in the cane country of Woongoolba via Beenleigh and had a difficult time settling in as a boarder, away from her family. She left St Peters after Term 1, becoming St Peters’ first Old Scholar.
Neville Stallman (1949) 15 April 1931 - 5 October 2020
Full eulogy on page 61.
Alamine Gray (Peters, 1950) 15 April 1932 – 13 March 2020
Alamine grew up in Woolloongabba, in Mt Alford with the Weissman, Carpenter and Hammermaster families and in Wallangarra. She was the first child of George and Rebecca Peters.
Having attended small local primary schools, newly opened St Peters was an ideal choice for a weekly boarder which, in later years, Alamine recalled with much fondness.
It was while working at the Greenslopes Hospital, that Alamine met her one and only boyfriend, who later become her husband – Kenneth Gray. They were married in 1954 and had four children – Glenn, Rhonda, Bryan and Keith.
Alamine's legacy includes Alamine Street in Holland Park, named for her by her father who had developed the culde-sac with his brother, building numerous houses, three of which became Mater prize homes.
Ingeborg Lepp (Stein, 1953) 20 August 1934 – 20 May 2020
Inge came to Australia with her parents as part of the Australian post-WW2 migrant intake. She attended St Peters as a day scholar from Wacol, and left part way through Junior.
Inge was a member of the Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in the Tannum Sands area.
Her niece, Renee Michalkow, wrote: “The eldest of three sisters, Inge, Aunty Anne (middle) and my mum (Monika) the youngest, were such a tight-knit family growing up together in Rockhampton and Gladstone. The laughter, the happiness, fond memories, I can’t even begin to describe how much we’ve lost. The one thing that sticks in my mind is a proverb It takes a whole village to raise a child. I have felt fortunate to have an amazing family when I was growing up. I was lucky to have four mothers, my mum, Grandmother, Aunty Anne and Aunty Inge. There were so many incredible times together, so much laughter and fun. It's because of these women in my life that I have been a positive person, optimistic and always loving the stories that were told about our family background. Family is so important.”
Pam Turner (Waters, 1956) 6 January 1938 – 3 April 2020
Pam attended St Peters from Scholarship to Senior, as a day scholar. She trained as a teacher at Kelvin Grove Teachers’ College, but left teaching to pursue community and charity work. Pam Married Derek Turner in 1959 and they had two children. Pam was a poet and writer: a children’s book and works of family, local and church history.
Ailsa Horn (Vandersee, 1956) 31 August 1938 - 21 July 2020
Ailsa attended high school at St Peters as a boarder in the early 1950s, and would catch the train from Abercorn to Brisbane.
While attending a dance in Abercorn she met Mervyn Horn and they married 18 months later on 11 May 1957 in Monto. They lived in a tent under a large bottle tree while Merv built their house in Mt Kitchener, and over the next 16 years they developed the property and bred hereford cattle.
Ailsa was blessed with three children (Mark, Wesley and Shelley), six grandchildren (Cameron, Melani, Leah, Holly, Abby and Mariah) and three great grandchildren (Piper, Cooper and Toby).
Audrey Hansen (Dionysius, 1959) 10 August 1942 - 1 June 2020
Born in Esk, Audrey was the second daughter and second youngest of a family of seven.
She completed her education as a boarder at St Peters, enrolling in Sub Junior to study commercial subjects to prepare herself for future office work. A classmate remembers her a lovely, quiet girl at school, who participated in House and Inter-School athletics. Leaving after Junior, Audrey commenced office work in Kingaroy, where she lived with her sister Evie and her husband.
During this time, at the Kingaroy Lutheran Church, Audrey met a dashing local farming identity, Alan Hansen, whom she married in 1962. The pair had three children, Trevor, Russel (who was a teacher and coach at St Peters 1991-2006) and Judy.
After Alan died unexpectedly in 2019 (they had been together for fifty-five years), Audrey passed away after a stroke in June this year.
Glenda Jorgensen (Rackemann, 1960) 1 February 1943 - 10 September 2020
Glenda had ended up at St Peters because Girls’ Grammar did not offer a Commercial course. Mr Lohe took one look at her Scholarship results and popped her into the Academic class.
What ensued was four years at College with the group of girls who would become her best friends for life. Art of Speech and Language were Glenda’s forte. She had a charisma – a quick wit and a ready smile, and the personality of a born leader.
A teaching scholarship took her to Kedron Park Teachers’ College, and this led her to her career in infant education. Time out from teaching after she married Max Jorgensen saw them living on a property near Toogoolawah, bringing up their two boys, Jay and Todd, until, in 1973, the farm was acquired by the Queensland Government for the Wivenhoe Dam. A move to Dalby and a seed and grain business saw Glenda return to the classroom.
Retiring to Hervey Bay, Glenda and Max travelled extensively, but she never stopped learning, sharing her vast knowledge or being involved in her community.
Joan Hellen Gross (Schmaal, 1953) 10 February 1951 – 31 July 2020
A devoted Christian, Joan was the eldest of four daughters. She was born in Leeton, NSW where her father was a Lutheran pastor. Her faith in God, as confessed by her parents and sponsors on her behalf, remained her focus and shaped her to be the person we all love and admire. During her childhood she lived in Bathurst, Forbes, Halcome, New Zealand (1958 to 1963), Chinchilla, Moorooka and finally Murgon. She attended St Peters from Junior to Senior. She loved school, especially history and language-related subjects, and went on to Kedron Park Teachers’ College in 1969 to begin two years of study. She completed her training in 1970 at Mt Gravatt Teachers’ College after being accepted to be part of a class to pioneer a new Special Education course.
Her teaching career included teaching at a special school – one of two schools chosen to trial the Van Leer Program designed to teach standard English to Aboriginal children in Cherbourg; the Fink River Mission (FRM) at Hermannsburg in Central Australia; St John’s Lutheran School in Lobethal, South Australia and Murray Bridge. In 1986 Joan was seconded to Living Waters Lutheran School in Alice Springs for a one year contract as the Founding Principal. She ended up staying and working here for the next 20 years, retiring in 2006 and moving to North Haven, Adelaide in 2007.
Joan married Neville Grosse in Alice Springs. They had one daughter.
Dr Lindsay Farrell 30 March 1953 - 13 July 2020
A staunch Baptist, Lindsay was a wonderful Christian man who gave a fine witness to his faith in his life and also in his dying. He was Head of the Art Department at St Peters, where he introduced the Design Education program. He went from there to Churchie as Head of Art, and from there to Head of the Art Department at the Banyo campus of the Australian Catholic University.
Lindsay was a wonderful artist, teacher and Academic and will be remembered fondly. During his artistic lifetime he had held more than thirty solo exhibitions, in Australia and overseas: USA, Canada and the UK. He had also won ten awards. St Peters has several of his paintings in their collection. Lindsay Farrell had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in 2019 and passed away in June this year.
