IN MEMORIAM
Foster Adem
We extend our sympathies to the families and friends of the following members of the Trinity community who have recently died. John Douglas Beare (OTG 1972–78) John Howell Bevan (OTG 1965–72) David Wallace Dettmer (OTG 1965–71) Kenneth Fred Dixon (OTG 1946–48) Donald Max Elmer (OTG 1955–60) Graeme Arthur Gledhill (OTG 1965–66) Edward Bruce Hayman (OTG 1938–40) Kenneth James Hedding (OTG 1941–49) Grevis John Howe (OTG 1937–43) Walter Alan Ives (OTG 1959–65) George Ryall James (OTG 1931–42) Norman John Just (OTG 1950–61) William Herbert Sutton (OTG 1933–38)
FOSTER FESTIM ADEM – TEACHER AT TRINITY 2001–16 Foster was born on 8 October 1948. His parents were migrants from Albania who settled in Shepparton. In his youth, Foster built a guitar out of an old radio and became a member of the award-winning rock and roll band The Modes. In 2001, he came from Hawthorn Institute of Education to Trinity as the School’s first Head of the Design and Technology Department. A new facility was built in the Senior School Science Building’s basement – affectionately referred to as Foster’s ‘bunker’. He developed courses for students in Years 7 and 8, and was one of the first teachers to put his teaching and learning material online. Gradually,
he extended his teaching into the upper year levels and implemented VCE Product Design and Technology. He encouraged his past students to return to help his current students and share their experiences. Foster helped students to build and race cars that blitzed the 2006 RACV Energy Breakthrough Challenge. The boys raced these cars around the Taffs and Birrell Ovals and occasionally up and down Charles Street! In 2006, nominated by Trinity parents, Foster became one of only three secondary teachers in Victoria that year to receive a National Excellence in Teaching Award. His imagination and enthusiasm led to many of his students working on their special projects outside of school hours. Their projects included plastic cars, trains, boats, scooters with engines and skateboards. Students also designed and created exquisite furniture. Foster encouraged experimentation over a wide range of materials and models as he considered this helped the students find their ‘niche in life’. Foster retired at the end of 2016 and died on 8 August 2017. Trinity staff members described him as a man of wisdom and someone who could be relied upon for good advice. He enjoyed making the staff and students laugh and had a healthy, but questioning, respect for rules and regulations. The Design and Technology Teachers’ Association (DATTA) has voted to present the annual Leadership in Design and Technology Education Award in Foster’s name. DR JANE MAYO CAROLAN Archivist
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