Cranbrook 1971 alumni news and views .. plus dinner photos: 2022

CRANBROOK YEAR OF 1971 HSC ‘LEAVERS’.

50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY DINNER SAT 8^TH October.

My convenor’s address: Welcome to our delayed 50 year reunion dinner. Well, this is some milestone! Just 51 years ago we were on ‘stuvac’ for the HSC. I missed speech day having flown out to London after the last exam. A classmate wrote to me in UK that there was constant rain and a transport strike. Is it ever thus?

First some formalities:

In memoriam:

Robert Walsh	died 1961
Richard Grimm	died 4/72
Michael Stacy	died 2/3/88 Cairns
Guy Norman	died 18/7/91
Tim Spong	died 15/12/03
Julian Clark	died 11/06
Victor Malouf	died 09/08
Ian Douglass	died 26/5/10
Warwick Gregory	died ?2010
Bill (Taylor) Yule	died 2012
Peter Louis (Lewis)	died 1/6/13 age 60
Peter van Wensveen	died 16/12/16

Andrew Byrne's memories of muck-up days: Cranbrook reunion Cafe Bondi: Cranbrook muck-up days.

Stuart, Pritchard, Wild, Bottomley, North, Darling, Hilton, Sze-Tu, Palmer, Pearlman, Wise, Smith, Byrne, Back.

Body, Voets, Downes, Alexander, Stuart (opp) Smith, Byrne, Back, Vasey, Barker, Deacon.

Downes, Alexander, Stuart, Pritchard, Wild, Bottomley, North, Darling Hilton, Sze-Tu, Palmer, Pearlman, Wise, Smith, Byrne, Back Vasey, Barker.

Pearlman, Page, Darling, Sawyer, Barker, Deacon, Vasey, Palmer, Schmalzbach at the Sunday BBQ on Vicar Building terrace.

Gilray, Palmer, Pearlman, Wise, Smith, Byrne ... (opp) Pritchard, Wild, Bottomley, North, Darling, Schmalzbach, Hilton.

Messages from alumni: Greetings and best wishes from too many to detail all … I spoke with Byron Deverich who is loving living in Melbourne … Eric McCusker, also in Melbourne, could not make it due to a death in the family. Stephen Bennet is in Canberra feels more like TAS old boy but sends best wishes. Some of our number are in discomfort, other are really hurting … Bill Currey in Chile looking after 20 dogs (and himself I assume); Rick Howell-Price in Thailand lost pilot’s licence due to Covid and wife unwell; Greg Ilich and wife Vicki in New York City still affected by US Mortgage Crisis; farmers affected by the weather: Phil Wilson, Alan Pearlman. Ian Mudie has some medical issues and sends apologies. Three year members declined the dinner due to fears of Covid for them or at-risk family members.

Two prominent and well liked year members are not attending the reunion because of their perceived conflict about the privileged and elite status of private schools versus an inadequate state school system. And I agree up to a point. We would all hope to aim at equal opportunity but is this ever fully achievable? And what to do in the meantime? G&S made this into a joke in The Gondoliers: ‘All shall equal be’. ‘When everyone is somebody, then no-one’s anybody’. Do we need a Napoleon or a Thatcher to reform the entire system? If so, the newly updated Cranbrook School might make the ideal if funding was unlimited (see below for all the magnificent new works just opened this week).

I pinched myself every day at Cranbrook and continue to do so for my good fortune in life, part of which is due to my schooling, no doubt. It makes me feel more obliged to assist others who are less fortunate and get on with life in a positive manner.

While we may have had good facilities at the school and gifted teachers, I believe that an even bigger factor comprised my fellow classmates. Interesting and diverse boys with a sense of ‘group’ but with a competitive edge.

So thanks to all of you for your part in my up-bringing. Just in this room … 5 of them from Street House, John Sze-Tu gave me my first invitation to travel overseas; I went to New Guinea with Clive Lovell; Twice I stayed with Greg Ilich in Paris; Howard Barker invited me and my niece to Cairns to see the solar eclipse (one of the great events of my life); I have a drink at Les Schmalzbach’s house quite regularly in the past few years as we are near neighbours in Potts Point. Warwick Stuart was driving me home late from a Cranbrook dinner in Paddington on 11 September 2001 when we heard on his car radio about the unfolding events at the World Trade Center now known as 9/11. I have sat next to David Gilray and Jeff Tobias in synagogue (but that’s another story – see my Cantorial blog if you are interested). Andrew Hilton has invited me to Passover gatherings when in the Southern Highlands (and he knows I'm not Jewish). Matt Sawyer and Janet also became Highlands neighbours for a happy time. Mark and Steph Darling likewise. Graeme Smith’s family connections with Cranbrook were a major factor in my parents deciding on my schooling. I just mention these as one of many examples of networks of friendships which started at school. As convenor I have heard of many such over the years and know there are many more.

On retirement: Things I have discovered since retiring in February: lentils (yes, dahl, lentil soup and other pulses). Shakespeare: plays and sonnets. King Cymberline; Henry IV (especially Prince Harry and Falstaff). Concert music from rarity to regular cultural feast in newly renovated SOH concert hall. Opera continues to be my main vice. Add steam trains, fish soup, Sondheim and piano. Does that make me a Renaissance refugee?

THANKYOU to Rebecca Curran, chefs Kevin and Robbie, Cameron Torrance and other school staff for making the reunion successful. Also big thanks to various year members who helped with contacting and cajoling colleagues. Especially notes to Matt Sawyer, Alan Pearlman, Nick Back, Howard Barker, Greg Deacon, Peter Richardson but many others too numerous to mention.

‘On with the motley’.

And the dinner was splendid in the school’s enormous new dining room, grand kitchens adjacent and balcony with views across Hordern Oval to Rose Bay, Point Piper and beyond.

Darling, Schmalzbach, Hilton

Sawyer, Barker, Deacon

Body, Voets (Nicolson), Downes

Before the dinner we were invited by the school to a tour of the new premises built adjacent to and beneath Hordern Oval. My brother Richard was attending their 40^th reunion at The Oak Hotel and it was also preceded by a tour that very same day!

We met at the new covered arched entrance to the Murray Rose Aquatic Centre (opposite Rose Bay Police Station). The two new major structures comprise the most extraordinary and magnificent modern architecture and state-of-the-art engineering.

From the elegant north-facing foyer we were taken on a tour of the most impressive education facilities one could imagine anywhere, starting with the sporting complex, mostly beneath Hordern Oval. The old tarmac has been replaced with tough thatch turf on new advanced drainage so it can be used even after quite heavy rain. Entry doors led to a large gym with every variety of exercise appliance. Our guide Cameron Torrance pointed out that most men never kick a ball much after leaving school but many do go on to regular gym sessions for fitness … so why not start at school and do it properly? Good logic to my mind.

The entrance and gym both had large windows looking down onto an Olympic pool (51.5m) with optional wave generator when required. Also adjacent was a small heated pool for beginners so all Cranbrook boys (and soon girls as well) should have the opportunity to learn to swim. Between the pools was a covered running track with standardised surface. Then there was a basketball court.

We were taken into an orchestral rehearsal room with very high acoustic ceiling. It was empty but for a Steinway concert grand piano which our tour guide Cameron Torrance asked one of us to play. Everyone looked at me (who can’t even read music properly) and I pattered out a few bars of Chopin. Then we saw the new theatre with full proscenium (confusingly also called ‘Packer Theatre’) with ~250 racked seats, half of which can be collapsed at the press of a button to create a new flat space for teaching (drama, music, etc). Next we were shown several ‘house’ areas with wide wooden stairways which doubled as seating areas for meetings, classes or demonstrations. Each house had a row of large modern lockers angled on the diagonal.

Up the final flight of stairs on the top floor was the new school chapel. As requested in the original concept this forms a direct connection and access with the old school as it abuts the lawns surrounding the old Perkins Building (now Music Academy). Adjacent is the original school building with the Governor’s Ballroom and its stone arches. I was gratified to learn that the chapel can be simply turned into a classroom - (I firmly believe that all houses of worship should be likewise multipurpose). Throughout the new complex there were elevators, wide entrances and easy access toilets for disabled students or elderly visitors like us.

See a video of the proposal which is now almost fully realised!!

Optimising Cranbrook - Cranbrook School scroll down to ‘share our vision’.