Here are short biographies from the STHS Class of 1971. A brief story about their memories from school, good or bad, and their lives after school, their jobs, their family, their interests and hobbies.
Tony D’Ambra
High School Memories
My six years at Sydney Tech weren’t particularly happy. At first I was overawed by the place, and excited to have made it into a selective school. After a while though I found the place less than welcoming. The teachers and students were overwhelmingly Anglo, and I soon realised a child from a working class migrant background didn’t count for much in those hallowed halls. I rebelled against the snobbery and mindless discipline, and was an easy target for the casual racism of certain teachers. I pretty much stuck with the cohort of students from primary school, and we did share some good times over the years.
Further Study and Working Life
I was diligent enough to matriculate at the HSC and was awarded a Commonwealth University Scholarship, which to be honest was a surprise. Without that scholarship I would not have gone on to University.
I gained a Bachelor of Commerce from UNSW majoring in Marketing, was recruited as a graduate trainee by Bank of NSW, where I learned the business of banking from the ground up, progressing from teller to the London desk of the Bank. The Bank also supported me in gaining by part-time study at UNSW a Master’s in Organisation Behaviour.
Family
From there I entered the arcane world of merchant banking, where I met a charming Singapore girl and we married in January 1987, a day before my 34th birthday. We have two kids, a boy and a girl, and are now enjoying our retirement together.
I had never felt comfortable in the corporate world. My leftist sympathies made for a rough fit. Just before the millennium I setup on my own business developing apps for Microsoft Office and selling them on the Web, easing into retirement about 10 years ago.
I left STHS at the end of Year 10 when I got a traineeship in communications and computers. Worked on the navy’s midsole systems and I wound up as a General Manager for Canon R & D before I retired. My daughter went to St. George Girls and my two sons to Scots College. My eldest granddaughter is in year 9 at Port Hacking after I cautioned my daughter to keep her away from selective schools. I found STHS a hard road but made friends with a girl from St Mary’s across the road which helped. I cannot make the event but wish you and your families well and I shall on the night remember past comrades. Take care everyone. My fondest memory is Mr Jennings (maths). He was brilliant!
Ken FARROW
High School Memories
I am reliving many memories. I actually think I received a pretty good education . Does anyone remember Mrs Jennings in English who tried her version of sex education via DH Lawrence . Oh weren’t those crib books helpful .
My best teacher was Mr Brooks in L2 economics . He treated us as quite equal in year 5 and 6.
Yes I met Bing a couple of times for his 6 of the best . Once I recall being sprung nicking out the back gate by the then prefects heading to my place to play cards .
Yes those we have lost . Richard Matthews’ done up lime green mini 850. It was a brick on wheels . Four of us hooning around , we would not fit in that today. And Frank Starling . I recall muck up day driving around in his father’s 2 speed automatic falcon for the fruit fights .
Something I will never forget is the lovely lady who lived on the north boundary of the school . She invited many of us to witness the landing on the moon in her lounge room. ” you boys must witness this part of history “, I recall her saying.
Having a smoke behind the school . The bungers in the toilets using a straw as a long fuse . No it wasn’t me .
My best memory was the lovely girl I met from St. George Girls in year 4 . We would go home on the bus from Rockdale everyday . We learnt all those lovely personal things together only for her to dump me one year out of school . I met her again 30 years later. We were married within 6 months then 15 years later she dumps me again . Us blokes will never learn
Peter HILLS
High School Memories
Jeff’s take on things is an interesting one. While he’s clearly not aspiring to an ambassadorial role for R U OK Day, he does make some good points; definitely the pricing of the canteen food, & his good countries/bad countries analogy. I liked that one, it was spot on, as was the existence of sub-groups. There were plenty of them. Some were genuine sub-groups as defined, others were just gangs & best avoided if possible. I’d suggest most guys in our year would’ve come under his THE BACKBONE BOYS heading & got there on merit.
As for canings, I had my fair share, most totally deserved, although I do remember a couple of times copping it for something I didn’t do because I wouldn’t give the culprits up. That’s OK though, sometimes you gotta take one for the team. Jack Little was good, although Alby Jenkins was probably the best caning exponent, but I felt he tended to single me out due to his father & my grandfather having apparently worked in the mines together in Maitland, & he must have thought I needed the extra attention. Barnes was adept too. The meekest was definitely Don Bitmead. That may have had something to do with the fact he & my dad were in the same squadron (458) during the war. In any case, I stopped being a willing victim early in 5th form – simply refused to put my hand out. After a while they just didn’t bother, which worked for me. Nothing worse than trying to hold a snooker cue after having been caned.
It’s been interesting to read some of the heterogeneous stories – who even knew these blokes were hurting? It’s apparent everyone’s high school experience was quite different, but whatever happened, you were expected to just suck it up & I think that’s what most blokes did – that was just the era we lived in. Very different to the one we live in now.
Further Study and Working Life
I can’t speak for others, but Dave Dicker’s words ring pretty true for me. After leaving high school it took me a few years to get my head out of my arse & work out what was what. I’d killed it in Primary School but totally wasted my time in High School before finally realising it was time to make up for it. As Dave said, happiness comes from within, it’s all up to you. You simply have to back yourself & make your own luck. I went on to study Mechanical Engineering, then Accountancy, set up an engineering business, sold it, then set up a seafood export business & sold jellyfish & other exotic seafood/s to the Japanese, made a million, lost a million & a quarter, then sold farm machinery throughout SE Asia, motor raced all over Australia & Asia, spent a fortune & had a ball. If you want to know what Dave’s been up to, google Rodin FZero. Incredible story, he’s brained it.
Family
Be good to catch up. My wife hates loud music so I’m bringing my daughter – she’s just the opposite. Goes to Bethany across the road from Tech. Her observations of the current crop of STHS students is that most would likely speak Hindi or Mandarin, although speaking of the era we live in now, I’m unsure if I’m allowed to say that. Too late now, but I’m married to a Thai, so I can hardly be called racist.
Clive JONES
High School Memories
Well, for the first few years at Tech I think I was more concerned with keeping my top 40 chart up to date than listening to the chalk commander in front of the class. I’d compile them each week on rolls of calculator paper. And my No. 1 with a bullet was more likely to be Vanilla Fudge or The Box Tops than Johnny Farnham.
I remember around 2nd year I was truly shocked when Tony D’Ambra confronted me with the revelation that Itchycoo Park was about drugs and getting stoned. I’d always paid such little attention to the lyrics of the songs as opposed to the sound. I mean, as a clueless 10 year old, I thought the words to the Beatles’ Please Please Me was akin to wanting to be in the touch footy team, you know, please please pick me.
But of course by the time ‘Whole Lotta Love’ blew my socks off around 1970, it was pretty clear that ‘Gonna give you every inch of my love’ wasn’t suggesting Robert Plant might want to gift you his tape measure.
My favourite teacher was Tom Kistle even though he wasn’t the most cheery type. But I remember how he once interrupted his chat about Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 with his views on how the primary role of the defensive linebacker in gridiron was to ‘step on the quarterback’s face’. What a hoot!
But I do regret ‘the cocktail fruit incident’, when I was near the front of Tom’s class one day trying to get that crackly cellophane wrapper off that little sucker and was about to pop it in my mouth when Tom obviously heard, turned around from the blackboard and stared straight at me. Oh well, I figured I might as well keep going.
Tom: “So what does he do? He sticks it in his mouth anyway. If you were a 2nd former I’d send you out for four.”
Me: “Well, why don’t you send me out then?” (I was careful not to add the “for four” part.)
Tom, shouting: “So get out! Go and sulk in some corner somewhere!”
I was mortified, after the event, that I’d made the normally unflappable Mr Kistle get so cranky with me.
Anyway, I ended up with a pretty poor HSC score overall. Although I did get my 1st level Economics (thanks Mr Brooks), mainly because I memorised an essay around the question of Galbraith’s ‘Theory of Countervailing Power’ about which I understood not one word.
Further Study and Working Life
So it was off to teacher’s college or my dad’s typesetting business. Being a slacker procrastinator as well as unsure how I’d handle the snotty-nosed little smart-arsed shits that I’d be faced with in school, by January 1972 I’d started work in a hot, smelly factory filled with clattering Linotype machines and molten metal.
And in a way, I’m still there 50 years later. The first couple of years were hard going but I slowly started to appreciate my father’s skill as a compositer, and then type and typography, especially when technology meant changing to phototypesetting firstly and then the wonderful Macintosh. Thank you Steve Jobs. From there, for me, it was all about design. Of course my father is long gone. He died at 68, the same age I am now.
Family
I met my wife Gabrielle when she was 15 and I was 20 at a football barbeque. We married 5 years later had a couple of kids in the Shire then moved to the inner west for about 18 years, then the Blue Mountains for 7 years.
Really weary from the long winters, two years ago we moved to a few acres in the Noosa Hinterland, about 10 minutes from Eumundi, and quickly realised we should have done it years earlier. I still have a few design clients with a fairly relaxed working week of 3-4 days. And my wife is a successful exhibiting artist with a home studio.
Tony, maybe I’m just on a high that this is my Itchycoo Park.
Ray LEE
High School Memories
There were a few of us from South Hurstville Primary School who went to STHS and I remember that in my first year I basically stuck around with the same guys. It turned out that Les Gock and I were the only Chinese kids in the whole school, so that fact, along with our shared interest in music, meant that we formed a close friendship which has lasted a lifetime. STHS‘s ethnic mix has certainly changed since those days. Les and I would be in the majority now. I thought the education I received at Tech was of a pretty good standard generally although there were certainly a few “dud” teachers as well. I feel that the good results from our school was as much, if not more, from the natural talent and commitment from most students, as it was from the standard of teaching. Some of my lasting memories from school are playing touch footy every lunch time, nicking off from sport, especially from summer sports, cricket and swimming (I still can’t swim properly), winning money on Even Stevens in the Melbourne Cup when one of the students decided to be a bookmaker and made it 10/1 on every horse, getting thrown out (with Les) from Economics by “Skeeter” and then playing table tennis in the prefects room. Finally, organising those rock concerts in our final year, with Les and Al Glanville.
Further Study and Working Life
After leaving school, I went straight to UNSW studying Architecture, which was my plan all through high school. As it turned out, I got involved with a more radical group of students and spent more time on the social side of Uni life rather than academic and I became disillusioned by the architecture industry. I completed the first degree (B.Sc (Arch)) which was basically a useless degree. You had to do a practical year and then 2 more years of study to become an architect. Instead I went to work in the building industry with my father who built home unit blocks. That only lasted a couple of years as we just couldn’t work together. I then spent a few months unemployed. It was a period of high unemployment and my uni “degree” was a hindrance, as potential employers thought I was over-qualified for the simple jobs I was going for. I finally got a clerical job at Sungravure (Magazine company owned by Fairfax) when I lied and said I had dropped out of Uni. I stayed in that job a couple of years and then got a job in the Insurance Industry at MLC, the year I got married (1979). There I worked in the Superannuation department for 5 years and in 1984 my wife and I travelled around Europe for 8 months. On our return in 1985 I went back to MLC and worked as a Sales Representative initially, then an in-house Financial Planner at MLC’s Martin Place Office. My last position there was Managing a small team who travelled around and trained MLC’s agents on things like Superannuation rules.
1992, many companies were cutting staff and I was retrenched. Then changed industries again and became a licenced Real Estate agent. First for Century 21 at Surry Hills and then in partnership with a couple of friends in a boutique company called Kings Property Marketing in Paddington. I enjoyed the experience but the company didn’t really take off and as I had a young family at that stage, I needed to get a more stable income.
I had developed a keen interest in computers so decided to re-train into the IT industry and managed to eventually get a job at Express Data which was owned by a South African multi-national, Dimension Data. This was the year 2000 and I stayed in that company until retirement on 1st July 2016. My last position was as a Pre-sales Engineer specialising in Cisco Systems. Interesting fact: Express Data was sold to David Dicker’s company Dicker Data in 2014 so I spent the last 2 years working for David’s company but never met up with him during that time.
Family
I’ve been married to my wonderful wife Daisy for nearly 44 years and we have 2 sons and a daughter. We bought a lovely terrace house in Redfern in our first year of marriage much to the disappointment of my parents. It was considered a pretty rough place for many years, but we discovered that it wasn’t really that bad at all. We ended up staying there for more than 25 years and moved out in 2005 to a larger home in Stanmore and still live there now, so we’ve always lived close to the city. Our eldest son has 2 daughters and our daughter who is the youngest has a son. Unfortunately, she split from her partner of 10 years a year ago but the silver lining is that she and our 2 and half year old grandson are currently living with us, so we get to see them every day. Our family is very close and we catch up regularly.
Interests and hobbies
I’m one of those people who was much more interested in non-work activities and hobbies rather than my working career, probably because I never did find work that I was completely satisfied with, hence all the changes. Music has certainly been a big part of my life. I loved collecting records then CDs. I did enjoy the days of trawling through the racks in Ashwoods, Lawsons and Martins in Pitt St as well as various other places around Australia. I have also been an avid concert goer and continue to do that as well as attending various music festivals, musical theatre and more recently opera. Travelling is also something I love and usually Daisy is dragged along but she also enjoys the trips. I developed a keen interest in photography when I was studying architecture (even had a makeshift darkroom setup in my parents laundry at that time} so that goes well with the travelling. The travelling has also developed an interest in world history which I never did at school.
Garry MORRIS
High School Memories
My memories of high school include being reunited with some of my friends from
Hurstville Public School when I commenced at STHS. I then made new friendships.
I recall assembly in the quadrangle, visiting the tuck shop and attending some classes.
I am grateful for the time at STHS and the education I received which allowed me to
gain a Commonwealth scholarship to university and probably helped me to be offered
a position with a major accounting firm, Cooper Brothers, today known as
PricewaterhouseCoopers (“PwC”).
Further Study and Working Life
After leaving STHS, I worked full time for PwC while studying part-time and becoming
a chartered accountant. I initially worked for PwC in their Sydney office, then spent a
number of years in an office on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. When I
returned to Australia, I again worked in Sydney but later transferred to the newly
established office in Parramatta. I left PwC in 1984 as a Senior Audit Manager.
I did a short stint with a second-tier accounting firm, Pannell Kerr Forster, as a Senior
Manager and left in 1985.
In 1985, I was employed by a merchant bank (today an investment bank), Schroders,
to establish an internal audit operation. I later went on to head up their treasury
advisory operation, assisting a number of public companies with the management of
their foreign currency and interest rate exposures following the deregulation in our
financial markets. I left Schroders in 1999 when I was a member of the international
fixed interest team, managing bond portfolios for clients.
In 2000, I established a financial planning practice in Gosford on the Central Coast
which I still run today, Assurity Financial Group.
Family
I am married to Tina who has put up with me for 45 years. We are fortunate to have 2
daughters and 4 grandchildren. Our daughters and their families live nearby, with our
younger daughter and her family living on our property. We have a few acres in
Somersby, enjoying time with our younger daughter, son-in-law and 2 grandchildren,
as well as a number of dogs, cats, horses and other pets.
Interests and hobbies
I lecture part-time at Macquarie University trying to teach students about finance. I am
also involved with our local Bendigo Community bank where I am chairman. My other
community involvement is being President of the East Gosford Progress Association.
In my spare time, and COVID permitting, I enjoy travelling.
I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with school colleagues at the 2002 and more recent
2022 reunion. I am extremely grateful for the hard work put in by the organising
Jeff UREN
High School Memories
I feel like I should stand up & sing the school song to drown out the snipers & hand wringers & chicken littles here
Schools are like a small version of the real world….good countries & bad countries
Good people in bad countries & bad people in good countries.
The facts….there were many sub groups at STHS…………………..
THE CARETAKERS….those who lived within 2 furlongs of the school & benefited from a walk-up start
Ie…Peter ( Georgie Porgie ) Ulrick
Owen ( Shelltox ) Shellard
Gary ( stupid ) Calpis…etc
THE RED SEA BOYS…..those who had fathers- grandfathers- great grandfathers who attended the school previously
The red sea parted & they marched in untouched
Ie..Ian Jarrett
Robert Hardie
Robert Cassidy
Neil Champion……etc
THE DAPPER DANDIES….those who were dressed exclusively by the gentleman’s outfitters….ALLEN BROS. of Hurstville
Always dressed in the lates fashions.eg the 3 button high-wasted pants-soon to be taken up by the Skinheads as part of their defining uniform
Ie…Tony Allen
Graham Ellis
Rod Higgs
Neil Creswick
Neil McLaren….etc
THE FLYING UNDER THE RADAR GROUP…….those who were involved in obscure interests & sports…..squash -poetry-choir-cheese rolling-camping at hill end & debating…..Not once did the debating group grab hold of the 3 topics affecting us all
(1 )Global Warming…..
(2 )School girls being allowed to contaminate our school pool….especially the girls from St Trinians across the road as they were also catholic….this flaunting by the girls as they frolicked in the shallow end was exacerbated by Peter Ulrick who befriended some of the metalwork boys to drill a peeping hole in the wall next to the change room which faced the cricket nets….worse still Peter was charging per 30 seconds of view time
To keep the girls from further corrupting & distracting us from our academic studies , those in the position of power decided to fill the pool in
(3 )The quality & pricing of food in the cafeteria
Ie if I bought a lunchtime delicacy ..a sausage roll inserted into a bread roll it would be a certain price but if I bought a bread roll & a sausage roll separately…it was cheaper…being in the higher maths classes I was able to exploit this loophole
THE BRAINS GROUP…..those who picked German & Latin subjects to study….not good to anyone unless they lived in the 1930s OR those who wanted to enter the priesthood
Ie..Col Lutherborrow
Tony Proietto
Paul Kontellis
Lez Glock
Nick Wormald
Telel Saad…etc
THE BACKBONE BOYS…those who got to STHS purely on the back of their own hard work & kept the schools motto alive( manners maketh man ) & kept the schools sporting credentials at a high level
Ie..Stewart ( porky ) Lawler
Gary ( ogre ) Souter
Greg ( mental ) Richarson
John ( itchydik ) Ifkovic
Lewis ( mr cricket ) Oldfield
Colin ( loose cannon ) Byrne
Jeff( fingers ) Uren
Etc..
As far as the teaching staff goes, there were NO Mr CHIPPS at this school..but I loved …
Mr Hovanessian (owly)..geography mr Webb maths( also football coach) & mr Stanger
As far as caning went ….i got plenty mostly from interjecting in class..having carried a globite to school & back since kindergarten—this provided me with plenty of callouses on my hands to provide protection from the stick
Me Hambridge…was a lousy shot..hitting many times on the wrist
Mr B ( tex ) Noad…swung hard but used a short stick
Mr G( scarface) Barnes…in manual arts corridor sounded good as it hit echoing in the long corridor
Mr J Johnson…PE teacher..was worth it to get caned for not bringing pe togs for swimming in winter
Neil WILLIS
High School Memories.
I remember some excellent teachers – Jimmy Webb for maths, Bob Booth for physics and rocks, Barnsey for Tech Drawing, Mr Warner for science and footy coach. I remember we had Bing for Maths in form 1, he was more interested in picking up garbage in the grounds than teaching math. Witch Whittaker was a good language teacher, but draconian in discipline. Bob Bitmead was a hopeless science teacher. Mr Hadrill was a great English teacher, who spoke very “eloquently”. I played grade Rugby and Cricket from year 9 onwards, playing on some nice venues, including turf wickets. I remember taping early heavy rock music from a radio show on 2SM called Thompson Underground and replaying it on the English dept tape player over lunch time, at full tilt. I remember the tree burning incident. The old dead needle pine was full of lunch wrappers and outside the Science Staff room. A slow burning fuse from a cigarette was placed in it (the name I am withholding to protect the guilty). The tree erupted in flames, Bob Booth tried to extinguish it, by pouring the remnants of the tea urn on it, like pissing on a forest fire. Resolution was purchasing a new tree. BTW, I have no regrets attending STHS.
Further Study and Working Life
I went to UNSW studying Electrical Engineering on a Commonwealth Scholarship, and coached little kids in Maths to make ends meet. At the end of my first year, the NSW Govt gave me a cadetship. I worked long vacations in Traffic Accident Research Unit, writing Fortran programs to analyze traffic accident data. In my 3rd year at UNSW, I switched to Science and completed my Computer Science Degree, then back to Elec.Eng for an honours degree. I worked 18 months in the Traffic Control Centre in Brisbane Street, where computers controlled traffic for thousands of traffic signals. I got jack of the slow pace and low wages working for the govt. and jumped ship to the Mars Group of companies (Masterfoods, Uncle Ben’s, Mars Bars). I stayed with them for 6 years, including a 2 year stint as DP Manager in Ballarat, setting up their computer systems at a new candy bar plant. In 1985, I moved to IBM as a Systems Engineer and did pre- and post-sales support, specializing in Performance and Capacity Planning. In 1988 I finished my Masters in Info Systems at UTS. I attended a number of residencies in the IBM development lab in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1996, I was given a two-year assignment in the same lab, in their International Technical Support Center, rolling out new products and workshops all over the world, but mainly in La Hulpe, Belgium and Tokyo, Japan. In 1998, I was offered a permanent position in the Rochester Lab, and IBM agreed to get my family Greencards. In 2005, IBM offered me a 2 year assignment in Montpellier, Southern France in the European Support Centre. I retired from IBM in 2019, finishing up as team leader working on high-performance Cloud Computing and Data Analytics. In 2018, I took out US Citizenship, so I could vote Trump out. If he gets back in 2024, I guess we will move back to OZ for 4 years.
Family
My wife and I met in my first year at university. She is a K-12 Music teacher. We got married in 1975 while in our last years at university. My wife taught music at St George Girls High School and Penshurst Girls High School. In the US, she got her master’s degree in Education, and was a lecturer at a local University. We have two children, and one granddaughter. My daughter studied at Sydney Girl’s High School, then studied ballet full time. When we moved to the USA, she got a scholarship to study ballet in Vienna, Austria, then New York City. After dancing professionally for a few years, she went back to school and got a degree in fashion. She worked for Prada for 4 years in NYC, and is now a VP in a small start-up fashion company, earning the big bucks. My son, went the traditional route, and majored in Music and History at University, and now teaches 8th grade History, in Seattle, Washington State.
Interests
My wife and I both enjoy travelling, and have made many trips around the US and Europe, with regular trips back to Australia. I enjoy going to concerts and have seen many great bands including Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Carlos Santana, Jethro Tull, Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Chicago, Doobie Brothers, BB King, and many others.
After school, I continued to play Rugby for St George Colts (U20). I played on some great ovals around Sydney, against players who went on to represent Australia.
I have been to Africa 7 times, as a give-back volunteer. 6 times in the backwaters of Kenya, including Maasai Mara area and the Rift Valley, installing small solar systems, at small schools. My last trip to Africa, was in 2015 to Mamou, Guinea, where I designed and led a team to install 120 solar panels and 120KW-hr of batteries to replace a 30 KW generator, at a remote surgical hospital. The system is still working 7 years later. Ebola had been just ending when we arrived in Guinea, so on returning to USA, I was quarantined for 21 days.
I enjoy dinking around with old cars. I have owned a 1954 Jag XK120, a 1964 Daimler SP250, a 1972 Triumph GT6+, a 1977 Range Rover, and now have a 2008 BMW 128i. My son has taken over, with a 1967 Datsun 1600 Roadster, a 1975 Datsun 260Z, and a 1991 Datsun 300ZX twin Turbo.
Allan YATES
High School Memories
I do remember sitting there as a feckless 5th former and watching the curtains slide apart with Mr Brown announcing the musical performance of two STHS students, Ray Lee and Les Gock, and seeing our erstwhile Principal almost blown off stage. A great moment and amazing music.
Despite my lack of educational achievement, I fell into a journalist’s job and have been in Canberra for the past 40-plus years, lucky to work in good Labor governments many moons ago. I think my first understanding of Canberra was when Tony Allen went to ANU, which I thought was a long way away at the time and pretty cool.
I’ll head along to the 1972 reunion which is a week apart from yours. I can recognise many of those guys. I attended the 1971 40th reunion at STHS and couldn’t recognise most of the old boys.