Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Karl Hoerler, 63, planter, dies in the Western Highlands

EMIL J HOERLER

KARL HOERLER DIED UNEXPECTEDLY at Korgua Plantation, Western Highlands Province, on 12 April. He was aged 63.

Karl Rudolph Hoerler was born at Seraigi Plantation with his identical twin brother, Emil, in the Bainings of East New Britain.

After finishing school at Oakhill College in Castle Hill, NSW, he returned to work in Ppapua New Guinea starting as shipping clerk with Burns Philp, Rabaul, then on the family plantation until he left for the Highlands in 1972 where he became part of Dan Leahy's clan.

Jack Amesbury, educator and sportsman, dies at 89

MURRAY BLADWELL

JACK AMESBURY, who served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War II and had a long career in Papua New Guinea, died last Saturday in his 90th year with his family by his side.

Jack was well-known in education and rugby league circles in PNG in the pre-independence years between the 1950s and 1970s.

A celebration of Jack's life will be held on Friday 24 May at the Northwood Garden of Remembrance, Deception Bay, Queensland, commencing at 10 am.

Bob Brozman, guitarist & musical pioneer, dies at 59

THE GUARDIAN

BOB BROZMAN WAS A VIRTUOSO GUITARIST and musical pioneer who explored a vast range of cultures in more than 30 albums, the fruit of trailblazing research and recordings in many countries including Papua New Guinea.

Constantly touring, he was a master of styles, playing everything from blues and jazz to calypso and gypsy swing, even experimenting in later life with modern hip hop and ska rhythms, on which his finger work was so rapid that many observers mistakenly assumed he was using electronic effects.

Vale Monica - an unremarked & kind woman is dead

PETER KRANZ

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE IS SAID to have galloped across a battlefield after one of his victories and, upon seeing a young enemy soldier dead with his arm across his chest and a peaceful look on his face, pointed at the body and said to his generals, "That is a good death."

But in truth there is no 'good death'. Death is painful and sad and bitter and regretful. Maybe Dylan Thomas had it right. "Do not go gentle into that good night."

Auntie Monica died at Port Moresby General Hospital yesterday. Auntie Monica was not famous, or particularly noteworthy in bikman terms.

She was just a good ordinary PNG woman and mother who was bereft of proper health care in her last days after struggling hard for many years to eke out a living at the ATS settlement.

Rabaul tru - Matt Foley dies after a colourful life

EOIN BLACKWELL | AAP

MATT FOLEY, ONE OF THE TWO REMAINING former Australian coastwatchers who served in Papua New Guinea during World War II has died. He was 91.

Foley lived in Rabaul, in East New Britain Province, from 1947 until 2005, when he left for the Gold Coast after a long battle with malaria.

In 1943, aged 18, the Ballarat-born signalman stepped off a submarine at New Britain's Cape Orford to begin his service monitoring Japanese ships in the Pacific.

Assistant Commissioner Joe Bemu dies in Bougainville

PETER KRANZ

A BOUGAINVILLEAN WHO BECAME ONE of PNG’s top police officers, Joseph Bemu, 62, died last Saturday at his village in the Lenoke area in Buin District of south Bougainville.

The retired Chief Superintendent Bemu was the first Bougainvillean to be appointed to the post of the Assistant Police Commissioner on Bougainville in 2004.

He lost a leg during the Bougainville conflict, but never let that interfere with his duty.

Joe was a good and honest man and worked hard for reconciliation in Bougainville. He was my wife Rose's adopted father and his wife Mary was 'best woman' at our wedding.

Veteran PNG politician, Ludwig Schulze MP, dies

THE MEMBER FOR ANGORAM, Ludwig Schulze, who defeated Arthur Somare at the Papua New Guinea election last year, has died in Port Moresby.

Mr Schulze, originally from New Ireland, had been a businessman in Angoram for many years, dealing mostly in crocodile skins.

He was an inveterate political candidate, first standing for election in 1982. He had previously lost the seat to Arthur Somare in 1997.

Artist Suzanne Holman dies in microlight plane crash

KEITH JACKSON

SUZANNE ALEXA HOLMAN, 57, daughter of famed PNG artist and sculptor Hal Holman OL OAM and herself an artist of note, has died in a microlight aircraft accident on the NSW Central Coast.

Suzanne and the pilot, Vietnam veteran Carl Carsen, both from Avoca Beach, died when the plane nose-dived into the Tuggerah Lake at Long Jetty early on Wednesday morning.

As the aircraft flew over Tuggerah Lake, its motor spluttered and it crashed into three metres of water killing both people instantly. A coronial inquiry will determine the cause of the crash.

Tributes have flowed for Suzanne, who was one of Australia’s best known community artists.

Rev Paul Bustin, revivalist missionary, dies at 71

MARK CURNUTTE | Cincinnati.com

AS A YOUNG MAN, just in his second year at God’s Bible School and College, Paul Bustin received a call to work as a foreign Christian missionary.

He listened. From 1964, he and his late wife, Carolyn, would spend 23 years overseas. They had their five daughters during a 19-year stay in Papua New Guinea.

Rev Bustin returned to the Cincinnati in 1987 and spent the rest of his career as a travelling evangelist whose revival meetings also featured him as a singer.

“Dad believed in the power of prayer to heal people,” said one of his daughters, Cindy Rapson.

Rev Bustin, 71, has died from complications of diabetes and kidney disease at his daughter’s home in Pleasant Ridge.

Born in 1941 on Andros Island, the Bahamas, the son of missionary parents, Rev Bustin lived in Haiti and Florida as a child before moving to Cincinnati to attend God’s Bible School, Mount Auburn.

After two years in seminary, knowing he wanted to work as a missionary, he enrolled in the University of Cincinnati’s medical school.

“He wanted to take care of people spiritually and physically,” Rapson said.

He met his future wife, put his medical studies aside and headed overseas.

 “It was an exciting way to spend our childhoods,” she said. “It was `the old days.’ We knew what it was like not to have a washing machine, running water and to read by lantern light.”

Rev Bustin also sang, offering his rendition of traditional Southern hymns. He recorded seven record albums on vinyl.

After returning to Cincinnati, he took a job in 1990 for five years as a delivery driver with City Dash. As diabetes took a toll on his vision, he spent his remaining years as a travelling evangelist.

He frequently worked with a small faith community of immigrants from New Guinea in a Springdale church.

The gods have red hair: Olowei - an affair to remember

MARK BAKER | The Age

THEY BURIED HIM ON AUSTRALIA DAY on a windswept hillside in north-eastern Tasmania, far from the land he fell in love with, that he helped transform and that came to adopt him as one of its own.

But Barry Holloway brought Papua  New Guinea home with him to the little timber church with the peeling paint and rusting tin roof at Kimberley, near Sheffield.

It was there in his children, in the readings in the Pidgin and in the haunting strains of 'Rock of Ages' sung in Motu, the language of the coast.

The journey had begun here, in the house across the valley where his mother was born and where she gave birth to him in 1934, and in the nearby school where a boy dreamed of a life of adventure far away.

That journey was to take 60 years and it would traverse the modern history of PNG - from colonial trust territory, to self-government and independence and beyond.

It began with a teenage cadet patrol officer trekking through the remote and untamed territory  of New Guinea and ended with a distinguished political career, a knighthood and the deep affection of a generation of Papua New Guineans.

At each step, Barry Holloway made a special mark. He was, probably more than any other  Australian, instrumental in the making of modern PNG, and his death closes a circle on Australia's engagement with PNG's coming of age.

He was one of the first expatriates to advocate independence for the Australian trust territory in the 1960s. He helped found Pangu, the country's first political party, and ran the numbers that saw a brash young journalist named Michael Somare become its first leader.

He chaired the committee that drafted the constitution and, at independence in 1975, he was one of the first white men to take citizenship of the new nation, happily surrendering his Australian passport.

He became speaker of the first parliament after independence, then a senior minister in several governments. He was a reformer, a champion of the ordinary man and a campaigner against corruption, the issue that many believe drove him to an early death.

After finishing secondary school, Holloway moved to Melbourne and was working as a labourer when he saw a newspaper advertisement seeking young men with ''initiative, imagination and courage'' to work as patrol officers in the UN-mandated Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

Between 1949 and 1974, more than 2000 Australians aged between 18 and 24 were recruited as patrol officers, or kiaps - Pidgin for captain, from the German kapitan - and sent to bring the rule of white law to the often lawless outer reaches of the territories.

Brian Holloway dies: Last expat PNG police commissioner

MAXWELL R HAYES (RPNGC 1959-74)

BRIAN HOLLOWAY CBE QPM died in Perth on 23 January after a long illness. He was 85.

Holloway joined the South Australia Police as a Cadet in 1943, at age 15, following the tradition set by his father Percy.

During his training in the mounted police, "tent pegging" (galloping on horseback and taking out the stakes holding tents so they collapsed) was part of the course, and he never understood why this was necessary in a modern police force.

At the police training depot, John Grimshaw (in 1947 to become the first commissioner of the Royal Papuan Constabulary and New Guinea Police Force) was a senior instructor. Inspired by Grimshaw, Holloway joined the RPC&NGPF as an assistant Sub Inspector in November 1948.

His first posting was to Wau, and shortly after to Bulolo, Over the next few years he served in Rabaul, Kavieng, Madang, Minj, Goroka and Kokopo.

At the time of the Rabaul Navuneram riots in 1958 he was nearly murdered, his life saved by a courageous Senior Constable.

July 1961 saw him in charge of police during the Rabaul town riots between Sepik and Tolai groups, during which three Tolais were shot dead by police.

In February 1962 Holloway was in charge of the police detachment at Hahalis in Buka, Bougainville during the insurrection of the "baby farm" anti-Council riots led by John Teosin and defrocked former Catholic priest Francis Hagai, who said they were breeding a "super race".

May 1965 saw him in charge of peacefully quelling the insurrection at Lavongai, New Ireland during the President Johnson cargo cult riots.

In October 1967 he was in charge of restoring major unrest involving hundreds of illegal squatters on disputed land in the Kokopo area.

Holloway was awarded the Queens Police Medal for meritorious and exemplary police service in 1969 and received an MBE in 1971.

In a sense, Brian Holloway was the "Sheriff" of Papua New Guinea. Whenever there was an insurrection, he was placed in charge, even being recalled from leave in Australia on occasions to handle explosive situations.

In the early 1960s he planned and established the Police College at Bomana from which the first 11 indigenous police graduated a Sub Inspectors on 26 August 1964 after a four year course.

In 1970 he was appointed Deputy Police Commissioner and, in 1974, during the transition to Independence, he spent one year as Commissioner until be handed over to Pius Kerepia in May 1975. He received as CBE after leaving Papua New Guinea.

For some time he had been writing his autobiography, Cadet to Commissioner, which was unfinished when he died.

Holloway was one of the three surviving police officers (the others being John Graham and James Dutton) of the late forties era of the Constabulary. He is survived by Fae, his wife of 64 years, and children Gary and Susan, mother of Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, Australia's most highly decorated soldier.

An exceptionally tall man, Brian was known by fellow police officers as "5 feet 17 inches". There will never be another Brian Holloway and he will be missed by all the people he touched in many ways.

Kevin Murphy, rugby league administrator, dies at 63

MALUM NALU | Malum Nalu Blog

WELL-KNOWN PAPUA NEW GUINEA rugby league administrator, Kevin Murphy, died of a heart attack in Orange NSW last Friday aged 63.

Murphy, known the length and breadth of PNG for his passion for the “greatest game of all”, passed away in the home of elder brother, Brian, a Catholic priest.

Murphy, a Kiap in the late 1960s who later moved into education, commerce and became president of the PNG Rugby Football League, reluctantly moved to Australia in 2008 because of diabetes, having his right leg amputated.

His first emergence from hospital was to attend a barbecue for his beloved PNG Kumuls, who had travelled to play a Cairns team. Until the day he died  Murphy was passionate about rugby league in PNG.

“For the last four years, he has lived in Tamworth,” Murphy’s second son, Daniel, told The National.

“He was always torn between two cultures: the PNG culture and the Australian culture. He always carried a bilum everywhere.

“He passed away in Orange on Friday morning, at about 7am, at the place of his brother, Brian Murphy, who is a Catholic priest.

“His last job was at Niugini Oil in Mt Hagen, but due to his health, he could not work again.

“He did some voluntary work at a youth centre here in Tamworth.

“For the last four years, he has been recovering with his family in Australia, as well as being emotionally attached to rugby league back in PNG.”

Murphy, of Irish origin, came to PNG as an 18-year-old in 1967, and stayed for 42 years.

After his stint as a Kiap, Murphy was a primary school teacher in Henganofi and Kainantu, later serving with the Department of Provincial Affairs, National Sports Institute, Rothmans and Niugini Oil.

He is survived by his three sons Adrian (39), Daniel (36), and Anthony (33) and four brothers – Patrick, John, Brian and Bill.

His funeral services held at St Joseph’s Catholic, Orange NSW, at 2pm on Friday.

Barry Holloway, servant of PNG, dies in Brisbane at 78

KEITH JACKSON

I FIRST MET BARRY HOLLOWAY (1934-2013), then 28 but looking even more youthful, at a dinner party I attended with my mate Murray Bladwell in Goroka at the end of 1963.

We spent most of the evening discussing the forthcoming first Papua New Guinea general election for which Holloway (Olowei) was a candidate in an Eastern Highlands seat.

He immediately impressed me with his intellect, progressive attitudes and his commitment to the Papua New Guinean people and understanding of their society and needs in the face of rapid change.

Holloway also said that, if he won the seat, he would serve for one term before handing over to a Papua New Guinean candidate.

He did win, and four years later he honoured this pledge.

Holloway was an honourable man – and, as an expatriate and then a PNG citizen, he went on to a distinguished career in PNG politics.

Never eschewing controversy (it was not easy in those times for a white man to identify with the aspirations of Papua New Guineans) and demonstrating a continuing idealism, for six decades Holloway made a huge contribution to his adopted country.

The ABC’s Liam Fox wrote in 2009 of Holloway's early career….

Sir Barry Holloway was 18 years old when he arrived in Port Moresby in 1953, after responding to a newspaper ad seeking patrol officers in Papua New Guinea.

"We started a six-week orientation course. We were given basic multi-functional activities to do, such as learning how to map, how to handle government stores, and all sorts of clerical work which really dampened our spirits somewhat, because we were coming up for high adventure," he said.

After two years with a senior patrol officer on the island of Bougainville, he was sent off on his own to man a remote outpost in Madang province.

He was the police chief, magistrate, jailer and census taker.

Sir Barry recalls his first trip into an uncontrolled area to settle a violent dispute between two tribes.

"After three weeks, the whole crowd of about 600 to 700 would be massing around," he said.

"The other side would explain the past history of vendetta ...so we disarmed them.

"We demonstrated the power of the .303 rifle by lining up about five shields, making a dum-dum out of a bullet, and showing how it would come out a great gap at the other side.

"Because to the people these [the rifles] were just sticks, and had no meaning until we demonstrated their power."

More than 1,000 Australian men worked as patrol officers between 1949 and 1974, paving the way for teachers, nurses and others to follow.

Remarkably, their duties were largely carried out through peaceful means.

Many kiaps, like Sir Barry, never left PNG.

Death of pioneering PNG patrol officer Jack Karukuru

ALLAN TARUA

ONE OF THE FIRST Papua New Guinean patrol officers, Assistant District Commissioners then departmental head, Jack Karukuru, passed away on New Year’s eve at around 6.30-7.00pm.

I admired him for what he did for this country and, even after he finished from the government system and the private sector, he was still very much involved with the community in Port Moresby and at his Miaru village in the Gulf Province.

Jack Karukuru was a humble man who had a big heart for this nation.

He got along well with everyone, from the little children to adults.

Papua New Guinea has lost a great man.

Allan Tarua is the Fuel Systems Project Coordinator with InterOil Corporation’s downstream operations

Additional notes by Keith Jackson - Jack was aged about 72. In addition to the posts mentioned by Allan, he also served as Deputy Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, as District Commissioner for the then Northern District and as Deputy District Commissioner in Bougainville where, during the crisis, he was responsible for monitoring the issue prior to the development of the Bougainville task force. Jack’s secondary school education was in Australia and in 1970 he received a Diploma in Public Administration from the Administrative College in PNG

John Cheffers, ex-PNG sports administrator, dies at 76

KEITH JACKSON

PROFESSOR JOHN CHEFFERS (1936-2012), who coached the Papua New Guinea athletics team at the 1969 South Pacific Games in Port Moresby, has died in his sleep while flying with his son to Sydney from San Francisco.

Cheffers grew up in a battling working class family in Melbourne and became an excellent athlete and Australian Rules footballer. He also became an first rate teacher.

His hopes of competing for Australia in the decathlon were dashed when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament just weeks before the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.

So he turned to coaching and, in 1968, was eminent enough to become track and field coach for Rhodesia’s multiracial Olympic squad, only to have Mexico block the team from competing because of the then African colony’s race policies.

The following year I first met this big, ebullient and permanently positive man when he turned up in PNG as coach of the athletics team for the third South Pacific Games in 1969.

Cheffers then took his young family and his passion for teaching and sport to the United States to pursue an academic career. He received a doctorate in education from Temple University in 1973 was appointed to Boston University in 1974.

He soon became known for infusing his teaching with close camaraderie with his colleagues and students. Cheffers would accompany students to a pub after night classes and host tastings of Australian wines.

“He practiced what he preached,” said Eileen Crowley Sullivan, who studied under Cheffers. “He taught all of us to really care about what we do and have passion for what we do.”

Another former student, Steven Wright, said Cheffers was a visionary who “thought outside the box.”

“He had a different view of what physical education could and should be that differed from a lot of his contemporaries,” Wright said. “He was all about being humanistic and being the best for kids.”

Cheffers also became an authority on the behaviour of sports fans. “The love-hate relationship which spawns so much violence by fans is often ingrained in our youth by the dubious ethic that finishing first is the most important thing in sports.

“The result is that many fans are frustrated athletes who simultaneously love and hate the heroes they watch in stadiums and arenas,” he said. “When a team wins, a fan shouting, ‘We’re No 1,’ really means, ‘I’m No 1.’”

Cheffers wrote extensively about the science of teaching physical education and his students marvelled at the boomerang he kept in his office.

“John’s passion for first-class teaching has influenced hundreds, if not thousands, of his students worldwide,” said Len Zaichkowsky, a sports psychologist who was his longtime colleague at Boston University.

Cheffers became a professor emeritus in 2002 and lived on a farm at Murrumbateman, near Canberra, with his wife Margaret, whom he married in 1958.

He is also survived by their children Paul, Mark, Leigh and Andrew and 17 grandchildren.

Sources: J M Lawrence (Boston Globe); John Bell (Sydney Morning Herald)

Fred Reitano dies at 93 – kiap, lawyer & lifelong learner

KEITH JACKSON

FRED REITANO, who has died at the Cazna Garden nursing home in Brisbane at age 93, joined the Australian Army as a private in 1939 and saw active service in Papua New Guinea.

This included experience in Port Moresby which was at the time being bombed by the Japanese.

In 1943, by this time a sergeant and his potential clearly seen by the military, he underwent officer training at Duntroon Military College and was subsequently posted to a civil affairs unit in Borneo, now Kalimantan and part of Indonesia.

Here he met an Army nurse, Mary Fleming. They married after the war in 1946 and remained together for all of their long lives.

Fred signed on and trained as a patrol officer and was initially posted to Mt Hagen. He also served in the Sepik, Manus and East New Britain.

While in Manus he enrolled in a law degree by correspondence, graduating in 1961, after which he joined the Crown Law Office in Port Moresby.

In 1965 he joined a private law firm before rejoining Crown Law just prior to PNG’s independence in 1975.

He and Mary, by then a welfare officer, left PNG and, in 1976, Fred was appointed as principal legal officer in the Northern Territory’s Attorney-General’s Department before retiring two years later on medical grounds.

The couple then moved to Brisbane and Fred decided to pursue his studies eventually graduating with a BA in 1989 and an MA in 1992 at the age of 73.

Fred also worked as a volunteer for a range of organisations focusing on education, culture and health.

One assignment was as a reader for a sight-impaired law student at Queensland University, who subsequently graduated with first class honours.

Fred was also an active member of the United Services Club in Brisbane and the Sunnybank RSL. He remained a Justice of the Peace until six months before he died.

Fred is survived by Mary, sons Paul and Jeffrey, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Source: The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 22 November 2012

Joe Cannon: from Canadian gangs to PNG missionary

CHRIS ALTROCK | The Christian Chronicle

JOSEPH L CANNON, a longtime missionary to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Ukraine, died last week. He was a member of the Highland Church of Christ at Cordova in Tennessee, USA.

Joe was an unlikely figure to become a global missionary.

He spent his early years in Canada in a gang. Some looking at him in his teens in the late 1930s might have imagined a future for him in jail not a future for him in ministry.

Yet, God broke into Joe’s life, changed his heart, and gave him a calling that would take Joe to four foreign mission fields and a ministry that would span more than 60 years.

Joe began preaching in 1943. In 1947, with his first wife, Rosabelle, Joe’s mission work in Japan was launched.

In those decades after World War II a new wave of missionaries was entering Japan. Two of the first missionaries eventually recruited a number of additional missionaries, particularly from what was then called Harding College, now Harding University.

Among this new generation of missionaries was Joe Cannon. Joe once described to me his decision to go to Japan in this way: “I believe Jesus wanted me to go serve among the most unloved people I could find.

“And at that time, the most unloved people in America were the Japanese.” Thus, Joe and Rosabelle moved to Japan.

In 1971 Joe, Rosabelle and their family moved from Japan to Papua New Guinea. Joe was the first American missionary in PNG [sic].

Education was a significant tool for evangelism and several schools were started. Joe started the first one, the Melanesian Bible College in Lae, and then assisted in the establishment of others.

Joe served with the Melanesian Bible College for 13 years. He helped train virtually every preacher in PNG and was thus responsible for the planting of hundreds of churches in PNG.

After the death of his wife, Rosabelle, Joe married Betty Dollar. Betty, a former realtor, who had left her full-time work in Memphis to do mission work in Ukraine.

For many years she laboured there with other missionaries. She was joined by Joe when they married in 2002.

Kairu Laho: journalist & public relations director

PETER KRANZ

IT WAS WITH SADNESS that I read of the death of Kairu Laho.

Kairu was an effective and talented public relations director at the University of Papua New Guinea for 10 years and I remember her as a creative person with a great sense of humour who worked hard to promote the public image of the university and its many interests.

These ranged trough art exhibitions, theatre and music productions, fund raising events, promotion of research and organising social activities.

I am sure many people associated with UPNG will have worked with Kairu and share my feelings.

That her young and promising life should be cut so prematurely short by cancer is a great tragedy, but hopefully may lead to a greater awareness of breast cancer as a threat to the women of PNG.

Vale Kairu.

_____________________

From an obituary in The National -

Journalist Kairu Sandra Laho died from cancer a day before she was to fly overseas for medical treatment, according to a colleague.

The funds for the trip had been raised by her friends and relatives.

She was employed at the University of Papua New Guinea’s public relations and marketing unit when she died on 20 October.

A colleague said they had been raising funds to fly her out the next day to Manila, Philippines, for the medical treatment.

She joined UPNG in 2002 as a public relations officer and later coordinated the marketing unit.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in April this year. She went for regular checks.

Her colleague said her friends and family took the initiative to raise the K100,000 needed for the trip to Manila.

The university management and students would truly miss Laho for her dedication.

Laho, a single mother, is survived by her two sons Ayrton and Trevor Yagas.

Jock McIntyre: kiap, adventurer & formidable companion

DAVID WALL

I FIRST MET JOCK McINTYRE IN 1963 when he was the patrol officer in-charge at Dreikikir Patrol Post in the East Sepik District – a tall good-looking Scotsman from Glasgow with a wealth of experience at university and in Canada, New Zealand and PNG’s Western District.

His soft Scottish brogue and impeccable good manners, combined with a forceful individual nature in the company of men, gave colour and attractiveness to his personality.

Men respected him and women liked the look of him. And, from Jock's point of view, there was perhaps nothing he preferred more than to be surrounded with friends in long-drinking sessions.

John, to use his baptismal name, was a good healthy Presbyterian with the usual sectarian attitudes of the time. But the orange and the green didn’t influence who he'd drink with.

One of his best friends was Fr John O’Toole, resident priest at Dreikikir. A Fenian, even an American like O’Toole, was good enough for Jock if he liked a drink, even if at times both were more than forthright with each other.

At the University of Glasgow, where Jock studied veterinary medicine for a couple of years, he was a little put out that a Fenian beat him in the last round of a boxing contest for the university championship. He did concede, however, that the Fenian was a better boxer than he was.

In the logging camps of Canada and in various jobs in New Zealand he worked and played hard. He liked and respected the women he met and they liked and respected him. A fine figure of a woman could at times overcome the appeal of drinking. But I suspect in Jock’s case, the drinking most often won.

He was a gentle giant in his work and in his dealings with Papua New Guineans – always fair and good humoured.

Jock was one of Kennecott’s early field officers, and I well recall him arriving in Angoram from the Star Mountains, laden with rock samples indicating the presence of vast amounts of copper and other metals in the Mount Fubilan area.

He was a man for all seasons, but more a character of the 19th century who lived in the 20th.

He often said to me that his ideal was to live a full life overseas and then eventually return to mother Scotland to marry and live as a respectable family man and keep holy the Sabbath Day.

Over the years I lost track of Jock, and I often wondered if he had achieved his ambition.

Apparently he did marry. I don’t know if his wife was Scottish, but she owned a pub on Thursday Island. If this is true, in a way, it would have put Jock in a second heaven.

I also heard that he had died. I hope he went out with a good malt in his hand!

I often picture McIntye and O’Toole in the afterlife, for I know Fr O’Toole SVD has moved on, having a convivial drink together in the best Presbyterian and Catholic style.

Peter Johnson, an old friend of Jock’s, has in his possession Jock’s Oxford Dictionary, a small memento that continues to remind us of his life.

Fr John Lamani, Pacific media leader, dies in Honiara

MARTIN HADLOW

FATHER JOHN LAMANI CMG, an influential media manager and journalist in the Solomon Islands, has died at his home in Honiara.

Father Lamani, publisher of the Solomons Star, passed away early on Monday morning. His funeral was held in Honiara on Tuesday and his body was taken home to his village on the island of Malaita for burial.

I knew John when I worked for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) in the 1980s.

John joined the SIBC as a journalist from the Government Information Service and rose to the position of news editor.

In about 1982-83, the Solomons government decided to leave the media scene and sold the government news sheet, News Drum, to John and some of his colleagues for a peppercorn price of $1.

Thus, the Star newspaper was born; now known as the Solomons Star and the only daily newspaper in the country. It is hugely influential and financially successful. As part of the business group, John also established an FM radio station, Paoa FM.

During the ethnic civil war which faced Solomon Islands, John displayed considerable courage in not bowing to the demands of competing sides regarding news coverage in his newspaper.

This was despite his own background being Malaitan; Malaita being the island (along with Guadalcanal) from which many of the troubles developed.

When I last met John, he told me of his personal experience of having a gun held at his head as he sat in his editorial office in Honiara. Yet he did not flinch from reporting objectively and neutrally.

Beyond the Solomon Islands media scene, John was a leader in the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and regularly supported training and development efforts across the region, including in Papua New Guinea.

 Many PNG media friends will know John and appreciate the efforts he made in ensuring that independent media and freedom of expression continued to survive in the Pacific despite many forces hostile to a free press.

John had a strong bond with his Church and, in recent years, became a lay preacher. Thus, he became known as Father and, last year, was honoured with a CMG by the Queen.

Father John Lamani passed away suddenly from a suspected heart condition.

PNG nation builder Jim Leigh dies in his early 80s

KEITH JACKSON

The service for H H (Jim) Leigh will be at 2pm this Friday 17 August at Drydales Funeral Home Chapel on National Park Road in Nambour. There will be some drinks & food afterwards at Nambour RSL, which Jim told me was his “least worst” drinking hole

BACK IN JANUARY, as I mentioned at the time, I was reunited with Jim Leigh after about 40 years. His daughter Kelly was the catalyst in this series of events  and I remain very thankful she took the trouble.

Not, I must add, that Jim and I actually made it to pressing the flesh and sharing a beer. Floods in south-east Queensland took care of that possibility.

But Jim and I did manage four long telephone conversations extending across politics, society and the fiendish ways of ne’er-do-wells of many years ago.

Discourse with Jim was always protracted and broad of traverse, and that we met only over the phone (which Jim claimed was bugged) and not in person seemed to matter not.

We spoke of many matters; and one was especially prescient and poignant: Jim expressed the view that he did not have long to live. He spoke in the tones of a man who had settled the ledger with his own life, even if he hadn’t managed to put all to rights or square away every scoundrel. I weep some tears for Jim as I write this.

Jim had given me my first management job in radio in 1969. At the time he was controller of broadcasting in the colonial administration and had been given the task of transforming what was a lone radio broadcasting station in Rabaul into a mighty network that would cover the whole of PNG.

To do this would represent a nation-building task of enormous importance. He did it. In just 10 years. It was a monumental achievement for which he was never given the full credit he deserved.

Part of this was because of a quixotic personality and an intolerance of fools that brought Jim ill repute, especially with those of idle mind. But, mostly, it drove PNG broadcasting forward in mighty leaps.

He later went on to a successful career as a Brisbane television newsreader and, subsequently, National Party press officer, but I know nought of those years at first hand.

And so I will repeat a story about Jim, told in these columns before, that depicts his wonderful personality…

‘Markham Tom’, big-hearted PNG pioneer, dies at 83

MAX UECHTRITZ

THE REMARKABLE TOM LEAHY – Papua New Guinea pioneer, planter and politician – passed away in Toowoomba at the weekend aged 83.

Leahy was known universally as “Markham Tom” – for his bonds to the soil and people of the Markham Valley in the Morobe district. He was the first European farmer to settle those vast savannah plains soon after arriving from Queensland as a 17-year-old in 1947.

He planted cocoa, copra, rice, sorghum and peanuts and grew cattle on his Maralumie farm and soon became inextricably linked to the people of his new land and home.

He was elected to the first local government council in his area – Huon Gulf – and his 15 years of service gave him a broad understanding and connection that would shape his life and affect many.

Tom Leahy represented Markham in the House of Assembly (of the newly-united PNG) from 1968-72 and his contemporaries included two young men who would play a huge part in the history of their country, Michael Somare and John Guise.

Leahy became leader of government business ensuring passage of bills through parliament and a member of the Constitutional Planning Committee.

In 2000, the 25th anniversary of independence the PNG government honoured him with a citation commending him for his contribution to the country and its people.

Tom Leahy was part of a family ‘dynasty’ whose surname became synonymous with PNG history since the 1930s after four uncles migrated from Queensland to New Guinea in the interwar years. (His uncle, Mick Leahy, was immortalized in the documentary First Contact). He was intensely proud of his clan.

But Tom Leahy’s achievements were distinct and unique – he was the ultimate individual.

The big-hearted Irish-Australian who would passionately add PNG to his DNA – was a beloved character who loved characters. He was both plain speaking and well-spoken, a widely-read raconteur who could turn a riotously funny yarn into a lesson in philosophy. He was fierce in spirit and gentle in nature.

Perhaps that nature was best demonstrated by the mutual respect between him the people with whom he spent so much of his life: the Markhams, the folk of Erap, Chivasing and Gabsonki, the tribesmen of the Wains and Wantoats who also worked Maralumie and the broader communities of PNG he represented.

His immaculate Tok Pisin gave him even more currency, as did his curiosity and respect for their customs, traditions and lore.

He was intrigued with the spirit world and the politics of PNG and these would dominate two fascinating books he later penned, including, of course, Markham Tom.

Many words will be written and tales exchanged about Tom Leahy long after family and friends gather to farewell him on the Darling Downs later this week

But for the moment these lines from his friend Kitty Ginter in her foreword to his second book Tamburan, Others and Me gives a flavour:

One of the first things that impressed us about Tom was the way he moved seamlessly between races and tribes, between town life and village life and also among the bureaucrats, bankers and administrators in PNG; a rare skill in those days of inflexible social barriers.

Tom is survived by his children Peter, Ann and Neil and grandchildren. Family and friends will gather for a graveside ceremony at the Myall Lawn Cemetery at Dalby (near Toowoomba) at 11am this Saturday 4 August.

Death of long time PNG resident, Cec Russell

ED BRUMBY

I HAVE JUST RECEIVED NEWS that Cec Russell passed on to the great Singsing last week.

He was a contemporary in Moresby in the late 1960s and stayed on, apart from a short return to Australia, until his passing.

He worked in the public solicitor's office for quite a few years and, in more recent times, was lecturing at the Administrative College.

He was, according to the brief report I received, marking exam papers when called away….

(He would say, of course, that exam marking could be a very hazardous exercise.)

I'd write a more complete obituary but, despite being a regular drinking and dinner partner of his back then, I know little about the detail of his life.

Many people will remember him for his considerable eccentricity, erudition and compassion.

He will be remembered for many things, not least of all his ridiculous wit and eccentricities and some will recall that he was the initiator of the inaugural Law Ball.

Lloyd Hurrell - Kiap, soldier, planter – dies at 95

BY JOHN FOWKE

LLOYD HURRELL CMG OBE MC DIED PEACEFULLY at home last Tuesday. He was the last of the pre-World War II Kiaps- and one with an exemplary record.

Later a pioneer coffee-planter at Wau in the 1950s, Lloyd was a member of the TPNG Legislative Council and one of the founders of the old Coffee Industry Board - the boardroom at the present Coffee Industry Corp in Goroka is named after him.

Lloyd is survived by his wife and five children. His son Don is one of the few AusAID consultants serving in PNG who can be said to have made a real difference by his presence as a police adviser in Goroka.

The National Archives of Australia note:

In 1939, (Albert) Lloyd Hurrell applied for the position of cadet patrol officer advertised in Sydney newspapers. After serving briefly as a Kiap in New Guinea, Hurrell joined the Australian Military Forces in 1940 (NGX18). He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions on 11 November 1942 during fierce fighting after the recapture of Kokoda.

After World War II, Hurrell returned to Kiap duties in New Guinea. In 1950 he was appointed Acting District Officer of the Menyamya district, and was instructed to establish a new settlement at this remote post in the ‘uncontrolled’ Western Highlands.

The following year, Hurrell was ordered to investigate a raid on the village of Kiatsong during which several people were killed. While investigating the raid, Hurrell’s party was attacked. He fired a warning shot, which unfortunately killed one of the attacking men.

Hurrell resigned from his Kiap duties in 1954, and established a farm and coffee plantation near Wau in the province of Morobe. He entered national politics in Papua New Guinea, and served for many years as President of the PNG Coffee Marketing Board. In 1969 Hurrell was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to the Board.

Three years ago, Lloyd published an account of his early PNG experiences in the memoir Hurrell's Way, described by James Sinclair as “a marvellous, highly informative read by an ex-soldier – Syria and Kokoda Track in World War II – and then patrol officer in New Guinea’s early days of Australian administration.”

Lloyd Hurrell’s funeral will be held at 11am on Monday 4 June at Tweed Heads Crematorium.

Top photograph from Lloyd Hurrell’s World War II army record of 1939

Dubbo Dave Kesby - a man for all seasons - dies in Sydney

BY KEITH JACKSON

AT 2.30 THIS MORNING, Dave Kesby died of cancer. He was 68 and a most admirable man. I am struck with grief.

Dave was a classmate of mine at the Australian School of Pacific Administration in 1962-63 and went on to teach in the Rabaul area before returning to Australia in about 1966 (apologies for the vagueness, I'm in Queensland and without records).

He got more degrees and worked as a school counsellor around Sydney for many years before purchasing a taxi licence. Cab driving may not seem every professional’s cup of tea – but Dave loved it. The passing parade of passengers and conversations was a source of almost unmitigated delight.

It could have been a sad day when ill health finally forced him to give the cabbing game away about 18 months ago. But there was always the Berowra ukelele band....

I last spoke with Dave eight days ago. He was in hospital, he knew he was dying and we had two conversations.

The first was short. He'd been allowed to leave his hospital bed for a couple of hours to see his grandson play football. The boy scored five goals and Dave was pleased to have seen that. He said he couldn’t talk for long and said goodbye.

A minute later he rang back, saying he didn’t want us to end on that sombre and abbreviated note.

He said he’d had a good life, that he felt happy. He was surrounded by the family he loved and he told me he was not afraid of death.

We talked politics – like we always did – and Dave puzzled over the desiccated state of the Labor Party, to which he had a lifelong commitment, knowing he would not live to see it in any other condition.

His mouth badly ulcerated, Dave found it difficult to talk, but talk we did. He apologised for not wanting any of us to join him at the hospital, but he said he wanted us to remember him as he was.

A man for all seasons - good for them all. Benign or malign. A little regret but not a trace of self pity.

Then we said a final farewell.

Dave was man of unremitting courage and good cheer. A man of honesty and straight-forwardness who never fooled himself that things were other than they really were.

A man constantly delighted by his fellow humans (bullies, thugs and Liberals excepted) and generous in spirit to the many people who came his way.

 Dave leaves behind Elissa - a beautiful, calm and courageous woman, his sons Jack and Pete, and other family members.

A celebration of Dave’s life will be held at the Uniting Church, 6 Alan Road, Berowra Heights in Sydney at noon on Wednesday 2 May.

PNG mourns passing of novelist Regis Stella

ON THE EVE of the launch of his third book, Unfolding Petals: Readings in Modern PNG Literature, senior lecturer in Literature and English at the University of Papua New Guinea, Dr Regis Stella, died on Wednesday.

Dr Stella, born in Bougainville, held a PhD from the University of New South Wales and had been teaching at UPNG since 1988. His thesis on PNG literature was later published as a book that is now a recommended text in universities.

Dr Stella had been a deputy dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and was formerly the director of the Melanesian Institute of Arts and Communications.

Colleague and fellow writer Dr Steven Winduo described him as a reserved, intelligent and hard working man.

PNG Attitude contributor Peter Kranz said  Dr Stella was “a private and talented man and a great writer”.

Dr Stella’s first novel in 1999 Gutsini Posa (‘rough seas’ in the Banoni language) was centred around the Bougainville crisis and experiences of that conflict.

Steven Winduo later wrote: “Far from its existential value, Gutsini Posa is a novel that [was] an important literary representation of the struggle of the Bougainville people to come to terms with the crisis that had completely devastated their moral and physical strength.

“Regis Stella’s place in the literary culture of PNG is secure.”

Thanks to Kairu Laho, UPNG Public Relations

Terry Hewitt, ex teacher and tough all-rounder

BY WARREN READ

I WAS SADDENED TO LEARN of the passing of Terry Hewitt. He was a teacher, principal and registrar in the Madang and Central Moresby area from 1963 to about 2003; after which he went to Fiji then returned to Cairns area where he died 9 October 2011.

Terry did the ASOPA teachers’ course in 1961-62. He spent a lot of years around Saidor, some on Karkar, some in Madang, then later in Moresby.

He spent his early years with that great bear of man, a pre war officer and veteran of the middle east and the PNG campaigns, R Ivor McIlwain, and his offsider P K Moloney; perhaps not the easiest people to get on with. But Terry did - he liked them and they liked him. Terry could get on with anyone.

He was a very clever man, matriculating at 15 from the Marist brothers - they were good teachers, put aside the other propaganda. Terry picked up a few degrees on his way through life. No effort for Terry.

Apart from his high intellect, he was very musical. He played most instruments and specialised in the guitar (he used to make them as a hobby) and had his own band. He even wrote a few songs.

One song was a parody of I’ve been everywhere man: “I have walked the Finisterres man." The term Finisterres in Portguese means the end of the earth. Terry had walked some of that and knew how hard it was.

Another song was Having a beer with Leo. Leo was at Lamtub under Terry's auspices, a dedicated but different type of teacher. Terry handled him well.

I recall in 1969 there was an organised charity walk from Madang to the Plantation hotel, a distance of about 50 kilometres on an open, hot coral road. I was not over keen and mentioned this to Terry, who said: "I’ll come with you" And he did - such was the measure of the man.

I last saw Terry in Brisbane with his son Peter early last year when he was down from Cairns. Terry looked ill but I did not think the end would come so quickly.

Goodbye Terry; you were a great man and great all-rounder.

Stan Jackson OAM dies after a long & adventurous life

BY KEITH JACKSON

MY FATHER, STANLEY JACKSON – teacher, author, environmentalist and marathon bike rider - died on Friday evening at the grand age of 98.

Born in Lancashire, England, in 1913 into a working class family, he was the first of his line to win a scholarship to grammar school and gain a university education.

He fought in Burma in World War II as a member of Mountbatten’s forces and, in 1949, perceiving no real prospects for his family in a depressed post-war Britain, migrated to Australia with his wife Joan, my sister Susan and me. Joan, who he loved greatly, predeceased him in 1976 after a 15 year struggle with cancer.

In Australia, Stan taught economics and geography at Nowra High School for many years – teaching me in two of them to some reasonable effect – before finishing his career, to care for an ailing Joan, as deputy headmaster of Pittwater High School in Sydney.

In the intervening time he had authored a series of popular text books, Economics and the Economy (McGraw-Hill), which provided him with a steady income for many years.

After Joan’s death – pursuing a long interest in environmentalism and physical exercise – he rode a bicycle from Sydney to Manchester in England, visiting me in the Maldive Islands in 1978 as part of this epic journey.

Some years later, at the age of 75 in 1988, he led the 'International Friendship' bike ride from London to Sydney to mark the 1988 bicentenary of Australian settlement. Included was a period in hospital in India after he broke a number of ribs when he turned his bike the wrong way up a highway and was hit by a truck.

Following that there were other marathon rides: including one the length of the Rocky mountains from the Mexican to Canadian borders and, in his late eighties, another the length of Japan from north to south (during which he spent a night in a paddy field after being blown off his bike in a hurricane).

Despite having fought against the Japanese in World War II, Stan grew to love Japan and its people, learned Japanese, and had two books on the environment and human relationships published in that country, to which he was a frequent visitor.

In 2002 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his environmental activities and cycling exploits.

He spent 20 years as a firm companion of Helen Murphy OAM, who shared his passions and who was herself a great contributor to society. Helen died four years ago.

Stan lived a long and productive life and established a new base for the Jackson family in Australia – having been followed to that country by many British relatives following his own emigration.

He visited Papua New Guinea on a number of occasions.

Stan is survived by children Keith, Susan and Peter; grandchildren Simon, Sally, Ben, Roger, Nicholas and James; and great-grandchildren Cooper, Madison and Sydney Keith. Joan and Helen predeceased him.

Award-winning academic dissected PNG's history

BY JON FRAENKEL, STEWART FIRTH & BRYANT ALLEN*
THE CANBERRA TIMES

HANK NELSON Born 21 October 1937; died 17 February 2012

PROFESSOR HANK NELSON, 74, of the Australian National University died in Canberra on Friday 17 February after a long battle with cancer.

His was a life focused on both Papua New Guinea and Australia, and it was the relationship between the two that nourished his intellect.

Born in 1937 in Boort, country Victoria, Hank ''Neil'' Hyland Nelson spent the late 1960s and early 1970s teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea.

His books, including Black, White and Gold: Goldmining in Papua New Guinea, 1878-1930 and Taim Bilong Masta: the Australian Involvement with Papua New Guinea, established for him a reputation as the foremost historian of Papua New Guinea.

His work on the Japanese occupation of PNG, and Australian involvement in the Pacific War, entailed ventures into oral history involving collaborations with journalists, as with the 1982 documentary series Angels at War, which won awards both from the Australian Film Institute and at the Nyon Film Festival in Switzerland.

That work led to his involvement in the preparation of displays and sound archives of the Australian War Memorial.

Nelson wanted history to serve a broader purpose, and he wrote not just for his colleagues or his profession but for a wider public.

His three books published by the ABC exemplified this approach, above all Taim Bilong Masta: The Australian Involvement with Papua New Guinea, ABC, 1982, which told the story in large part through people's reminiscences.

Nelson once joked Australians were such a rarity in the ranks of historians at the Australian National University his position had to be due to affirmative action. That was typical humility. Nothing could be further from the truth.

He was a splendid historian, equally at home with the detail of Papua New Guinea's history and with theories of political power or the dynamics of group identity.

He was proud of his rural origins, his national service and his school teaching, and he drew upon them perceptively in books such as Prisoners of War: Australians Under Nippon and With Its Hat About Its Ears: Recollections of the Bush School.

His background was the foundation of his research, and it helps to explain his concern for the place of the common people in history.

Eminent historian Hank Nelson dies in Canberra

BY KEITH JACKSON

THE HIGHLY-RESPECTED PACIFIC HISTORIAN Hank Nelson died in Canberra on Friday night after a long battle with cancer.

Professor Nelson lived in Papua New Guinea for seven years from 1966-73, teaching at the then newly-established University of Papua New Guinea.

This experience gave him a lifelong love of PNG and he developed a professional interest in that country and the Pacific, with his expertise being much called-upon and highly valued.

One of his particular research interests was the period of Japanese occupation in PNG. 

In this respect, he was of huge assistance to the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society when it was establishing a factual understanding of the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the prison ship Montevideo Maru – which resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 civilians and servicemen who had been imprisoned by the Japanese in Rabaul.

Hank also greatly assisted the Society as it moved through its establishment and acceptance by the Australian government - a process which is leading to the establishment of a permanent memorial in Canberra, to be unveiled on 1 July this year.

A couple of years ago, Hank wrote: “Since living in Papua New Guinea for seven years I have had a consistent interest in the history and current politics of Papua New Guinea and in Australia-Papua New Guinea relations.”

Hank was the author of many books, his contribution to Australia’s relationships with PNG was immeasurable and his work to ensure a better understanding of Australia’s role in certain aspects of World War II in the Pacific and beyond was a of great importance.

He was a good man and he will be missed.

Hank Nelson, BA, MEd (Melb), PhD (UPNG). Emeritus Professor and Visiting Fellow, School of Culture, History & Language; Chairman, State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project; Adviser, Rabaul & Montevideo Maru Society

It’s always a bad day when a good man dies

BY MURRAY BLADWELL

ON A SAD NOTE, I had a phone call late this afternoon from Tony Caselberg's wife Lorraine saying Tony died early today from heart disease – the doctors were unable to replace a failing heart valve.

Tony worked for the Department of Public Works in Goroka, Kundiawa and Port Moresby.

He was a good mate and a gentle soul whose wonderful wit and zest for life will be sadly missed.

My Louise - A final goodbye to a beautiful wife

BY REGINALD RENAGI

WE WERE YOUNG AND FULL OF LIFE when we met in the seventies. We became good friends at high school and stayed that way for 41 years when it all suddenly ended for me and my beautiful wife from Yule Island.

My marriage came to a terrible end when my wife and 27 other passengers perished in an air crash in Madang province last October.

We had been together for 39 years, 3 months and 13 days until that fateful day.

On Saturday 7 January 2012, I said my final goodbye to a beautiful wife and friend in an emotional memorial service as a tribute to her.

After the funeral service I took her remains in a small casket (that was all that remained of her) to the Funeral Home to be cremated.

Once there, a brief prayer was said over her casket and I hugged and kissed her casket before leaving it with the funeral attendants.

I did not immediately leave as I hesitated a while longer with tears running down my cheeks.

I felt so sad and did not want to leave her alone with strange people who did not know her.

I hated the thought that in a matter of a few hours she would be reduced to ashes for me to collect the next day.

I cried the whole weekend and brought her ashes back to the family home on Monday.

Yes, she was my best friend for 41 years and God took what was all alone his until the day I am called by him to join my loved ones in heaven.

Goodbye my darling, Louise Toto Miria; and I will forever be grateful to you for making me very happy during your short time on earth.

May your beautiful soul rest in eternal peace.

Sinake Giregire, one of the real big men, dies in 80s

BY JOHN FOWKE

ONE OF THE GREAT MEN of Papua New Guinea has died.  Sir Sinake Giregire was an intriguing, humorous and likeable man; highly intelligent, although with only the most basic formal education.

He was very definitely an ideas man, and a person with a lifelong enthusiasm for agricultural development.  Even in his eighties, Sir Sinake was lucid and full of life and innovation.

He was a pioneer in Eastern Highlands business as a gold miner, coffee planter, coffee factory owner and entrepreneur. 

He was also a politician - founder of the PNG Country Party which was formally recognised on the floor of Parliament in March 1974, before independence.

As early as 1957 he was a councillor and first president of the Asaro-Watabung local government council, later serving as a Member of Parliament from 1964-77 including terms as Minister for Agriculture Stock & Fisheries and Minister for Posts & Telegraphs.

Photo: John Fowke and Sinake Giregire, November 2010

Bill Bergen, teacher & businessman, dies at 71

BY BILL WELBOURNE

I'VE JUST RECEIVED NEWS from Helen Bergen that her father Bill died this morning. Her text reads: “Dad just died at 11.20. It was truly peaceful. He did it so well.”

Bill and I were great mates and this is confusing to some of our 1962-63 ASOPA colleagues. We were different in many ways but this made our friendship all the more interesting.

I was the athlete and  Bill loved his music. He had a strong Roman Catholic faith and I was Anglican.  Bill met his wife Joan when they sang in the church choir, prior to ASOPA. My late wife Pam and his wife Joan became firm friends after we married while at college. My wedding was in December 1962 and his was September 1963.

At college we often dined together, played Canasta and sometimes saw a movie. We convinced our wives to enroll for the 6 month E Course for teachers to commence in Rabaul in February 1964. Our wives actually arrived in Rabaul a day ahead of Bill and me in November 1963.

They were met by Father Franke and the were temporarily accommodated in Wanlis flats. We were then posted... Nodup T School for me and I think Rabarua for Bill. The following February our wives started the E Course but they could not cope as they were both pregnant.

Bill and I had to confront Frank Boisen, the District Education Officer, to tell him the news. Frank mumbled as strode off hitching up his pants, “'That's the trouble with Wanlis...There's  not enough room to bend over or swing a cat.!'”

In May my son Tony was born and around the same as Joan gave birth to Helen. 

We often dined together in Rabaul. At home one evening in 1966 we were enjoying a fondue and listening to some grand music on Bill's huge state-of-the-art tape deck. The newly constructed terrace houses were built close together and were known as the European Compound.  Some were rented privately.

A German group was carousing noisily and even played their national anthem. Bill was fed up with this and taped it and played it back at twice the volume. There was some muttering, then silence followed. Later on Bill was posted to Bougainville and I went over to the Lands Department in Port Moresby. But we always kept in touch. 

We left PNG after after Independence in 1975. Bill and Joan decided to live at Bathurst even though parents lived in Sydney. They wanted to settle in an area with four seasons and one that had good cultural and education facilities.

Bill taught in the convent schools for a while and then became a businessman. He had a electrical shop selling lights and he ran a laundromat. He sold these after he built his rental units in Durham Street, Bathurst.

I would visit them and we would have eggs Florentine for breakfast  at their son Chris's reaturant in central Bathurst. Bill and Joan were practicing musicians and, right up to his death, Bill was in charge of the Bathurst Orchestral Group.

Music great Anthony Soru Subam dies

BY SALLY POKITON

 

ANTHONY SORU SUBAM, the head of University of Papua New Guinea creative arts music section, a pioneer advocate of local contemporary music and a founding member of the famous Sanguma band, has died.

Subam, in his mid-50s, died at the Paradise Private Hospital on Sunday after a short illness. He had been rushed to hospital by his colleagues.

Subam, of Kairuru Island, in East Sepik and Yabob, in Madang, was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital  around 7.45am. A post-mortem examination is yet to be conducted.

Barleyde Katit, a colleague of Subam, said he was ill for a week but had not taken proper medication although he showed symptoms of malaria.

“He was sick on and off for a week but did not take proper medication until Sunday morning when we rushed him to the hospital between 7.45 and 8am only to have doctors pronounce him dead on arrival,” Katit said.

Subam was a pioneer student of the creative arts and a member of the eight-man Sanguma band formed in 1978. Other band members included Sebastian Miyoni, Thomas Komboi, Raymond Hakena, Buruka Tau, Aaron Murry, Apa Saun, Paul Yabo and Leonard Taligatus.

Subam had been engaged with the university’s creative arts strand from 2000 and was the head of the music section until his death. He is survived by his two wives and five children.

Source: The National.     Spotter: Peter Kranz

Phillip Harold Lewis: New Ireland anthropologist

AS A CURATOR IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT at the Field Museum for four decades, Phillip Harold Lewis, who has died aged 89, made several trips to the village of Lesu in New Ireland.

There he did extensive fieldwork in the study of Melanesian culture and art and collected hundreds of items — including tribal masks, woven baskets and musical instruments — many of which are on exhibit at the museum.

"Phil embodied the fieldwork ethic, embedding himself in another culture to fully study and understand it," said Patrick Ryan Williams, chairman of the anthropology department at the museum. "His exhibits were impressive and continue to serve as a legacy of his life's work."

Mr. Lewis was the longest serving curator at the Field Museum and, during his 40-year tenure, oversaw the installation of Pacific Hall, a permanent exhibit on Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian cultures.

"He was our only curator of primitive art from the Pacific Rim back then," Williams said.

In the early 1950s, Mr Lewis set off on his first research expedition from the US to New Ireland.  "They kept stopping to refuel," said his daughter Betty Lewis. "It was an extremely arduous journey."

Once there, Mr. Lewis was assigned simple living quarters with no running water or electricity, his daughter said.  "The outhouse had spiders the size of his hand and a fruit bat kept stealing his bananas," she said.

Mr Lewis came to love the Melanesian people and their culture, making two more trips to New Ireland in the 1970s and '80s. "It was a beautiful place with people who lived a very peaceful existence," his daughter said.

Following his military discharge in 1945, Mr. Lewis attended the University of Chicago, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees, and later a doctorate in anthropology. It was there he met his wife of 54 years, Sally Rappaport, a fellow anthropology student. She died in 2003.

Source: Joan Giangrasse Kates, Chicago Tribune

Brad Ellis, son of prominent journalist, dies at 43

BRADLEY (BRAD) ELLIS (1968-2011), eldest son of David and Gwenda Ellis, passed away on Friday 11 November after a lengthy battle with cancer of the bowel, liver and lung.

David Ellis was the ABC’s regional journalist at Rabaul in the 1960s and Gwenda worked at Clarke’s Pharmacy in the town.

Brad was born at Nonga Base Hospital on 25 July 1968 and died at his home in the NSW Southern Highlands surrounded by his wife Emma, David and Gwenda, his sister Kimberley, brother-in-law Andrew, brother Steven, sister-in-law Stephanie and several close friends.

Brad was diagnosed with cancer 2½ years ago and was told at the time that he had “six months.”  His doctors said his extraordinary tenacity and willpower helped him in his fight, and he worked in his tiling business until just two months ago despite fortnightly chemotherapy treatment.

His condition deteriorating rapidly in the last few weeks.

Brad is survived by Emma and his two daughters by a previous marriage, Abigail (8) and Naomi (6.)

Brad and Emma lived in a cottage on the same block as David and Gwenda at Burradoo near Bowral in the Southern Highlands.

David and Gwenda can be contacted by email here or on (02) 4861 7321.

Jeannette Leahy, matriarch of Zenag, dies in Sydney

BY KEITH JACKSON

JEANETTE LEAHY, widow of the renowned Papua New Guinea explorer, Mick Leahy (1901-79) died this afternoon in Sydney, to where she had only recently retired, at the age of 90.

Jeanette, then 19, married the much older explorer and gold prospector, Mick Leahy, then 39, at St John's Church, Darlinghurst in Sydney, on 5 March 1940.

Jeannette Gwendolin Best, originally from North Queensland, was an alumna of Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School.

At the wedding, equally famed explorer Jim Taylor was best man and Margaret Dovey (later Whitlam) was bridesmaid.

The Leahy brothers had found their own El Dorado at Kuta in the Western Highlands and Mick was already a man of means.

He and Jeanette had five children who went into professions and business.  According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Mick could not acknowledge three mixed-race sons at Mount Hagen, who came under the patronage of his brother Danny and thrived.

After World War II, Jeanette and Mick built up the Zenag Farm business, a major chicken and beef supplier in PNG, situated at Mumeng, halfway along the road between Bulolo and Lae.

Apart from the war years Jeanette lived in the Morobe Province since 1939 until coming to Sydney earlier this year.

Thanks to John Pasquarelli for notifying PNG Attitude of this sad event

Excerpts from an interesting and varied life

IRENE WALKER, who spent time in Papua New Guinea between 1975 and 1983, has died in Ireland at the age of 91.

Irene had been a ‘short-termer’ with Wycliffe Bible Translators in the 1970’s, but, in 1975, at the age of 55, Irene made the decision to use the freedom of retirement to go to PNG with Wycliffe.

So she volunteered, providing important teaching and administration skills and returned home after three years, but soon felt that she should resume this work.

Her letters home tell of some of her amazing experiences:

December 1980.  November 1st was a very special day for the people of villages on the banks of the Sepik river for on that day their own Yessan-Mayo New testament was dedicated!…  The previous day some of us had flown out from Ukarumpa and then travelled upriver in two canoes joined by planks of wood, enjoying the beauty of the river, the birds and foliage, and the little villages on the bank.  It was a wonderful experience to rejoice with the people in song and prayer and reading from their own New Testaments.

March 1981.  I have acquired a car; bits of it are held together by tape but all vital parts work and it successfully negotiates mud, a flood, a plank bridge and herds of water buffalo between the centre and the aviation department.

November 1983.  This will be my last circular from PNG!  I expect to leave here on 29th December, spend some time in Australia and London, and reach home towards the end of January.  I shall be sorry to leave the many friends I have made here but look forward to renewing friendships at home.  Several very dear ones have gone to be with the Lord during my time here; I shall miss them but know there will be a glad reunion in Heaven.

When Irene eventually returned home, she volunteered with the Wycliffe office in Northern Ireland, representing Wycliffe at churches and helping in the office. All in all, Irene’s short-term work lasted more than 14 years.

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, 5 November

Kwila-post Morobe leader, Utula Samana, dies

BY MALUM NALU

FIREBRAND FORMER Morobe politician Utula Samana died at his home at 6-Mile outside Lae in the early hours of Sunday.

Lae-based medical doctor Mosey Sao confirmed the death of Mr Samana, from Saigara village in Morobe Patrol Post,

Sao said the cause of death was not known, but added that Mr Samana had been suffering from the debilitating effects of Parkinson's Disease for the last couple of years.

He was a graduate in arts from the University of Papua New Guinea (1974) where he majored in politics and public administration.

Following his work as provincial planner and then premier of Morobe Province, in July 1987 he moved into national politics when he unseated Boyamo Sali for the Morobe Regional seat.

He was Morobe Regional MP until 1992, when he was defeated by his longtime rival, Jerry Nalau.

Mr Samana later became Secretary for the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and PNG Ambassador to the United Nations, among other positions.

Longtime friend and supporter, Paul Itama, said all of his friends and supporters were saddened by the sudden death.

"He was a kwila post for all of us in Morobe," he said."He was a very-decisive leader."

Samana is survived by his two wives and children Yaungtine, Nuki, Cher and Galiki.

Keith Jackson writes: I was at UPNG with Utula – always a cheerful, strong and outspoken figure. Around the same table in Prof Rex Mortimer’s politics honours class were the quiet and thoughtful Rabbie Namaliu, the acutely intelligent Bart Philemon and the elegant figure of the late Paul Pora amongst a handful of others.

In my own time I also sought a political career, but, unlike each of my my erstwhile classmates, I never succeeded at the polls.  We’ll miss Utula, and his robust and infectious humour.

Photo: Utula Samana with the late Mike Manning of Transparency International

Margaret Olley – artist had a PNG connection

NUMEROUS AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS travelled to Papua New Guinea following the end of World War II.

Natalie Wilson has written: "William Dobell [previously covered in these columns], travelled with close friends Frank and Thelma Clune and the writer Colin Simpson to Nondugl near Mount Hagen in the Central Highlands in 1949 as guests of the zoologist and philanthropist Sir Edward Hallstrom.

"Margaret Olley [who has just died in Sydney at the age of 88], made her first excursion to PNG in 1954, when she spent time with Cecil Abel at Kwato.

"Later, between 1967 and 1968, she made three further trips to PNG and many of her still life paintings are filled with objects which she collected at that time."[ Natalie Wilson, 'Focus on Oceanic Art', LOOK, AGS, Sydney, October 2009, pg. 32-33]

She also spent some weeks in Angoram, and Peter Johnson, in a letter to former kiap and artist John Pasquarelli, has recalled that visit:

I know you were quite close friends with Margaret, and am sure you are, as I am, saddened by the news today of her death.

I am in your debt for causing me the pleasure of hosting her at Angoram for several weeks, she was a delight to know and a good cook too!

I was really a dumb young bloke then, as I wouldn’t sit for her – in too much of a hurry to get to the late lamented Angoram Club.

I never saw her again, but closely missed her on several occasions when she had left notes for me – it was always just too late!

Her biographer wrote about her Angoram stay “that she stayed in a riverside house with some patrol officer.”

I took the liberty of writing to her with a bit of a whinge and she sent me a copy of her book with the passage crossed out and the note:“No, I stayed with my friend, Peter Johnson.” Written in, in her own hand. This is now something to treasure!

Images: (top) Mt Hagen Woman, oil on board; (lower) Susana of Angoram, oil on board, 1968

Donald Ramsay – soldier and “a grand chap”

COLONEL DONALD RAMSAY OAM, former commanding officer of the 2^nd Battalion of the Pacific Islands Regiment has died in Sydney.

Colonel Donald McInnes Ramsay, was born and educated in Scotland and commissioned in The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) in 1943, seeing active service during World War II in Italy (including the Cassino battles) and Greece.

He transferred to the Australian Regular Army in 1952 and served with the Victorian Scottish Regiment and the Royal Australian Regiment, including with the 2nd Battalion in operations against the communist terrorists in Malaya (1955–57), initially as adjutant and then as a company commander.

He served with the Pacific Islands Regiment twice. From 1960-62, he was a company commander and then second-in-command of the Regiment, at the time a single battalion. From 1965-67, he raised the 2nd Battalion and became its foundation commanding officer.

The battalion was based in Wewak with responsibility for the border with Indonesia. He retired from the Army to lead Papua New Guinea’s largest community-owned export-import company until independence in 1975 and subsequently served on the administrative staff of the Scots College in Sydney until 1994.

He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to international relations, recognising his contributions to both PNG and “gap year” exchange programs between British and Australian youth.

Tom Hungerford – writer & commando

NOVELIST, POET, playwright and autobiographer Tom Hungerford has died in Perth, aged 96.

He served in the army during World War II, joining the commandos and attacking the Japanese in guerilla raids behind enemy lines in Papua New Guinea.

He drew from his war experiences to write the 1952 novel The Ridge and the River, which Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop called "the essence of jungle warfare as it was fought by Australians".

His best-known work, Stories from Suburban Road, made into a play and a television series, described his youth growing up during the Great Depression in the semi-rural outskirts of Perth.

Speaking to The Australian in 2005, he played down his achievements.

"I'm a hardworking professional writer who has been on the job for 60 years, has some wonderful friends and wonderful memories," he said.

"I'm proud of what I've achieved, which isn't a hell of a lot, but it's something."

Source: The Australian

Murray Groves – anthropologist and scholar

EVEN THOUGH HE was born in Melbourne, Murray Groves, who has died in Canberra at the age of 84, was always influenced by Papua New Guinea, where his parents met, where they lived for more than 20 years and where he lived for two years and visited frequently.

His father was Bill Groves, an educational administrator in the Pacific and a long-serving Director of Education in PNG, who was very influential in the post-war Administration and laid the foundations of the nation’s public education system.

Murray Groves entered Melbourne University in 1944 to study history and law, but moved to Port Moresby for two years (1947-48), where he completed his law subjects by correspondence.

He was greatly influenced by these two years in Moresby, where he worked as a judge’s associate in the Supreme Court and taught English in Hanuabada.

In 1952 he did a diploma of anthropology at Oxford and then studied social anthropology for his doctoral research. He made a comparative study of three Motu villages where traditional life had been affected by their varying distances from Port Moresby.

Groves was considered a scholar of well-disciplined, forceful and original mind, an imaginative teacher and an able administrator. Groves was to display these qualities as he served various institutions in his academic career.

When he retired in 1988, Groves re-engaged with his Motu fieldwork, which he regretted not having published earlier. This reconnection focussed on Manumanu, 50 km from Moresby and the most traditional of the three villages where he had worked.

These further studies took place in the context of what he saw as the pernicious influence of post-modernism on contemporary social anthropology. He wrote two articles on fishing and fishermen in Manumanu.

Having been appointed a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in 1994, he made the occasional visit to PNG, but suffered continuing health problems from the late 1990s.

Source: The Saturday Age.   Spotter: Ross Wilkinson

Fr Bill Liebert - drug fighting missionary

BY MAUREEN O’DONNELL

EVEN ON THE hottest days of summer, the Rev William “Bill” Liebert wore a coat. After spending 49 years as a missionary in PNG — where the coldest night might dip as low as 73 degrees — it was understandable he’d find August in Chicago relatively cool.

Father Liebert, whose drug-fighting work on the other side of the world got him slapped around by thugs from PNG’s raskol gangs — and earned him the enmity of Chinese mobsters — died of kidney failure on 6 May at the Divine Word Missionaries house in Techny, Illinois, where he had lived since 2006. He was 81.

Though he was director-general of PNG’s National Narcotics Bureau from 1992 to 2001, he considered his most important work to have been his effort to keep boys out of adult prisons, where they might be sexually exploited and graduate to more serious levels of criminality.

He not only represented them in court, but also helped create Boys Town, an institution in Wewak that fed, housed and educated juveniles accused of crimes. The children there called him Pata Bill.

Father Liebert grew up about as far from PNG as you can get, in Kansas. His family owned a farm that grew corn, wheat and soybeans. He always wanted to be a priest, and after he was ordained “he wanted to do something exciting,” said Rev Donald O’Connor, a fellow missionary who served 35 years with him in PNG.

In 1957, Father Liebert was sent to PNG and, as the country became more westernised, modern-day scourges took root, including AIDS, gun violence and drugs such as crystal meth and marijuana dubbed “New Guinea Gold.”

One of Father Liebert’s finest moments occurred around 2003. Smugglers were trying to route ephedrine through China, India and crime-ridden Port Moresby to make “ice” — crystal meth. Through his many sources, “Bill got wind of that,” Fr O’Connor said. “He made the authorities aware of it.”

He was “working against the Chinese mafia,” O’Connor said. “He was really what I would call a modern-day St Paul. He was chased and even beat up by people.” He also represented the prime minister of PNG at United Nations anti-drug conferences in Vienna and other major cities.

A pipe smoker, he developed throat cancer about 20 years ago. At first it silenced him, but he learned to speak again despite having to have surgery on his throat. His letters home were lyrical, his nieces said. He wrote about the island’s big snakes, including a python that became a pet.

The distance and expense were so great that he could come home only about every five years. When he visited Kansas, he couldn’t get enough fried chicken. When you asked for fried chicken in PNG, he’d say, you never were sure just what you were getting. He always brought his nieces beautiful seashells, or bags made of New Guinea vines.

Father Liebert will be buried in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Monastery in Wewak.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

 

John Herbert – policeman & advocate

BY MAX HAYES & PETER CAHILL

EDWARD JOHN HERBERT, who has died at the age of 85, was a popular policeman, and latterly industrial advocate in PNG and Queensland.

A former rear gunner in an RAF Lancaster bomber flying sorties over Europe in World War II, he was appointed to the Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary in Port Moresby in 1949 as an assistant sub-inspector of police.

Later transferred to Rabaul as sub-inspector and later inspector, he undertook sensitive special duties.

After serving briefly in Lae, Wau and Kundiawa he studied at the University of Queensland and earned a BA and a Diploma of Public Administration. He returned to Port Moresby as Licensing Inspector with the Liquor Licensing Commission before joining the Department of Labour as an Industrial Relations Officer.

John represented PNG, and also mentored trainee local officers, at an International Labour organisation conference in Switzerland in 1970. After training his local successor, he retired as Chief of Division (Industrial Relations) in 1976 and left PNG. 

In Australia he was appointed Industrial Officer for the West Australian Colleges of Advanced Education, and later to a similar position in Brisbane where he became Industrial Advocate for Queensland Colleges of Advanced Education.

Retiring again, he joined  a writers’ group in Brisbane and entertained members with thinly-disguised tales of his life in pre-World War II London and post-war Rabaul.

He is survived by his wife, Kath, daughters Carla and Cherry and their families, son Tony and his family, and son Kieran. He had six grandchildren and one great-grand-child.

John was unique, a one-off, respected and trusted by friends, colleagues and villains, always willing to help and advise.

“Novice coppers could not have had a truer friend” a colleague wrote; nor could the Papua New Guineans he guided into their pre-and post-Independence careers.

Gary Scully – foreign correspondent

FORMER FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and long time reporter at ABC-TV News, Gary Scully has died at his home on the Gold Coast.

His wife Lorrie said her old love and mate died on Friday at about 7.30pm, possibly of a stroke, at the age of 77.

It was a gentle passing. He had been having a few breathing problems and had a hospital visit that day. They went home and Gary had half a beer and, when Lorrie came back into the room, Gary had passed away.

After a long and distinguished career in journalism, Gary had retired to the Gold Coast. He first went overseas to Singapore in 1963, later reporting other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Once asked about the work of a correspondent, he replied “Accuracy is so important, and that I think sums, more than adequately the work of a foreign correspondent, because their stories very often are the history of tomorrow. Well sometimes you're lucky enough to meet people that make history themselves.”

Gary's funeral is at 2pm on Thursday 12 May at St Monica's Catholic Church, 485 Golden Four Drive, Tugun, on the Gold Coast.

From Ian Macintosh and Bob Wurth

Bill Eichhorn – entrepreneur and politician

THE HON WILLIAM EICHHORN MBE has died in Angoram Hospital. He was aged about 75.

Bill was a former Member of the House of Assembly, Speaker of the East Sepik Provincial Government and a well-regarded entrepreneur in the Sepik region.

“There was a service in Wewak and Bill was then taken to Korogopa for burial amongst his ancestors,” reports Peter Johnson.

There will be many with memories of Bill and stories to tell. A more detailed tribute will be published in the near future.

Photo: Bill at Korogopa, on the banks of the Keram River, 2009

Spotter: David Wall

Neville Barnes – trader and entrepreneur

IF ONE WORD could sum up the life of Neville Barnes (1929-2011), who has died in Caloundra, Queensland at the age of 81, that word would be colourful.

At one time he was a big name in pearl production in PNG and his business, N E Barnes Trading Company, which had branches across the country, imported a vast array of products from Wedgwood china to prefabricated bridges.

Although born in Sydney, he spent his youth in Queensland. At the age of 21 he moved to Brisbane, where he spent his spare time at the Broadbeach Surf Lifesaving Club during the birth of the Gold Coast's beach culture.

He later moved to Rabaul and set up the trading company that was to become a well-known name in PNG. At first Neville concentrated on importing goods from Hong Kong, but soon expanded to many other countries.

In the 1960s, when China first opened its doors to western economies, Mr Barnes was one of the first businessmen to attend a trade fair in Canton, securing agencies for Chinese textiles, clothing and light industrial goods.

His company was also importing prefabricated bridges from Japan on behalf of the PNG government, and a wide range of clothing, trade store supplies and luxury items from Europe, Britain and elsewhere.

Before long the family moved to Port Moresby, which became the company headquarters, while Mr Barnes opened additional offices in Lae, Madang, Goroka and Mt Hagen.

His venture into the pearl trade began when he was approached to oversee the establishment of a cultured pearl farm at Idumava Point in Fairfax Harbour. This was a massive task in Port Moresby, which still had limited infrastructure. It involved taking electricity and town water across the harbour, underwater to the farm, and building staff quarters and operating rooms.

It was a highly successful venture for many years before water pollution from shipping and problems with polychaete worms forced its closure. So then Neville turned to marketing pearls and set up offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Singapore. His son Bruce still carries on that business in Hong Kong.

After selling his business to Breckwoldt and Co, Neville moved back to Australia where he retired to Pelican Waters in Caloundra.

He was a gregarious man who was great company and an excellent cook, and he maintained his colourful lifestyle in his new home. Unfortunately, for the last six years he had Alzheimer's disease.

Neville is survived by his wife Jan, sons Bruce and Dominic, and grandchildren Rebecca, Erica, Dominic, Adam, Mallory, Allegra, Conor, Ryan and Daniel.

Source: Brisbane Courier-Mail.     Spotter: Murray Bladwell

Benn Selby – friend of Montevideo Maru

BY KEITH JACKSON

MY LAST EMAIL from Benn Selby, whom I met but once and then briefly and who has died in Melbourne at the grand age of 97, came one morning last January.

“I suspect I must be one of the first to comment on the January issue [of Memorial News],” he remarked with characteristic whimsy. “According to my computer it arrived at 2.01 today and, although it is Saturday, a normally low message day, I did happen to look.”

Benn and I communicated frequently by email and, on this occasion, he was thanking me for my review of his compilation of the writings of his brother, Tom, Dr NX 22.

Tom had visited PNG as a ship’s surgeon and elder brother David commanded the Anti-Aircraft Battery in Rabaul and escaped the Japanese invasion to write Hell and High Fever, “the story of that horrendous three months”, as Benn put it, and later returned to ANGAU in PNG.

Benn died peacefully last Saturday, a week after his 97th birthday. He had not been well for most of this year, in and out of hospital with breathing problems.

“I do think he had probably achieved everything he had set himself to do over the last few years,” said relative Libby Albert, “not the least of which being the two books he had reprinted / published, of his two greatly revered older brothers.”

Benn devoted his life to scientific support and scientific excellence and made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and development of science in Australia and beyond.

He graduated in Science from the University of Sydney in 1935 and from 1936 onwards, apart from a period of absence on military service, during which he was mentioned in despatches for distinguished service and rose to the rank of Major, served H B Selby Australia Ltd as Managing Director and Deputy Chairman until 1982.

His commercial life showed a passion for science and for community service. Among his many contributions he was a member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute for over 40 years, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Trustee and Executive Member of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

I will miss his gentle humour and his huge support for the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru Society.  Benn Atherton Selby was a great Australian.  And I'll also miss those witty emails.