Scotch College

Classic Canberra dinner

Canberra's Old Boys had their first reunion dinner for the new millennium on 31 August.

Melbourne visitors were OSCA President Michael Stillwell, Vice Principal Ian Savage, and Old Boy CEO Leigh McGregor. Both Michael and Ian gave informative speeches about the continuing very high level of achievement by the school, planned developments in future, and the important role of Old Boys in support of its future achievements and development.

Our guest speaker was Greg Urwin, from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade whose responsibilities include the Pacific, and who gave many interesting insights into recent events in that region, and the outlook for its future.

The 'oldest' Old Boys present were Peter Gration ('48) and Ian Porteous ('50), both of whom entered Scotch in 1945 and regularly attended our dinners.

We were also delighted this year to have two 'very new' Old Boys, Ian Coker and Ben Wheeler, who only left Scotch last year, and both of whom were baptised through their involvement in the night's formalities. Rumour has it that Ian, a first year entrant at the Australian Defence Force Academy, was able to get some useful tips on the side about his future career in Defence from Peter Gration, a former chief of the Australian Defence Force.

Other regular attendees at our local dinners present on the night included John Brook ('48), Rob Reid ('72), John Simpson ('59) and Peter Taft ('82).

We were delighted also at the number of guests who were accompanied by their partners, and hope this trend will continue and our dinners will truly represent the 'Scotch Family'.

Next year will be the 150th anniversary of Scotch, and a special event is planned. The dinner will be held on 31 May and coordinated with other interstate Old Boy functions; we recommend members mark this event in the diary now.

Ian Dudgeon