OBITUARIES
The following obituaries have been written by family or friends .
CLARKE , Jonathan Ernest Murray (’ 65 ) Jonathan ’ s classmate , Alan Ray (’ 65 ), wrote :
Dr Jonathan Ernest Murray Clarke was born on 5 May 1948 at the Epworth Hospital , Richmond , the son of Alfred Murray and Helen Gladys ( nee Eggleston ) Clarke . Jonathan ’ s schooling was done entirely at Scotch , from 1954 to 1965 . He was 1960 Dux of the Junior School , played the French horn in the senior orchestra , and he was in the Military Band . Jonathan enjoyed Maths at school , seeing it as a game with the aim of finding solutions to the puzzles .
Jonathan was actively involved with the Church of All Nations in Carlton , and later at the Anglican Church in Box Hill South , as well as in social justice issues .
Graduating on 22 April 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts ( Hons ), with a double major in Mathematics and Russian at Melbourne University , Jonathan studied for his Bachelor of Literature at Oxford University , undertaking research on a rare manuscript dictionary in a Russian museum . He was under constant surveillance by the authorities and was given several warnings by the Australian Embassy .
On returning to Australia , he completed his PhD at Melbourne University . Because Russian language fell out of favour during the 1980s , work in Jonathan ’ s chosen field was scarce . He took up teaching positions in Mathematics at Melbourne Girls ’ Grammar School and Ivanhoe Girls ’ Grammar School , where he met Susan Lilian Breen , whom he married on 30 August 1986 at the Church of All Nations , Carlton . They had two daughters , Anna and Eloise . Jonathan was the proud grandfather of Kai and Theodore .
Jonathan subsequently became a full-time lecturer in Russian at Monash University and later taught Russian at Melbourne University , but he retired due to ill health in 2008 . He continued to write articles for academic journals , with his final
publication appearing in 2019 although he was very ill at the time of writing .
His ability to speak fluently in Russian never left him , and indeed some of Jonathan ’ s Russian colleagues thought he was a native speaker .
Jonathan died on 12 February 2020 at the Box Hill Hospital , Box Hill , after a lengthy battle with leukaemia .
CREWTHER , Rodney James (’ 62 ) Rod ’ s brother , David (’ 67 ), wrote :
Rodney James Crewther was born at Essendon on 23 September 1945 , the eldest child of William Gordon and Dorothy Carmichael ( nee James ) Crewther . He attended Chatham State School , of which he was Dux , then attended Camberwell High School for two years before entering Scotch in Remove A on a full scholarship , in 1959 .
Rod excelled at all subjects in science and mathematics . He was co-Dux of Scotch in 1962 . Rod Matriculated with four First Class Honours and a General Exhibition . He won a residential scholarship to Ormond College , where he stayed during his undergraduate and Master of Science studies in Physics at Melbourne University . A Fulbright Scholarship saw Rod sailing to Los Angeles for studies leading to a PhD at CalTech , supervised by Nobel prize-winner Murray Gell-Mann ( who named ‘ quarks ’ – the fundamental building blocks of elementary particles ). His thesis , completed in 1971 , was entitled ‘ Spontaneous Breakdown of Conformal and Chiral Invariance ’.
Rod ’ s post-doctoral career included a fellowship at Cornell University , New York , followed by a stint at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , after which he worked at CERN in Geneva , Switzerland for six years . Further positions in Europe followed , at the University of Berne , Switzerland ; Dortmund , Germany ; as well as at the Max Planck Institute in Munich . On
26 August 1982 Rod married Yvonne Iris Rose at Biele , Switzerland .
Returning to Australia in the early 1980s , Rod was appointed as a senior lecturer in Physics at Adelaide University , where – apart from regular trips to the United States of America and Europe – he remained for the rest of his career . He lectured in Physics , teaching Gauge Field Theory , Advanced Quantum Mechanics , and the Theory of Relativity . He was a popular academic , and played the piano during Physics lectures to explain aspects of wave motion and harmonics . He mentored many postgraduate students .
A foundation member of the National Tertiary Education Union , Rod was Adelaide University ’ s longest-serving branch President . He was awarded life membership in 2017 . He led enterprise bargaining negotiations with the university on multiple occasions .
Rod spent much time in his later years listening to and performing music with local groups , as well as supporting chamber music and visiting soloists in Adelaide . He maintained a great interest in politics , and sought to understand the world in fine detail . He married Galina Podgoretsky at Adelaide on 27 September 2012 .
Surviving an illness in 2017 , Rod returned to near-normal life until late in 2020 , when he became ill again , dying on 17 December 2020 at the Mary Potter Hospice , Adelaide . He is survived by Galina , siblings Pauline and David ( SC 1963-67 ), and his extended family .
EVANS , David Kelman OAM (‘ 60 ) David ’ s nephew , Campbell Evans (’ 84 ), wrote :
David was born at home at 10 Berkeley Court , Kew , on 4 December 1942 . Also at Scotch were his brothers John ( SC 1947-55 ) and Robert Kitson Evans ( born 10.5.1936 , SC 1946-51 , died 8.7.2012 ), and nephew Campbell ( SC 1979-84 ).
84 Great Scot Issue 162 – April 2021