THE OBITUARIES BELOW HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY FAMILY OR FRIENDS , WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS :
Geoffrey William Baker (’ 47 ) wrote his own obituary ; the obituaries for Leon Hain (’ 53 ) and Professor David Geoffrey Penington AC (’ 46 ) were written by Scotch Archivist , Paul Mishura ; and the obituary for Frederick Kenneth Wright (’ 41 ), was written by Paul Mishura , with almost all of the source material derived from an obituary by Geoff Burrows and Robert Nicol in The Age ( 20 December 2022 ).
BAKER , Geoffrey William (’ 47 ) Geoff wrote his own obituary .
Geoff was born on 6 September 1930 at Brighton . He won an Entrance Scholarship and left Warragul High School , attending Scotch from 1945 to 1948 and boarding in Arthur Robinson House ( where he was known as ‘ Charlie ’) as a member of Littlejohn House . He was a keen photographer who left a fascinating record of boarding life . Geoff won General Exhibitions in the 1948 Matriculation exams , and a Minor Resident Scholarship to Ormond College .
Among many relations at Scotch were his son David ( SC 1974-83 ; a financial adviser ), brother Clifford Aubrey Baker ( born 16.4.1928 , SC 1945 , co-Dux 1945 , died 13.8.2019 ), Lockhart and McClelland cousins and second cousins .
In 1953 Geoff graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Melbourne University and joined the Country Roads Board ( CRB ) in 1954 , designing and supervising bridge construction until March 1957 .
On 23 March 1957 Geoff married Shirley Evelyn Tuplin at Scotch . With a total of five children , their four daughters are Caroline ( a surgeon ), Susan and Gillian ( teachers ) and Meredith ( a company director ).
On leave from the CRB , Geoff was a structural engineer with Consultant Donovan H Lee in London , England , before becoming a bridge engineer with the Manitoba Public Works Department , Canada , in 1958 . He designed an urban and two rural bridges and updated the department ’ s bridge construction specifications .
Returning to the CRB , Geoff prepared and presented a technical report to the Royal Commission into the collapse of a span of the new King Street Bridge . He later installed the CRB ’ s first computer , and pioneered its use in bridge engineering , writing its first suite of bridge design software .
In 1968 Geoff joined the Commonwealth Department of Works and arranged the first installation of computer equipment in its offices around Australia . He established staffing sections for the engineering and architectural use of computers , and the development of a library of applications software .
Geoff was appointed General Manager of Health Computing Services Victoria in 1980 . It provided the main computer services to publicly-funded hospitals and other health services including the Ambulance Service and the Blood Bank . Geoff died at Mount Waverley on 12
November 2022 .
BUCHANAN AM , Dr Robert Alexander ( Alex ) (’ 50 ) Alex ’ s son , Ben (’ 89 ), wrote : Alex was born at Korumburra on 12 April 1934 , the son of Archibald Gray Buchanan ( born 8.3.1902 , SC 1916-20 , died 1.6.1987 ). He boarded at Scotch from 1947 to 1951 in School House and rowed in the 1950 2nd VIII . Scotch relatives included his cousins Peter ( SC 1946-53 ), Robin ( SC 1948-58 ) and David Mitchell Buchanan ( born 24.10.1944 , SC 1950-61 , died 25.9.2020 ), uncle Peter Mitchell Buchanan ( born 7.5.1904 , SC 1917-21 , died 24.3.1987 ) and son Ben ( SC 1983-89 ).
Alex was Rochester Butter Factory ’ s Assistant Manager before joining CSIRO Dairy Research in 1963 , starting a career in food research .
On 9 March 1966 Alex married Janice Isobel ( Jo ) Rogan at Scotch .
Completing a Biochemistry PhD at the University of London , at CSIRO Alex developed the Australian Milk Biscuit and later the High Energy Biscuit : major components of Australia ’ s Food Aid to developing countries , with a 100-tonne stockpile for emergency relief purposes .
In 1973 , with Australian and Thai government support , Alex worked under the Colombo Plan to support new mothers with an affordable dairy product for weaning . He developed Kaset Infant Food from non-dairy ingredients , a highly successful low-cost product still widely consumed across South-East Asia .
Alex ’ s reputation and respect in Asia resulted in his 1975 appointment by the Australian government to lead the Australia and ASEAN ( Association of South-East Asian Nations ) Economic Cooperation Program : the model for ongoing successful cooperation .
Returning to Australia , Alex was Honorary Editor of the ASEAN Food Journal for 10 years and managed Monash University ’ s Centre for Molecular Biology and Medicine .
In 1995 Alex became Executive Director of the Crawford Fund at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering . It advances scientific and technological expertise to increase global food production .
Alex ’ s international service through Rotary included helping establish the Royce and Jean Abbey Vocational Scholarship Fund , which for over 20 years has brought adults from developing countries to Australia for practical agricultural training .
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