Great Scot May 2020 Great Scot 159_MAY 2020_ONLINE_V3 | Page 96

OBITUARIES
captained the 1954 team. He was a member
of the premiership 1951 under 16A football
team, and the premiership 1953 and 1954
1st XVIIIs. John was a member of Gardiner
(which became Gilray) House, and was a
1953 Probationer and a 1954 Prefect.
Also at Scotch were John’s brother,
Frederick Charles Samuel Smith (born 26
September 1933, SC 1948-51, died 11
August 2012), sons Mike (SC 1974-79) and
Andrew (SC 1975-80), and grandsons Oscar
(SC 2007-13) and Kingsley Gilmour (Year 10).
Other grandsons attended Wesley College
and Carey Baptist Grammar School.
Although John won triple colours, it was
cricket in which he excelled. He was the
opening bowler for the 1st XI each year,
and, in his first season, John took a double
hat-trick – four wickets in four balls – against
Xavier College. He captained the combined
APS team in a match against the Governor’s
XI in 1954.
As Captain of Hawthorn-East Melbourne,
John led his team to the Victorian District
cricket premiership in 1963, and that
December he played for Victoria against
South Africa, during the last South African
tour before the apartheid era ban. His first
class cricket career totalled one match, with
family commitments preventing him from
pursuing his cricket further.
John studied pharmacy at the Pharmacy
College, and, during his apprenticeship, he
met Jillian Blenkiron, the niece of Scotch’s
famous teacher, Harold Clarence Blenkiron.
They married at Scotch on 17 March 1960.
For 30 years John ran I F Tait’s Pharmacy in
Domain Road, South Yarra.
John was a devoted Old Scotch
Collegian who – from at least 2007 until his
death – was a volunteer in the Archives.
Sometimes working two days a week, he
began by meticulously handwriting names
on files after correctly identifying the person
from a database search.
The introduction of a label printer
expedited this task, and his efforts (among
others) resulted in more than 29,000 files
being created by the time of his death
John also enjoyed the social aspect
of volunteering, with several near-
contemporaries also volunteers.
John died suddenly on 10 February 2020
at the Epworth Hospital, Richmond, as the
96
result of a stroke. He is survived by his wife,
sons, and daughter Kate.
TAYLOR, Peter John
('71)
Peter’s Scotch
classmate and friend,
James Simpson, wrote:
Peter John ‘PJ’ Taylor
was born on 11 January
1955 at St Andrew’s
Hospital, East Melbourne, the son of John
Albert Taylor (born 20 October 1926, SC
1933-43, died 27 October 1996), brother of
Andrew (SC 1973-78) and nephew of Geoff
(SC 1941-54).
Entering Scotch in Form 1C in 1966,
Peter shone academically. A brilliant
mathematician and gifted in humanities,
Peter was 1971 Dux, topping the state
in the HSC. He earned his degree in
Biomathematics and Zoology in 1975 from
Monash, where he co-edited its newspaper,
Lot’s Wife. Activist politics, already
registered at school and accentuated at
university, directed most facets of Peter’s life
thereafter.
His scientific interests focused on
the social premises and consequences
of biological research. Gaining his
doctorate from Harvard University (1985),
a brilliant academic career followed. From
1998 as a professor at the University
of Massachusetts, Boston, USA, Peter
directed his distinctive graduate program,
Critical & Creative Thinking.
Peter’s unflagging research career
produced six books, including Unruly
Complexity: Ecology, Interpretation,
Engagement (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2005), and dozens of
academic papers.
Deep communitarian commitments that
nourished Peter’s scientific work were no
less consistently expressed in his family
life. Peter married Dr Ann Shelby Blum on
25 April 1986 at the Cambridge City Hall,
Cambridge, Massachusetts. He nursed his
beloved wife with unflagging patience and
loving care until her death on 28 November
2015. Peter was a magnificent dad to his
gifted son, Vann.
Every inch an insatiable thinker,
Peter’s thinking was not, however, coldly
abstract. On the contrary, it fed into a
communitarian version of scientific research
and practice, no less than into the loving
daily rounds of family life. Hard thought and
devoted practice were joined with singular
coherence.
After the relatively sudden onset of
illness, Peter died on 29 October 2019 at
Arlington, Massachusetts.
Peter’s was a life of unfailing intellectual
rigour, communitarian commitment, and
devotion to family. His was a noble life, cut
prematurely short. He will be missed by his
son Vann, his fiancé Barbara, his students,
his family, and many friends.
CAIN, the Hon. John Alfred ('48)
John Alfred Cain was born at Richmond
on 26 April 1931, and attended Scotch from
1947 to 1948. When he entered Scotch, his
father, John Cain, was the Labor Premier of
Victoria. John (junior) was a member of the
Library Committee, and – unsurprisingly – a
member of the Debating Society. John
was noted for being a hard worker at
Scotch, and for being successful in his
desire to improve his results. At the 1948
Matriculation examination he won first class
honours in Economics, and second class
honours in British History.
Graduating LLB from Melbourne
University (1952), John was admitted to
practice in 1954. An employee solicitor
from 1954 to 1957, he managed his own
Preston practice from 1957 to 1976. John
Great Scot Issue 159 – May 2020