Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 71

OSCA
MR SCOTT MONTGOMERY
('85) OSCA EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR
OSCA Annual Dinner
2019 – nostalgia, great fun
and warm fellowship
We are Scotch Collegians all, And we rally at the call,
As our fathers and our brothers used to do …
Leonda echoed loud and long to the glad shouts
of more than 450 Old Boys and guests at the hugely
successful 2019 OSCA Annual Dinner on 18 May.
In a night of many highlights, Guest of Honour Rob
Phillpot (’91) spoke graphically and amusingly about the
rise of his company, Aconex Limited, which he founded
in cooperation with Leigh Jasper, a fellow member of
the Class of 1991. The company has been involved in
YOUNG OLD BOYS
SINGING WITH
GREAT ENTHUSIASM
AT THE OSCA
ANNUAL DINNER
major projects, such as Marina Bay Sands in Singapore,
the Panama Canal expansion and the Dubai Metro. The
company was sold for $1.6 billion in 2018.
Rob told several anecdotes about his days on the
sports field and in the boarding house, and he was
delighted that Tim Scotford, Head of Arthur Robinson
House in Rob’s Scotch days, had come from Gilgandra in
central west NSW to attend the dinner.
Earlier, OSCA President James Douglas (’84)
welcomed Old Boys and guests, and introduced the
theme of ‘innovation’, which Rob Phillpot would take up,
and then James proposed the toast to the School.
The ‘calling of the years’ is always a highlight of the
evening, but this year it took on added significance. Old
Boys are invited to stand, and to sit down as the decade
in which they left Scotch is called. The 1940s were
represented by Jim Mitchell (’41), Fred Pearson (’44), Bill
Philip (School Captain in 1946), David Purvis (’44) and
Keith Weymouth (’44).
Those Old Boys were acclaimed, but special applause
was reserved for the two oldest Old Boys present, both
members of the Class of 1935 – Arthur Atkins, 101 years
old, and the oldest known living Old Boy at 103, Bill
Morgan, School Captain in his final year.
Bill received an emotion-charged standing ovation,
and then delivered a flawless ‘word of thanks’, to more
sustained applause. As Former School Captain Peter
(Gus) Hawthorne (’54) remarked: ‘It was worth coming to
the dinner just to hear that!’
William Wilson (’12) skilfully performed the Haggis
Ceremony, sounding for all the world as if he had been
born and bred in the Highlands. The Principal, Tom
Batty, spoke entertainingly and engagingly, speaking of
current projects at Scotch, and of recent achievements
academically and on the sports field.
It wouldn’t be an OSCA Annual Dinner without the
school songs, and they were all sung as usual with vigour,
conducted by Scotch’s Director of Music, John Ferguson.
I’m most grateful to OSCA Council’s Annual Dinner
committee, led by Andrew Wilson (’78) and Martin Barr
(’96), who did a power of work to ensure the dinner’s
success, as did then OSCA Events Coordinator, Bec
Marshall, in her final event before heading off to a new
life in Wentworth, NSW. Master of Ceremonies, Lachie
Baird (’08) kept proceedings running smoothly in a unique
laconic style.
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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