Great Scot September 2019 Great Scot 157_September 2019_ONLINE | Page 90

OSCA
What they're doing now – compiled by David Ashton ('65)
LEFT TO RIGHT: WILLIAM DAVIES (’57); JOHN HART-SMITH (’57); DAVID PRICE (’58); PETER MAYALL (’62); NEIL CROLL (’62); MICHAEL PHILLIPS (’69);
1950s
In his schooldays, WILLIAM DAVIES
(‘57) was empowered to write by legendary
English teacher, Gordon ‘Gunner’ Owen.
William has recently completed his second
novel, Claypan, set in western Queensland.
His first novel, Molly, published in 2017, was
set in fictitious north-west African countries.
‘In early times,’ he says, ‘I fiddled around with
short stories, plays and poetry, as one does,
melodramatically driven. Now having left the
farming industry, I am enjoying the challenge
of writing elevated drivel without the melo
part, just the dramatic’.
For William, life now involves long stints
at the keyboard. ‘It’s a far cry from milking a
cow or straightening a bent back to fight a
shorn sheep. No more the weeping when
the crops fail and dust swirls all around.’
For more information, William’s website is
williamdavies.com.au.
After Scotch, DR JOHN HART-SMITH (‘57)
graduated B. Mech. E. (Hons) at the University
of Melbourne, and completed his PhD in
Engineering at Monash University, where
he was later awarded a Higher Doctorate in
Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Australian
Academy of Technology and Engineering.
In 1968 he joined Douglas Aircraft in Long
Beach, California, staying there when it
became McDonnell Douglas, and later
Boeing, and retiring in 2008. John’s specialty
was aircraft structures, and he travelled widely
throughout the worldwide aircraft industry,
developing particularly strong ties with SAAB
in Sweden. He still lives in California.
Much of his work involved solving
production problems with bonded and
composite structures, and designing
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Great Scot Number 157 – September 2019
and analysing aircraft structural joints,
subjects on which he published many
papers. In ‘retirement’ he is engaged in ‘an
ongoing battle’ over published thin-shell
buckling analyses, all of which, he says, are
wrong. John has two daughters and four
grandchildren, all in Australia, so he regularly
shuttles back and forth across the Pacific.
Captain of the School in 1958, DAVID
PRICE OAM, retired in 2002 as General
Surgeon at the Frankston Hospital. In
retirement David has developed a close
relationship with our near neighbour, Timor
Leste, having travelled to the city of Lospalos
12 times as a community volunteer with
the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s Friends
of Lospalos group. Launched in 2000, the
group works in conjunction with the local
people to help fund projects the Lospalos
community has identified as beneficial,
sustainable and achievable.
David was awarded the Medal of the Order
of Australia (OAM) in 2000 for service to the
community of Mornington, particularly through
the Uniting Church in Australia and groups
promoting social justice and local issues, and
long-term participation in international medical
missions.
1960s
After leaving Scotch PETER MAYALL
(‘62) attended Melbourne University Medical
School and subsequently undertook training
in obstetrics and gynaecology in Melbourne,
London and Hong Kong. He then practised
obstetrics and gynaecology in Geelong
for more than 30 years. During the latter
part of this period, Peter took a completely
different tack; he began studying archaeology
and physical anthropology (part-time) at
Melbourne University, culminating in a PhD in
2018. He was involved in the excavation of an
ancient burial site in the Republic of Georgia
with the Melbourne University Archaeology
department over four seasons which formed
the basis of his thesis titled ‘An investigation
of intentionally modified crania in Georgia and
Europe in the migration period (the fourth to
seventh century AD)’. He is continuing his
research as a Melbourne University
Honorary Fellow.
NEIL CROLL (’62) left Scotch after his
Leaving year in 1961 and spent the next
few years working as a motor mechanic.
Following an injury that left him unable to
work for some months, he completed his
Higher School Certificate at night classes,
then worked as a technician on various
research projects. Finding research funding a
frustratingly unreliable income, he trained as a
nurse, working in a variety of clinical services.
He undertook further studies: a bachelor’s
degree, masters preliminary, two graduate
diplomas and a masters degree, plus three
vocational education and training sector
courses. His PhD research was cut short by
a change of government and the subsequent
dropping of the policy he was studying.
Neil moved from clinical nursing to
academia, teaching various nursing subjects,
research methods and statistics, and
specialising in health policy and law. Neil
and his wife Katrina now live in Tasmania,
where they moved to enjoy sailing on the
D’Entrecasteaux Channel.
At school, Maths master KEN EVANS
(‘48) directed MICHAEL PHILLIPS (‘69) to