Alumni
Jenny Wood - A life-long connection with The Friends' School
In 2021 Jenny Wood reached a milestone at Friends’ with 50 years of service - a milestone that has only been achieved by one other staff member, Eric ‘Cracker’ Morris. However, Jenny has an even longer connection to Friends’, she was a student between 1959 and 1963.
Jenny joined the teaching staff at Friends’ in 1971, and over the past 50 years has served the School as a teacher at Morris and Sherwood, sports coach, ‘Mum’ to many Gappies (often affectionately referred to as "Jenma" by our GAP students), and tutor to numerous Friends’ students.
Jenny is officially retiring from The Friends' School in Mid-July and will be honoured through "The Jenny Wood Common Room", located at Robey House.
Thank you Jenny for your dedication, passion for teaching, and commitment to students’ needs.
Quick Alumni Updates
Hannah ROBERT-TISSOT (2007) was introduced to underwater hockey during her Friends' years in the 2000s. Hannah recently played in the National Underwater Hockey Championships held in Hobart, and is captain of the Tasmanian and Australian Underwater Hockey team. Hannah's team played at 14 consecutive National Championships, and has won 14 medals, of which 8 were gold medals. Hannah has also competed at three World Championships and multiple Southern Hemisphere and Trans-Tasman tournaments. Hannah is also a Clinical Trials Research Coordinator at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research.
Henry CURTIS (2010) Hockey has been a strong interest of Friends’ students since the late 1940s, and Henry certainly carries on that tradition with pride. An avid sportsman, Henry achieved multiple accolades in his time at Friends' in hockey, water polo, swimming and rowing. Currently Henry is playing strongly with Derwent in the men’s Premier League. He has played in 4 Premier League finals with Derwent, finally winning the premiership in 2019. Derwent is currently top of the ladder and they are hoping to win again this year. Henry also enjoys his current role as a teacher of Year 3-4 students at New Town Primary School.
Sabina NEWTON (2017) Currently a Commerce student at the University of Melbourne, Sabina credits time spent at her family shack at Coles Bay as starting her passion for fish. She learned to scuba dive at Coles Bay where the sea, and its bounty, revealed itself to her. Maybe time with Jane Smith, Sue Walker and Brittany Guy in the School’s kitchen helped hone the cooking skills she learned at home. Sabina recently starred in the TV cooking show, Master Chef, where she cooked a series of delectable dishes, many of which had special meaning as they were inspired by family and reminded Sabina of family trips. This included a recent impressive seafood stew that won her an immunity challenge; and saw Sabina make it to the final 6 contestants. Well done, Sabina.
Obituaries
Brian Woolnough (1939-2021), Class of 1956
Thank you to Brian’s cousin Mary for sharing this obituary.
Brian Woolnough was a student at Friends’ from 1946, departing in Year 11 in 1955. He was an Unwin House Captain and a proud recipient of a sports blazer for both Athletics and Cricket. His sisters Margaret Woolnough and Sue Woolnough were also students at the School, in the Class of 1953 and the Class of 1966 respectively.
Brian started his working life in Hobart in the tyre business, and in the 1960s he moved to Sydney. He and his wife Ros bought a delicatessen in the Sydney suburb of Lugarno and rumour has it they developed the formula for the best milkshakes on the planet! His next career move was the purchase of a tyre business in Murwillumbah where he stayed for over 30 years. He lived with his family on the banks of the Tweed River at Banora Point.
In his retirement Brian enjoyed both caravanning and sailing. He had a magnificent boat and enjoyed many happy hours while cruising. There wasn’t much of Australia he and his wife had not visited.
Brian suffered ill-health for the last 10 years but as his brother-in-law said in his eulogy, “he never wavered and didn’t know how to take a backward step.” Brian is survived by Ros, his wife, and children, Jenny and Karen.
Ian Theodore Nigel Potts (1941-2021), Class of 1958
Thank you to Ian’s wife Cricket Kemp for sharing this obituary from their local paper in Appleby, UK.
The flag was flying at half-mast in Appleby Town this week in celebration of the life of Ian Potts, who had served as a town councillor and was mayor-elect when a sudden illness on 29 December 2008 prevented his being installed as mayor.
Ian was born in Worthing on 20 September 1941. His parents were Theodore Herald Potts (Theo - teacher of classics and maths) and Margaret Joyce Oakshott Potts (Joy - concert pianist). After WWII, his parents decided to emigrate to Australia as £10 poms, settling in Tasmania. Ian studied at Friend’s School in Hobart, Tasmania, on full scholarship. The family left Tasmania towards the end of his secondary education. He joined the boys' troop of the Royal Artillery Band, playing clarinet and cello. He marched in lots of Lord Mayor’s parades in London, played for garden parties at Buckingham Palace, and at many Edinburgh Tattoos. He progressed well and was offered a chance to train as a military bandleader at Netherhall. Instead, he decided to train as a music teacher at Exeter University, where he completed the three-year course in one year, with a First Class Honours Degree, and Grade 8 in seven different instruments. He was an associate of the Royal Schools of music, and taught for and examined for them for most of his life. He taught music in several secondary schools, and taught and played solo clarinet professionally. He took over the Lincolnshire Concert Band which travelled to Europe playing concerts. After teaching for the forces at Kings School in Germany, he returned to England, playing professionally, and returned to Music Education. He leapt at a job in Cumbria, which he loved, managing the Schools Music service until it closed. He accepted an invitation to form a Cumbria Cobwebs Orchestra, which accepted musicians from all levels, recruiting players, arranging music and conducting.
Ian, and his wife Cricket Kemp married and moved to Appleby in 1997, where Ian became the Appleby concert organiser for North Westmorland Arts while he continued to teach clarinet privately and played as a solo clarinetist. He was a keen hill walker, and spent much time in the surrounding hills. He was a keen collector of classic cars. Ian spent much of his life working for the communities he lived in, supporting others.
In early January 2009, to save his life when he was dying of heart failure, Ian received the first Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) ever installed at the Freeman hospital. The average time that patients live with this device is 18 months. Ian lived with his for 13 years, longer than anyone else in the world, astounding doctors. After several months of poor health, he finally exited quickly, quietly and painlessly on 18 May 2021, and will be sadly missed.
Ian was well travelled and a great teller of stories, with a wry sense of humour.
Ian was father to six children: Stefan, Marion, Kristian, Emma, Adam and Martin (deceased), and grandfather to ten grandchildren.
Ripon Shield (1948-2021), Class of 1965
Thank you to Kathy Rundle for sharing this obituary based on her recent eulogy for Ripon.
Recently many members of the wider Shield family gathered to celebrate the life of Edward (Ripon) Shield. Much of the Shield family have attended Friends’ over time. Edward Ripon Shield and his wife Mary sent their two children to board at the School, Kathleen (1918) and Leslie Ripon Shield (1915). Kathleen later married Harold Hansen; and Leslie married Gladys Madsen. Many of Gladys’ nephews and nieces attended Friends’ as well.
Leslie Ripon Shield and Gladys Estelle Madsen married in 1934 and made their home at Glenbrook, Glen Huon. They had a daughter who died soon after her birth in 1944. Their son, Edward Ripon, was born 9 July 1948 at the Beaumont Hospital Franklin. Edward was always known as Ripon or Rip, and began his education close to his home at Glen Huon Primary School. He was just over 10 when he started at Friends’ as a boarder in 1959.
Rip’s academic strengths were demonstrated when he was awarded a Credit Award at the end of his first year at Friends’. He went on to achieve a Credit Award for the next four years. Rip is named on School honour boards: the 1960 William Benson Scholarship and the 1963 Old Scholars Academic Prize.
Rip was a quiet and popular boarder, his wry humor appreciated by many. Rumour has it that after he completed his homework Ripon “took on” other boarders’ homework. Outside class, Rip’s interests at Friends’ included participating in Public Speaking Lecturettes, the United Nations Club and the Astronomy Club, of which he was Secretary and President in his later school years. He worked on the school library committee and on the Focus newspaper committee. Rip was a school prefect in his final year at the School.
Rip‘s university career was curtailed and he began working in the Tax Office, then with Telecom before his early retirement. Rip’s working life included considerable experience in the public and community sectors specialising in accounting and finance, including roles as Assessor Supervisor and as a Revenue ED Project manager for the Australian Taxation Office. He worked as a Financial Accounting Manager and Internal Auditor for Telecom.
Following his early retirement, Rip held voluntary positions with a number of not-for-profit charitable organisations including treasurer of the Tasmanian Sunshine Association of Tasmania. Rip was involved with the Hobart City Mission for many years; he joined the Board in 2010 and served on the Finance, Investment and Property Management Committee. Rip was especially interested in the Hobart City Mission’s program Early Support for Parents. Rip also enjoyed his membership of the French Car Club of Tasmania and of the Clarence Plains Historical Society.
Rip was a faithful long-time member of The Friends’ School Old Scholars’ Association and for over 15 years was a weekly volunteer in The Friends’ School Archives. One of Rip’s jobs was helping the Archivist to organise a Rare Book room. He spent many months of Tuesdays in the Rare Book Room undertaking his allotted tasks with great thoroughness. Many other Tuesdays were spent in the old Hobartville attics to sort, organise and check past publications. As a ‘dotter of Is and crosser of Ts’ he was dependable and invaluable as a proofreader of articles in Archives.
Rip was very proud of the Shield name and the way it fitted into the Friends’ Story; he maintained a family tree adding new information as and when discovered. He was responsible for the restoration of the Shield monument at Cornelian Bay. Rip hung a large picture of the original Rippon Shield in his hallway. This first Rippon Shield was a leading builder in early Hobart, who built the Friends’ Meeting House in Murray Street with stone surplus to St Mary's Cathedral’s rebuild.
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Alumni Rep Quarterly Meeting - May 2021
A summary of discussions from our most recent Alumni Rep meeting follows:
- The next “Hobart Friends” event, for former students and families, past staff and volunteers and friends of the School to gather for an informal drink and catch up, is planned for late October. More details will be shared soon.
- Reunions are back - visit Reunions & Events for more information.
- A past staff reunion has been proposed for the end of the year. More details to come. If any former staff would like to get involved please get in touch.
- Our focus on young alumni initiatives continues with a specific focus on supporting Year 12 students to transition to life after School.
- Principal Nelson File invited the Alumni Reps to join the annual Principal’s Address Q&A session at the School. You can read the 2021 Principal’s Address here.
- Friends’ Together, our annual giving program, has launched. This year we are asking our community to help fund the installation of the Court at the centre of our new Sports Centre.
- We continue to seek alumni stories to share with our community. With the new Sports Centre being built, and in an Olympic year, sports stories are very welcome.
Quarterly Alumni Rep Meeting - summary of discussions.
About the Friends’ Alumni Community
The Friends’ Alumni Community encompasses alumni and their families, former staff and volunteers, and friends of the School – wherever they are in the world. Membership is automatic – there is no application or membership fee. Alumni Community Representatives volunteer their time to foster meaningful connections amongst the alumni community and with the School. To learn more about the Alumni Community, and current Representatives, visit Alumni Community on our website.
Stay Connected
Email: stayconnected@friends.tas.edu.au