This is a page for placing stories by or about interesting members and course leaders of Sydney U3A. Your contributions are welcome, either about a member you know (but with his or her concurrence), or about your own activities, auto-biography, or stories from your life. Photos are very welcome, but they must have their subjects' consent to be published. Please contact Ron Mead by email on eppingmead(at)gmail.com or on 9871 2580.
Mary Small, who leads the popular Armchair Travellers class at the Cronulla School of Arts, is a well known author, with books of various genres to her credit, including the well-known Tracey McBean's Stretching Machine. Read more about Mary here.
At the final session of Even Wiser! for the first semester 2009, Yola Center gave a talk entitled Reading Wars. She finished up by telling us the story of having been asked to address a group of politicians, educators and officials. She was told by the organiser that they all had a short attention span. She was given 5 minutes to explain her theory of how children should be taught to read. Click here for her talk.
Click here for a short bio of Yola.
Colin was a former foreign correspondent in Singapore for the ABC from 1956 to 1959 as well as SEATO adviser to the Thai Government and a senator in the Federal Parliament for nine years as deputy leader of the Australian Democrats. As an author, he has published 12 books including the international bestselling novel 'Hostage', 'A Short History of the Future' and, most recently, 'A Short History of Asia'. Colin originally wrote this history because he felt that there was an almost total ignorance for many people of what life is like in Asia. The book was immediately welcomed by Macmillan Publishers, London in 2000, is now in its second edition and is a bestseller in its field around the world. Born in New Zealand, this multi-talented man lived for many years in Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains and five years ago joined MAP region of Sydney U3A after moving to Bayview. An important hobby for Colin is music with his Bechstein Grand Piano taking pride of place in his present home. With three children and five grandchildren, many people might consider that it was time to take things easy but - not a bit of it. Concerned with the future of our planet and what we, as citizens, could be doing to improve things, Colin ia leading a course for MAP this semester entitled - 21st Century Topics'. The course will cover such things as:-
· Climate change and sea level rises · The future of our cities and transport
· The future of money
Colin will focus on what can be done about these issues and plans to include group discussion as a major element throughout the course.
"Tom Kaldor never forgot the day he crossed the border from Hungary into Austria. It was December 11, 1956. And it was, he felt, the first true day of freedom in his 24 years."
Read the obituary to Tom published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 27 November 2008.
Ross is one of our younger members, who loves the Australian Bush. He is an orienteer (a sport that combines bush navigation skills with physical fitness and agility) who also loves bushwalking. An Upper North Region resident, he attends U3A classes in Government Through the Ages, Science and Technology, Chess, and Creative Writing.
Click here for a very informative Excel spreadsheet that Ross has put together containing an analysis of countries throughout the world and their population characteristics. This was work he did to assist his understanding of issues raised in Varoe Legge's course "Government Through the Ages" at the Gordon Life Line Centre.
Click here to see an account of a classic bushwalk from Cowan to Berowra, and admire his pictures of wildflowers, blooming already in July.
Dawn Bruce (pictured reading) is the leader of the U3A Writing Poetry group at McMahon's Point Community Centre.
Her third collection of poems 'Sketching Light' was recently launched at Gleebooks, Glebe, where many members of U3A were in attendance. The launcher (seated) is Beverley George, President of the Haiku Society of Australia and Editor of Eucalypt.
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Harbourside North member, Liesel Scholem, still has vivid memories of being an onlooker at a passing parade wildly cheering Adolf Hitler in the early days of his reign. This childhood memory is told in an understated way that nevertheless brings a shudder into the mind of the reader. Read it here and finish with a quiet relief that she and her family escaped the forthcoming horror.
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SCHOLEM V PASSIVE SMOKE
We all remember not so many years ago that we all had to put up with inhaling other people's smoke in the workplace and in public places, even in our own homes if we wanted to remain on good terms with our friends.
Liesel engaged in and won landmark litigation that was instrumental in changing the mindset of the Australian public to this blight. Thanks are due to her for our current freedom to go about our daily business nowadays and not to be forced to silently inhale this toxic pollution.
She wrote a book about her experiences. It's a good read, and it's reproduced in this section (click here) in a pdf file (127 pages). If you save the file onto your hard disk, you can set up your computer to open a pdf file at the place where you previously closed it.
With any PDF file open,
1. select ‘document’ from the toolbar at the top of the screen.
2. select: ‘Accessibility Setup Assistant’
3. click through several screens by entering ‘next’, ‘next’ etc until screen 5 of 5.
4. select: ‘Reopen documents to the last viewed page’
5. enter: ‘done’
“Isn’t it about time you slowed down, dear?“ is not something you should ever ask Dorothy Clarke, the Publicity Officer of Endeavour (Southern) Region. Dorothy turned 89 earlier in July and is not reticent about her age – in fact, she flaunts it.
She recently won the award for Volunteer of the Year for the Southern Sydney region.
Read more about Dorothy here.
A member from Harbourside North, Brian does have a life outside U3A. He’s a model train enthusiast, and has been since he was a boy. And how! No potterer about, this man! He’s really into model trains in a big way. As he says, “it keeps me off the streets”. Read more about him and his fascinating hobby here.
Take time to view the You-Tube video of Brian and his model inside the link.
Harbourside North member, Helen Walker, featured with her husband, John, in "2 of Us" in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend supplement on 14 February 2009. They came to Australia from Czechoslovakia after World War II, having both survived Nazi concentration camps. They have two children and three grandchildren. Read the text of the Good Weekend story here.
The death of former president of Sydney U3A, Don Fifer, member number 1329, occurred in November, 2008. Don and his wife, Dorothy, joined Sydney U3A in 1991 and quickly became enthusiastic and active members. From 1992 to 2000 Don successively filled the roles of Course Coordinator (MAP region), Vice-President Education, Secretary, and finally President of Sydney U3A in 1998.
As Secretary he initiated a “Future Directions” seminar, gathering together the regional executives of Sydney U3A with the central Management Committee in1997. The decisions reached at this seminar resulted in the setting up of structures and policies which have served our Association well for the following decade.
As President, Don hosted the very successful 1998 National U3A Conference, which was attended by U3A members from all states of Australia. A highlight of this conference for interstate visitors was a tour of the newly completed Sydney 2000 Olympic Site.
After retiring from the Management Committee, Don became a course leader in Australian history and literature, and in creative writing.
We extend the sympathy of all U3A members to Don’s wife, Dorothy and the family.
Jerzy Trau has been a course leader in Upper North region for a number of years, conducting beginners' as well as more advanced courses in Hebrew at his home in Wahroonga.
He is one of a diminishing number of Jewish migrants of Eastern European origin who can recount horrific experiences at the hands of the Nazis during WWII, as well as by the Russians immediately after the war.
Read his story by clicking here.
(I would very much welcome receiving other similar stories from our Central and Eastern European migrant members to put up on this page - RM.)
Breda is a very very active member of U3A. She takes names and attends courses every week in Mosman in the Art Gallery and in the Senior Centre with her husband Murray, who has given talks. This article appeared in the Mosman Daily of 28 August 2008.
Click here for his autobiography
‘A Farmer’s Life in Zimbabwe’
Peter Hubert has been a member of MAP for five years. His ready humour and pithy comments make him a much valued member of every group to which he belongs. For further information about Peter’s autobiography, please contact him on:- p.hubert(at)bigpond.com
This is the third year that Joyce Christie has belonged to Dawn Bruce's U3A Poetry writing group. Joyce had never written any poetry before joining the group so she was delighted when she sent her poem 'Chanting' to Social Alternatives and it was accepted for publication. We are all so happy for her and wish her many more publications!
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