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Reunion reports - 2012



1992 graduates celebrate 20 year reunion, February 2012


At the end of a wet summer, the 1992 graduating year were blessed with a lovely dry evening for our reunion on February 25th. We had planned to be in the Great Hall, but instead spilled out into the Great Quad where we could better hear the Carillon being played and enjoy the warm twilight.
Just over one hundred people attended including many who passed in or out of our year as they took time off to undertake academic and not-so-academic adventures.
It was wonderful to catch up, if briefly, with people with whom we spent such a formative time. Despite the passing of many years, there was a palpable feeling of an easy bond - and lapsed friendship flooded back, bringing with it a lot of laughter and noisy reminiscing. As a group, we appear to have changed little: we may be mid-40s but we look and feel fabulous!
We would like to thank everyone who attended, especially those who made a great effort and travelled long distances to be there.
We would also like to warmly thank the Medical Alumni Association who managed the lion’s share of the logistics, and made the task not too onerous. There is already thought of a silver anniversary in 5 years’ time, instead of waiting another 10!

John Kennedy, Harry Koumoukelis, Silvia Fragiacomo



1967 graduates celebrate 45 year reunion, March 2012


Eighty six members of the graduating class of 1967 gathered with their partners at the Crowne Plaza, Coogee, on the night of 17 March 2012 to celebrate forty five years since finishing the medical course. This was our fifth get-together and was as different as all the rest had been from each other. Now that most of us have rounded up our careers and have found satisfaction in grandchildren and post-medicine activities the mood of the night was one of relaxed friendly interaction throughout. No sense of needing to reveal achievement; no undercurrents of rivalry. Just a pervading warmth and a feeling that it was a pity more friends couldn’t have been there to enjoy the occasion.
What about previous reunions? The first, in 1977, at the old Sebel Town House, saw members eyeing each other to see if there was evidence of developing career greatness. At the former Regent Hotel in 1987 we were resplendent in evening attire and may have begun to exude a whiff of success. At the Canberra Hyatt in 1997 we heard from some of our members tales of interests and achievements. The atmosphere was more relaxed (we were all now in the grooves of our respective careers, with little need to highlight any level we may have arrived at). The occasional speaker, ABC commentator Paul Lyneham, gave an acerbic, yet well received, review of some aspects of our craft. Then at our last reunion in 2007 in the Hunter Valley we heard about some colleagues’ non-medical pursuits such as the growing of wine grapes and the collecting of chatelaines. Clearly we were beginning to broaden our interests!
The event on 17 March last will be remembered for its informality, its fine food and, of course, the swapping of anecdotes of events past and present. From my own perspective I went away feeling that I’d had too little time to speak with too few people. Not only am I looking forward with pleasure and anticipation to the next event in 2017, I am determined to improve contact with those of my medical friends whose company gave me pleasure on the night and, in particular, those who I would dearly have loved to spend time with who could not be there.
Bring on the fiftieth!

Ian Stewart



1950 graduates celebrate 60 year reunion, March 2012


The Year that commenced medical studies in 1944 celebrated its 62nd anniversary of graduation with lunch at Concord Golf Club on Tuesday March 13, 2012. There have been several distinguishing features of this particular Year: (a) as undergrads we welcomed two sets of newcomers to our midst, the first were ex-servicemen who had been medical students before enlisting and the second were displaced refugee doctors from Europe after the conclusion of WW2, required by Australian Government regulations to attend the last three years of the medical course before registration (b) whereas some other groups have rarely met, this was our 13th time to foregather, and (c) we have never had invited speakers, preferring to indulge our own friendships.
Considering that our mean age now hovers around the mid-eighties, we were delighted to have 25 attendees which, when added to the 21 who tendered an apology, meant we had contact with about 70% of our 67 survivors. Nothing daunted by what Douglas Miller once referred to as ‘pathological delapidation’ facing our members, it was enthusiastically resolved to (try to) meet again in two years, in the same place.

Brian Pollard



1952 graduates celebrate 62 year reunion, March 2012


On Friday, 23 March, 2012, 49 members of the Sydney Medical School graduating class of 1952 met in the refectory in the Holme Building for lunch. We were accompanied by several relatives, friends and carers. A further twenty graduates sent apologies. As one might expect at a 60th reunion, we were all in our eighties and nineties, but definitely growing old gracefully and actively. A few are still working a couple of days a week. Most of us came from suburban Sydney, but there were 14 from country N.S.W., and Pam Donnelly (nee Hawke) came from Bundaberg, Warwick Steele from Fremantle and John Duke from beautiful, historic Norfolk Island. There were only seven girls.

As we gathered for drinks and nibbles in the Withdrawing Room, the refectory supervisor suggested that, considering our seniority, we should sit down at the dining tables and our enjoy our appetisers there. This was an excellent decision as it was easier to move around seeing people but having a comfortable base to which to return. We enjoyed hearing about the interests of our colleagues and successes of their children and grandchildren. There was a bit of discussion about the registration of retired doctors but no resolution of the problem. However, judging by the noise, we are still in good voice and spirits. We were served a delicious meal by the excellent staff of the refectory and enjoyed a glass or two of wine from the University’s cellars?

To our surprise and pleasure, we were visited by two first-year medical students, both from the USA but studying in Sydney. Gilbert Wallace summed up some of our thoughts: “One noticeable characteristic of all who were there is that they were slim. Who of us in 1952 would have predicted that obesity would be almost the major problem sixty years later? Cancer was to have been cured by the end of the century, and who thought of overpopulation? I envied those two medical students who came in, what will it be like in sixty-four years’ time, when they are celebrating their 60th? Hope they have fun, as we did, and hope there’s still some to come.”

We are grateful to the Medical Alumni Association, who organized the reunion for us, and met graduates as they arrived at the Holme Building. Please keep your details up to date with the University. This is important as we found a number of our class had been removed from the University address list, presumably because the journal, SAM, had been returned ‘Address Unknown’ when a new address had not been advised.
We hope the next reunion can be organized for 2014.

Monica Bullen


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