Mary’s Men

25 Mar 2013

By The Record

The French town of La Valla, where St Marcellin Champagnat began his first community of religious brother-teachers. PHOTO: Paul Maughan

By Hugh Ryan

This week’s article is the second in a series looking back over the WA Marist Brothers’ century.

Brother Sebastian Hayden, who had helped Br Stanislaus to establish SIC in 1913-1916, returned as principal in 1929-31. NZ-born, he was trained in Sydney and spent the rest of his life in Australia.

He was a prefect at St Joseph’s and not long afterwards he returned to spend ten years as a tower of strength as a teacher and Master of Discipline. He was in charge of rowing and GPS rugby and St Joseph’s were premiers 1904-07.

He taught at St Mary’s 1909-10 and then went to Mittagong where he supervised the construction of the Senior Brothers’ house before going to New Norcia in 1913.

His last long appointment after his second period at SIC was to Assumption College, Kilmore where he managed the accounts, the farm, the servants and the material needs of the Brothers and boys. A man of commanding presence and a gifted speaker, he was an adviser to several Provincials.

He died at Assumption College at the age of 75 on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1948.

Br Brendan Hill had a distinguished career as principal in various colleges in New Zealand, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales before he was appointed Provincial in 1925.

During his term as Provincial, he opened the Brothers’ first two schools in Queensland and seven others in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. At the end of his term as Provincial he was appointed Principal at SIC from 1932-34.

He died in 1962 at the age of 92 after 77 years as a Marist Brother, and was the first Brother buried at Macedon, just 10 miles from his birthplace at Woodend, and later reinterred at Kilmore.

Br Placid Gilchrist succeeded Br Brendan from 1935-39. Born in Sydney in 1874, he received the religious habit in 1892.

As a young man, he was deeply influenced by Br Stanislaus Healy, the founder of  SIC. From 1904 to 1942, this gifted teacher and dedicated Brother was principal of numerous schools in various Australian States.

At St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill he worked hard to improve the facilities and to plan for a new chapel. He was known for his kindness, his wisdom and his faith.

After his five years at New Norcia, he was put in charge of the Juniorate and the Scholasticate at Mittagong. His final appointment was as Maths teacher at the new Bondi Beach school where he died at the age of 75 at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

Br Bernard McGann was principal at SIC in 1940 and ’41. Born at Bendigo in 1902, he attended the Juniorate at Hunters Hill from 1916 and received the habit in 1922. He was an exemplary Religious and a skilled teacher.

He was among the 1931 group of Brothers allowed to attend Sydney University at night and graduated in Arts in 1934, majoring in English and Latin.

As well as New Norcia, he was principal of many schools including Mosman, Kyneton and Shepparton. He was a member of the Melbourne Provincial Council from 1948-75 and was Province Bursar, in addition to his other duties, for the same period.

It was in the area of formation that Br Bernard exercised his greatest influence. He was Director of the Novitiate at Mittagong for 11 years and spent 16 years at Macedon, six as Director and three as Novice Master.

He also spent three years at the Scholasticate at Clayton, one as Director. His love of his vocation was a feature of his work in formation.

His final two years were spent at Templestowe and Bendigo where he died in 1987 aged 84. Br Ethelred Ferguson, 1942-47, had a distinguished home and international career with the Marist Brothers and it was said by the Brothers who knew him that if any of them were to be canonised it would probably be Ethelred.

Born at Lismore in 1912, he was educated primarily by his mother. He chose to enter the Marist Brothers’ Juniorate at Mittagong in 1925 and was professed in 1930.

His teaching appointments took him to Sale 1931, the Juniorate at Mittagong 1933, Darlinghurst 1937, and Kogarah in 1938 as headmaster at age 26.

Another year at the Juniorate preceded his 1942 arrival as principal at SIC at age 30. His generosity, good humour and ability to rise above difficulties (of which there were many in the war years) created a lasting reputation among the students and Old Boys.

After New Norcia, his appointment to the Minor Seminary at Springwood (1948-50) allowed him to influence the formation of a number of future priests.

After his own Second Novitiate in France in 1953, he became Master of Novices at Mittagong from 1954 to ’62, an appointment which enhanced the honour and affection with which he was regarded in the Sydney Province.

After another three years at Kogarah (1963-65), he was sent to Corpus Christi College, London, and then to Fribourg, Switzerland as Master of Second Novices from 1967-74 where he had a big influence on many experienced Brothers on an international scale.

From 1975 to 1981 he joined the administrative team at the General House in Rome and the Provincial House in Drummoyne. He moved into the Senior Brothers’ quarters at St Joseph’s in 1981 and died on December 9, 1993, aged 81.

Br Lucian Gerber, who succeeded Br Ethelred from 1948-53, was another product of the Brothers’ Bendigo school, after which he went to the Mittagong Juniorate in 1933. After a long stay at Hamilton where he showed remarkable ability in teaching, coaching and organisation, he was appointed principal of North Sydney in 1947.

Reorganisation of the Brothers into Sydney and Melbourne Provinces saw Br Lucian assigned to Melbourne and appointed to SIC. After six years there, he became the founding principal of St Joseph’s in Subiaco in 1954.

Later, after periods at Camberwell, Sale, Shepparton and Thebarton, he became principal at St John’s, Hawthorn where he took ill. He returned to Bendigo where he died aged 55 in 1972.

History was made in 1954 when Br Oliver Clarke became the first SIC Old Boy to be made principal at New Norcia.

Denis Austin Clarke was born in Moora in 1914 and lived at Dandaragan where first his mother Mary (for four years) and then his father John (for 10 years) were the teachers in the one-teacher school.

Records show that Dandaragan pupils won more State scholarships than any other country school. The family of six boys lived in a small cottage behind the school.

In 1928, he went to SIC where he completed his Leaving Certificate and distinguished himself as a fine athlete, captain of the First XVIII, President of the Sodality of Mary, and winner of the Br Stanislaus medal for conduct, study and sport. He was also universally popular.

After a year in the Juniorate at Mittagong, he entered the Novitiate, was professed in 1936 and had his post-Novitiate teacher training in 1937. He then spent six years as teacher of the juniors at Mittagong.

A long series of appointments as principal began with Rosalie in Queensland in 1943, followed by Ashgrove 1945, Hawthorn ‘47, Griffith ’50, Northam ’53, New Norcia ’54 and Wangaratta ’61.

These war and post-war years were hard times for Catholic school principals with the arrival of waves of European migrants and baby boomers crowding the schools affected by a huge backlog of maintenance and no government assistance.

Br Oliver showed his own brand of organisation and dedication, bringing leadership, coherence, quality and good humour to the schools and his communities.

In 1962, he was appointed to the Provincial Council for 14 years, 12 of them as Vice Provincial. In 1969, he began the Marist Newsletter and stepped down in 1989.

In a time when many were coping with changes in religious life, the newsletter was a valued source of information and inspiration.

In 1975, he moved to Temple-stowe where he became the first Province Archivist and set about protecting the Marist story by compiling a treasure trove of well-organised material for future historians.

He also took on gardening and is responsible for the famous rose gardens that adorn the front of the Templestowe Province Centre.

In 1995, Br Oliver took an exploratory trip to Darwin. His request to join the Karama community there was granted and he contentedly spent the last 16 years of his long life there.

At his funeral on August 9, 2011, his Provincial, Br Julian Casey, recorded that from the age of 60 onwards Br Oliver suffered a number of health conditions – two heart attacks, deafness, diabetes, dermatitis, shingles, inflammatory polyarthritis, stomach haemorrhage and ulcer. “The man who triumphantly overcame all these challenges was of the same clay as the rest of us, but he was of a different mould,” Br Julian said.

The story of Br Oliver would not be complete without recording that when he went to France for his second novitiate in 1955-56, the man who became acting principal was another famous Old Boy, Br Albertus Sellenger.

The son of a WA Police Commissioner, Br Albertus was one of the first students to arrive at the college before classes started in 1913. He joined the Brothers on leaving school and made his first return to SIC under Br Guibertus in mid-1925, remaining through 1926-27.

He returned in 1945 and remained continuously until the end of 1961, turning up at Assumption College in 1962.

During his long stint at SIC he studied externally with UWA and completed a BA. His extraordinary teaching capacity is revealed by his 1956 program when he taught English, Physics, Maths A, Maths B, Geography and Art to Leaving and 4th Year.

Br Albertus died in Mercy Hospital, Melbourne, aged 77, on July 7, 1978, and was buried at Kilmore.

The last principal at SIC was Br Oswald Maher who arrived in 1956. He took over from Br Oliver in 1960 and saw the college through to its closure and transfer back to the Benedictines in 1964, while some of the community and senior boarders transferred to the new Marist College Churchlands under Br Cletus Read as principal in 1965.

Br Oswald’s teaching career with the Brothers began in Forbes in 1947, followed by Kilmore, Bunbury, New Norcia, Hawthorn, Bendigo, Kilmore, North Fitzroy (principal), Glenelg and Mt Gambier (1980) when he was released from the classroom because of ill health.

For the next 10 years he was groundsman at Macedon and Templestowe and a keen member of the St Vincent de Paul Society while living in community at Bulleen.

In 1998, he went to Milikapti on Melville Island to form a community of two and run the recreation hall. After two years he went to Karama in Darwin, transferred to Bendigo in 2001 and now lives in community in Brisbane.

Northam

The Marist Brothers began their expansion in WA on February 3, 1948 with the opening of St Paul’s College at Northam.

Brothers Bertinus Feehan, principal, and Godric Horgan actually began the school in the parish hall, but on May 17 the school moved to ‘Fermoy’ which was built in 1900 for the Throssell family and later served as a hospital before being renovated to become the Brothers’ residence and school.

The 1948 enrolment included Terry Orrel who joined the Marist Brothers and was appointed principal of Newman College from 1985 to 1992.

When the Brothers arrived they could not afford a housekeeper, so breakfast was at Fitzmaurice’s over the road; Mrs Tankard made the sandwiches for lunch; and dinner was at Tattersall’s Hotel, hosted by Vin McMullen and his wife.

It was a unique expression of a long tradition of people supporting the Marist Brothers in all sorts of ways, beginning back in 1913.

Two post-war migrant camps were built in Northam by 1949 and, at the start of 1950, 22 per cent of the enrolments at St Paul’s were migrant children.

School numbers continued to grow to a peak of 170 in 1962 in classes up to Junior Certificate, the school doing well in these public examinations and in various sporting competitions.

In 1971, the Marist Brothers and the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition agreed with the Parish Council to combine their efforts in one fully co-educational school on their two sites under the name St Joseph’s. The Sisters had arrived in WA in 1855 and began teaching at Northam in 1886.

At the end of 1982, the Brothers withdrew from Northam. The final community consisted of two SIC Old Boys, Br Denis Tankard (principal) and Br Redmond Casey, with Br Ronald Campbell.

Bunbury

The second expansion was to Bunbury where Br Valentine Flynn and Br Martin Monro opened St Francis Xavier’s College in three classrooms in January 1954.

Br David Facci joined them in May. Br Valentine, from Dalwallinu, was a former student of SIC, had taught there from 1941-45 and been foundation principal at Parkes, NSW.

Under his inspirational guidance, enrolment at Bunbury had reached 200 in 1958, and there were six Bothers in the expanded community. During 1958 his health declined alarmingly and he died on September 6, 1958.

His funeral procession was headed by a police escort and was reputedly the largest in Bunbury’s history.

In 1973, St Francis Xavier’s and St Joseph’s, founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1883, amalgamated to form Bunbury Catholic College. At the end of 1985, the Brothers withdrew from Bunbury.

Perth

The Marist Brothers’ move into the metropolitan area began in 1954 with the opening of St Joseph’s College, Subiaco. Br Lucian Gerber was foundation principal, following six years as principal at New Norcia.

The senior students were in First Year and the college grew each year as they progressed to Leaving in 1958.

In 1965, the Junior, Fourth Year and Leaving classes moved from Subiaco to the new Marist College built at Churchlands. It was a watershed year because they were joined there by Marist Brothers from New Norcia and about 70 senior boarders who were to complete their education at Churchlands.

The Brothers handed St Ildephonsus College back to the Benedictine Community who re-opened it as Salvado College.

By 1968 all Marist primary classes were held at Subiaco and secondary at Churchlands.

From that point on, the Marist Brothers, the Dominican Sisters at Siena in Doubleview, and the Brigidine Sisters at Floreat and Wembley began a long and careful process of rationalising their educational endeavours, finally arriving at today’s combined co-educational Newman College on three campuses and predominantly under lay administration.

Currently, the three campuses are the Marian campus at Floreat for pre-kindergarten to Year 3, Lavalla campus at Churchlands for Years 3-6, and Marcellin campus at Churchlands for Years 7-12.