THE PERSONAL SIDE: John Lang reminisces about strength in friendship.
Transcribed 2020 from original document.
Over the years, I found myself with many “Tomadachi’s”, many via this Company, many via friendships, many by the services, and many whose company is interlocked in mutual trust founded on a real need in a part of our lives. Sometimes the mutuality is founded on a particular purpose, and as you watch through my life cycle, you could quite often find several issues that arise in which our actions are achieved, when several items encircle a number of friends in identical desires, action, and needs, as you will see in the notes that follow.
John Roberts and I as members of the Imperial Services Club, found out early in the piece about our mutuality, just as Bruce Adams and I, via Rotary, also found friendship, and then our paths continued together as P & C members of the Redlands school.
In 1975, we sent out a letter to our parents about re-admitting boys back into Redlands, and I need to say our parents, said YES – but not their boys who were already booked into schools elsewhere.
In the first year 1976, our Board was chosen (headed up by us three Trustees); we lost 500 students and started off with just 186 students. This expected problem of lost students despite the lower numbers forecasted expectations, was a higher expectation than was thought due only because of the Diocesan dilemma of allowing their schools to become insolvent in the pursuit of their major development from 1970 onwards; they thought to become Capital developers in that very expensive time frame of high interest rates etc. We did understand the first year operating income would be lean, but our time frame of six years to turn the school’s studentship around was a justified expectation, and I am advised that not only was the Educational strategy being expanded, but great strides had been made in a greater depth. In due course in the late 1980s, the International Baccalaureate programme was introduced as a suitable additive to the HSC in the graduation focus of the school. The Business Strategy had also not only been re-structured and had achieved a corporate asset structure, but had become something any business operation would be proud of.
I thank the Board members for my term 1976 to 2000. They dedicated thousands of hours of service to the school, an unpaid sacrifice they made for Redlands in my 25 years on the Board. In particular I would place on record my personal thanks to the Parents of the new 1976 Corporation, the Head and Staff of the school, and if I may say, to our students who worked hard and studied for their results. They may all take great joy and pleasure in “their” Corporation’s entry into the second century of service. To the Roberts, Adams, Cornish and the Lang families your place of leadership in Redlands will always be in our hearts for your outstanding contributions. Mr Cornish, I well remember your entry into Redlands school. I had spent some 5 to 6 weeks with an American executive of my company installing equipment over 7 days per week for 6 weeks, in that time without normal business attire, and you let me ramble on about the need to turn the demands of adding a new IBM 1400 Computer and its demands into our Simplex business (otherwise known as my day job when I was also required at my night job at Redlands).
Now let me turn for a few moments about our ladies – one of the first jobs we took over was funding the last 65% of the new canteen designed by the contracted SCEGGS ARCHITECT, whose work proved to be both inept and required more contracted work to make the new canteen functional. This work was requested of the new Corporation by the three mothers “who mattered most to us”. They were Margaret Roberts, Fay Lang and Marcia Adams. They were great task masters and certainly we took our orders from them as they fed our children from the Mothers’ Canteen and later commenced the Uniform Shop among those other chores that mothers are required to do when they are servicing our children.
In 1953 I had moved from Melbourne to establish myself in Sydney, married Fay in 1954, studied Marketing in Sydney whilst working for IBM, and later joined the Australian Institute of Sales and Marketing. I rose to the position of National President, and that was a great boon to me in my marketing career as well as in my membership and then friendship with John Roberts. There started a friendship through to 2019 when I became a member of John Roberts’ family, and at his recent parting I was honoured to present one of his Eulogies. At other Redlands’ functions I was a guest speaker, such as at his retirement from the School Corporation. We kept up a wonderful friendship as Executives of Redlands, as executives of Westpac (Bank of New South Wales) bank and the Simplex Corporation, at special social functions we shared, and especially we found being very personally connected in the Diocese of Sydney activities. We shared a lot of togetherness and in fact I did address him as ‘Jiminy Cricket’ because I valued his business acumen so much he was like ‘Jiminy” who sits on your shoulder when you had business problems to share.
Then with my newest business assignment from 1966/67 when I was travelling outside of Australia doing business in the Pacific, Australasia, Asia, China, Japan, Near East, Far East, and the African countries I needed a Deputy Chairman at Redlands for when I was outside of Australia. My special Rotarian mate Bruce Adams was a good Representative. Bruce was a representative Member of several Rotary Clubs within District 968, especially Cremorne, whilst I had been in South Sydney, Warringah and Brookvale. I now have 50 years in Rotary and I would think Bruce cannot be too far from my length of service, so once again Bruce and I have been good “tomadarchies” in that field as well.
In Redlands I was supported by the Deputy Head when I took over the school actively on a daily basis. Mrs Foote retired a year or so later, and we had recommended to us a gentleman from Brisbane who was now back in Sydney, a churchman, and was an applicant, so I firstly rang the School Chairman in Brisbane. He was overseas and a deputy took my call. I received an excellent reference and when data was presented to the Board, he was hired. Some time later we found he had cut out Latin from the school’s curriculum offering and so I called Brisbane. Once again I had been given the wrong data, including the reason for his departure at a terminal stage. The reason was given to me. I passed this on to the Board and he was immediately terminated again. Then we sought out a new Head and found Mr Cornish whom we hired in 1981. For the next twenty years “he and WE” were all absolutely first class friends trusting each other implicitly especially now as I was entrenched in my international travel matching my domestic duties at home; I was still involved in Rotary now, other Charity duties etc.
Peter and I plus the Board grew our assets, bought a holiday site at Jindabyne for Redlands, other outreach type of buildings, which we used to furnish a second campus across the road from our Military Road Campus to accommodate the student enrolment now well over 1200. We also set in train apart from our Holiday site in Jindabyne a new campus to set up a Snowy Mountains Grammar School (SMGS), as an outreach from Sydney.
We secured and structured a PRE-school in Cremorne, established another pre-school in Manly, commenced the female students in Rowing etc., and leased a Dancing and Ballet School site in Neutral Bay. In the late 1980s we built a full sized Gymnasium on the main campus, bought a site in Warringah for a sports field (but later sold it), and then we purchased an insolvent Australian College of Physical Education ACPE) commenced back in 1917. It was a great investment which took us into Tertiary Education, but it was re-sold in later years after my Chairmanship ended.
From a one-time insolvent school back in 1973, 25 years later we had a proven track record of quality education, and now a successful Business Enterprise entering the 2000 era to encounter a new set of Business rules of the 2000s.
As I observed earlier and to my Board retirement in 2000, I had the pleasure of submitting a recommendation to me Board of that time that we appoint Mr Cornish to be Executive Head of the School Group of SCECGS REDLANDS LIMITED. It was a very well deserved new appointment.
Finally I need to say that following the re-entry of male students into the school. We found the female sports’ participants at Redlands were removed from being able to participate in interschool girls’ competition through AHIGS. As advised I called together members of the Anglican and other Schools Sports Executives, and proposed we set up a new group which became the Independent Schools Sporting Association (or ISA as it was known). This became the lead player of schools sports programmes for co-educational (and as it happened single gender male)schools in New South Wales, I am assured it is as a new group now well known, now well and truly used and operationally sound as it should be, welcomes both male and female students of our independent schools.
John Lang OAM JP KSJ PDG.
Remarks made publicly, 2017/18.