40s and 50s Memories
gas industry I could spend three hours a day
driving from home to various offices and home
again but now clients come to me. The main
problems that clients present to me for help are:
how to give up smoking, weight control, various
phobias such as fear of flying, public speaking,
exams and driving tests. Panic attacks also
seem to be on the increase.
I enjoy visiting King's for the November reunion
and various functions in the summer. I also look
forward to the '40s and '50s luncheon. When I
see a names of attending old friends I visualize
them as the 16 year olds I knew, and it is a bit
of a shock to see them as elderly gents some
60 years later but there again I am also one of
them!
In 2013 my wife, Loretta, and I celebrated 54
years of marriage. Our son and daughter have
added three grandchildren and much interest
to our lives. Our eldest granddaughter Eithne
(17) is interested in law, Chloe (17) is at an
acting school and grandson, Ehren (15) is at
Northampton Saints Rugby Academy.
R. PATON
Bishop Fox 1959
Roderick Paton left King's in 1959 having spent
five years in Bishop Fox House.
Of his later life he writes:
I left King's in 1959 having spent five years in
Bishop Fox House under the wonderfully wise
George Morgan. Two activities at King's have
echoed down my subsequent life. The first
was a school trip to Sardinia with mr.pytches
in about 1956 where I fell in love with Italy and
decided to learn Italian, with an elderly and
highly cultivated Italian lady in Taunton called
mrs.woodcock.
With her help I went to Edinburgh University to
study Italian where I also kept up my French, in
which, strangely, I never really shone in school
under Popsie Townsend. After Edinburgh, on
a postgraduate course in Export Marketing in
High Wycombe I learned german and spanish
and subsequently lived for three or four years in
germany, unsuccessfully selling Guinness.
In 1970, following a chance phone call from
England I took a post as a teacher of Marketing
near London and finally in 1971 settled down to
teach languages to Business Studies students
in what is now Buckinghamshire New University.
I married my german wife Barbara, with whom
I have two sons. While I was teaching I further
consolidated my french by taking a Licence-èsLettres at
a branch of Lille University in London.
After teaching for about 15 years I became the
Dean of the Business School and finally, for
the last ten years of my working life, I was the
Deputy Director.
The second activity at King's was swimming,
which I immensely enjoyed under the gentle
and watchful eye of Sarge. Although I gave up
swimming competitively after University, I took
it up again when I retired and after a year or two
took the plunge, so to speak, with a Triathlon.
I'm now completely hooked and have raced in
the GB Age-Group (now 70-74) team at three
European Championships and one World
Championship (in Budapest). It's a fun way
to travel! I'm off to race in the Africa Cup in
Larache, Morocco, in May and have the next
European Championship coming up in Turkey
in June and, hopefully, if I make the team, the
World Championship in London in September
2013. A particular highlight was racing in
the same event with my daughter-in-law and
grandson. There's a lot of training involved
and between that, keeping up my languages,
learning Russian, sailing around the English
Channel, going to concerts with my wife, seeing
the three grandchildren and skyping my brother
Duncan (BF55) in South Africa, so I'm fairly
busy - it's a great life.
J. PERRY
Woodard 1959
Jim Perry came to King's as the American
Exchange student of 1958-9. He was a Prefect
in Woodard House and gained School Colours
in Tennis. He left with an entrance scholarship
to Harvard University.
After Harvard and 6 months of active duty in
the U.S. Army reserves, I joined the Foreign
Service (diplomatic corps). Shortly afterwards, I
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