16 April 2009

Golden Graduates

‘Where have all the wastelands gone? Where are the trams? Don’t students wear ties and carry leather briefcases any more?’ Alumnus Eric Lesleighter (Civil Engineering) highlighted just some of the changes on the UNSW campus over the past 50 years when he addressed the Golden Jubilee Luncheon of 1959 Engineering Graduates on 3 April 2009.

Mr Lesleighter was one of the 84 Engineering students who had their degrees conferred at UNSW’s eighth graduation ceremony on Saturday 18 April 1959. Fifty years later, 28 of those graduates returned to the University to celebrate that day, reminisce about the past and take a look at the future.

With family members, the ‘59ers enjoyed a tour of the much-changed campus before gathering in the Tyree Room in the John Niland Scientia Building for drinks and appetisers followed by lunch and the day’s formalities.

In his address, Professor Les Field Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) echoed the graduates’ reactions when he spoke about the dramatic changes to the UNSW campus.

The Dean of Engineering Professor Graham Davies told the gathering about the development of the new Engineering Precinct on campus, a far cry from the one building in the ‘59ers time.

‘What we have become would not have been possible without you, our early graduates,’ said Professor Davies. ‘The Faculty was progressive when you were here and we have continued in that vein.’

‘You have become our best ambassadors and we continue to be proud of you and your achievements,’ Professor Davies said. ‘Thank you for setting the standard so high.’

Alumnus Ian Shearman (Electrical Engineering) told stories of students practising their aeronautical engineering in lectures by making paper planes, while Trevor Boyle (Mechanical Engineering) temporarily took a more serious note. He spoke of the diverse fields the ‘59ers came from, and how most were sponsored cadets – either by utilities like the Water Board and Electricity Commission or by large companies. Producing two ‘old calculators’, his slide rules, from his pocket, he then turned to humour and with anecdotes that seemed to focus on his FJ Holden.

Former Dean of Engineering and UNSW Pro-Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Al Willis reminded us that the ‘59ers were the first to receive a Bachelor of Engineering from UNSW. ‘These students started with a commitment to the NSW University of Technology and in 1958 the Act that created UNSW was passed’, he said.

Professor Willis then presented each graduate with a pair of champagne flutes engraved with the UNSW crest.

From the smiling faces, it would seem that alumnus Norman Cowper (Civil Engineering) summed the day up accurately with the words, ‘This lunch is a great thing to do!’

More Photographs

Download photographs of the Golden Jubilee Luncheon 2009.