Daramalan Class of ’69

I received the following email from Bernard Kane today:

Sadly I must announce the passing of Father Fred Ross, a memorable influence on so many of us during the early years of our school.

For any boy doing Maths in the 60s and early 70s, the spectre of Fr Ross taking that class, filled you with either dread or delight, depending on your abilities and application to said subject. His strap has since passed into College folklore and was auctioned off for a worthy sum at the College’s 40th Anniversary Dinner ten years ago. If the “old boy” that now has it, would like to donate it back to the College, I will ensure it becomes part of the school’s archive and will be suitably noted at the 50th Jubilee Dinner in October this year.

Fr Ross is one of those people who makes an indelible impression on you; you either admired him, feared him, loved him (or not) but one thing is certain: he was someone you could always respect. He was one of my favourite teachers - not because I excelled in maths at school, nor would I say that he was a particularly gifted mathematician. He was one of my favourite teachers because at the end of his class I felt like I'd achieved something (even if it was only that I'd transcribed four or five pages of notes in an exercise book). Fr Ross got me through the maths curriculum and I have him to thank for the workman-like way that he went about his role.

Fred Ross made his first vows in 1950 and was ordained in 1954. After many years teaching in MSC Colleges, Chevalier and Daramalan, where his forte was maths, he worked in Papua New Guinea, especially at Chanel College, the minor seminary in New Britain. He later spent some time in Fiji. In recent years, he lived in retirement at Kensington Monastery. He died yesterday morning, 19 January, of complications following a stroke. He would have been 86 in February.