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Professor Godfrey Tanner, the University of Newcastle, Australia
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DescriptionThis photo appeared in the University News, August 2002. The text was:
"The following is an excerpt of the eulogy delivered by Dr Bernie Curran at the funeral of his friend and Classics colleague, Emeritus Professor Godfrey Tanner.
The world and we have lost a very special person - a rare individual.
He was a gentleman, a scholar, a teacher, an orator, a citizen of the world, a patron of the arts, of culture and sport, theologian and philosopher. thus the public man - the man in the brown Senate suit, the academic gown, the Colours Blazer, the Union Jacket - the right coat, the right tie for the right occasion, be it a meeting of University council or the Anglican Synod, be it dinner at the Newcastle Club, the Athenaeum, the British Schools at Roam and Athens or at St. John's College Cambridge.
And there is the private man, the simple man, the man of great humility, the generous man who quietly gave much to many, who enjoyed the company of his friends in their homes and in his home. the man who enjoyed the peace and quiet of his own thoughts, music in the background and the intimacy of books. He was a very sensitive man, easily hurt and yet a very forgiving man - a man for whom the teachings of Christ were a way of life. This is the man of tattered and well worn clothes, old T-shirts and cardigans, funny baseball hats and knapsacks with broken straps, crumpled old shorts and sandals. The man who served tealess tea, arrowroot biscuits, 'gunpowder' coffee and sherry left over from a sixties sherry party.
Godfrey Tanner came to Newcastle in 1959 aged 32. From the University of Melbourne and Cambridge he brought excellent academic credentials. From the King's School Parramatta he brought a love of teaching and the role of the schoolmaster at the core of which is the development of mind and body - the mens sana in corpore sano ideal. From this school also he brought his knowledge and experience of the great families of rural NSW as well as his intimate knowledge of Australian history.
And he brought a suitcase, an old fashioned suitcase complete with travel stickers, filled with books like Newman's "Idea of a University", Cicero's "De Officiis", first editions of ancient texts - striped blazers, old scarves, dicky hats, a pipe, a monocle, a magnifying glass and a box of snuff (called, I believe, "Gust of Gomorrah') and of course he brought a bicycle!
Thus, like a missionary in another land he set out to bring the languages and culture of the classical world to a land that had no physical reminders of a Greek and roman past; to introduce the students of the fledgling University to the traditions of student life; and to demonstrate that the University had a part to play in the life of the Newcastle and Hunter community. The people of Newcastle had pressed for a traditional University. James Auchmuty had responded and Godfrey Tanner was one of his key instruments in realizing that dream.
By the time Godfrey retired in 1993 the tradition had become a "legend", a living treasure. His curriculum vitae will show the positions held on Council, on Faculty, in the Union, in sport, and in the Community. It is a story of public service - of virtus. His name was everywhere - from the Godfrey Tanner Bar to the Aquatic Centre at Raymond Terrace.
In 1994 the University awarded him an Honorary Degree, a Doctor of the University - a distinction and honour of which he was very proud. Nevertheless he continued to work, using the good offices of Engineering, still researching teaching Sanskrit, supporting the alumni and most important of all preparing his thoughts for 'Godfrey's Grip' on 2NURFM. His alumni work completed the cycle of his worth to the University. 2NUR took him to the world.
In 1998 the Godfrey Tanner Scholarship Fund was established with a generous endowment from him and his friend Peter Hendry. It was a scholarship to assist students who had been disadvantaged in one way or another. The scholars who have received this aware are, however, the first "official" Tanner scholars. Godfrey had supported many others through the years but this was not public knowledge.
Let me draw your attention to a passage from E.M. Forster who in his book "Pharos and Pharillon" gives a description of the modern Greek poet Cavagy, who was Godfrey's favourite modern poet. You will note an uncanny similarity between Cavafy and Godfrey Tanner.
"A French gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely motionless at a slight angle to the universe. His arms extended positively. 'Oh Cavafy!' Yes it is Mr Cavafy, and he is going from his flat to the office or from his office to the flat. If the former, he vanishes when seen, with a slight gesture of despair. If the latter, he may be prevailed upon to begin a sentence - an immense complicated yet shapely sentence, full of parentheses that never get mixed and of reservations that really do reserve, a sentence that moves with logic to its foreseen end, yet to an end that is always the more vivid and thrilling than one foresaw. Sometimes the sentence is finished in the street, sometimes the traffic murders it, sometimes it lasts into the flat. It deals with the tricky behaviour of the Emperor Alexius Commennus in 1096 or with olives, their possibilities and price, or with the fortunes of friends, or with George Eliot or the dialects of the interior of Asia Minor. It is delivered with equal ease in Greek, English or French and despite its intellectual richness and human outlook, despite the natural clarity of its judgements, one feels that it is too stands at a slight angle to the universe."
I came across this passage in a book Godfrey had lent me only two weeks ago. Ironically I was reading this passage when Godfrey had begun his departure from the world. As I read these words 'at a slight angle to the universe', , I thought, at last I have found the mose appropriate description of Ronald Godfrey Tanner.
For me - his greatest strengths were:
He loved teaching and he knew his subject;
He saw no distinction between teaching and research and believed that they were linked and that the prospect of a research institute as a separate from the University was a complete contradiction;
He was dedicated to the all-round University experience - the Kalos Kal Agathos Ideal;
He believed that as a citizen and member of the community, he had an obligation to belong and to share in the responsibilities that came with the rights of the community;
His learning and his scholarship underpinned his daily life, his values, his perspective, his relationships and his goals in life. He did not accept that definition of the word 'academic' which implied either 'practical' or 'irrelevant';
Above all he believed in people; he valued friendship, fellowship and community. These were vitally linked with learning. His greatest strength was that although he knew so much, and had a distinguished record in scholarship, he could make each of us believe we were on his level. He had the ability to inspire faith in ourselves and our ability to learn;
He was the traditionalist, the conservative, the establishment man who seemed to be forever challenging convention, cant and hypocrisy."
This image was scanned from a photograph in the University's historical photographic collection held by Special Collections.
If you would like to comment on the photograph, please contact Special Collections or add a Recollection, using these instructions.InformationFlickr CommentAQUA999:
hem.... Thankyou Godfrey !.
UON Library,University of Newcastle, Australia:
Hazel Davidson (Email: 4 November 2013) writes:
I was one of Godfrey Tanner's Latin students at the old Newcastle Univ. College at Tighes Hill from 1961-1963 and have just found this photo of him from your archives: www.flickr.com/photos/uon/2653560715/lightbox/ I would dearly love to have a copy of it, if that is possible.
Godfrey was a very formative influence on my young life. I was just 17, from a Cessnock coal mining family, and was somewhat overawed by the university. Godfrey ended his introductory lecture in Orientation Week by announcing that he was taking the class (all 8 of us, if I remember correctly) to the Union for coffee. I had never tasted coffee in my life but was far too shy to say I didn't drink coffee. So that was the start of my coffee drinking career - my husband would say my coffee addiction.
A year or so later, when Godfrey had conducted a course in Roman history and talked with enthusiasm about events ranging from 8,000 BC through to what President Sukarno was up to in Indonesia, I was "elected" by the class to go and enquire what period in Roman history we should read up on for the approaching exams. Godfrey was not in the least perturbed by this question and apologised profusely for taking down the notice which had listed the course topic - he was after all a Cambridge man and adhered to the idea that students should "read for a degree".
He taught a course in the Roman comedies. The lectures were theoretically designed to translate the Latin texts. However, not with Godfrey. He preformed them - draping his gown this way and that, using different voices for the various characters in the play ... It was so entertaining that the philosophy students who had a class in the room after ours developed the habit of arriving early so that they could share the entertainment of Godfrey's performance in a language that was completely unfamiliar to them
Godfrey was well known for his practice of riding his bike to uni and, in wet weather, wearing plastic trousers and coat over his clothes. He was also frequently very late for lectures - he was extremely absent-minded about little practicalities like this. On one very wet day we waited and waited and had just about decided that he had completely forgotten our class when he burst into the room dressed in his academic gown with a dressing gown cord tied around his waist to hold it together modestly. He had left his plastics in his office the previous day and had been soaked on his way to work. So he had taken off his trousers and shirt and draped them in front of a radiator in his office. He then started his lecture with his normal gusto and then suddenly, mid-sentence, rushed out of the room to make sure they were not about to catch on fire.
I was present on the day he stood on the picnic table in the little park opposite the campus, dressed in shorts, displaying his lily white legs, and made a grand speech to establish the University Rowing Club, with Throsby Creek at low tide as his backdrop.
Until I came to the university I had no idea whatsoever that such a state as homosexuality even existed. Looking back now I am amazed that in the early 1960s Godfrey had the courage and conviction, not only to be openly gay, but also to publicly advocate gay marriage. And he was a prominent member of the Anglican Cathedral congregation.
My husband was also taught by Godfrey - he was studying engineering and the university had decided that these barbarians needed some civilising influence. So they were obliged to study "humanities" and could choose from several lecturers. Godfrey was always a very popular choice and his lectures were very well received.
He was a wonderful man, a great teacher, who made an indelible impression on all the young minds who studied classics and on many others as well.
Hazel Davidson
SubjectUniversity of Newcastle (N.S.W.)Newcastle UniversityGodfrey TannerDatenot specifiedSourcehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/2653560715/
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CollectionUniversity of Newcastle HistoryPersonGodfrey Tanner
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RestrictionsThe image can be used for study and personal research purposes. If you wish to reproduce this image for any other purpose please contact Special Collections.
IdentifierP799-57c
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Professor Godfrey Tanner, the University of Newcastle, Australia, [P799-57c]. Living Histories, accessed 16/10/2024, https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/51545