Shirley Falloon - Long Serving Teachers

Local history buff Shirley Falloon dropped by to share a few more local teachers among the longest serving in Mid Canterbury 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Celebrating teachers as spotted on Facebook, all thanks to our
friends at Speaksabors on cash Streets. This after a ninety
year old in the States has earned a Guinness World
Record for spending sixty seven years in front of the classroom.
Beverly Hannett Price is her name, So got me thinking
what about some of the long serving teachers that we
have here in mid Canterbury. Caught up with mister Hoops

(00:23):
John Hooper yesterday, but also having a look on the
facy page, Kirby says, don't forget missus Donnelly at Mayfield.
I'm a former student of missus Donnelly, only retired recently. Well,
I hope you are enjoying your best life now, missus
Doodietracaia School, says Rebecca kas at Mount Hart said that
there's currently teacher there, Miss Lisa Pondweiser. Hope I'm getting

(00:44):
that right. Art teacher forty one years. That's pretty impressive.
Local history buff Shirley for Loon is in studio. Hello
to you, hi. We may have found top contender in
mister Mark Gleeson.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
That's right, Yeah, has been a teacher at Ashburton College
for knocking on fifty years. He started there in nineteen
seventy as a very fresh faced young adult from New
England and his parents came.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Out New England of Patriot supporter. He's a Yankee presume, yeah,
although maybe a bit quiet after the weekend. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, So he was my teacher in nineteen seventy one
for school Sharit history. So he's had a very long
career at Ashburton College, as say, nearly fifty years, and
I think even after that he went back relieving for
several years. So he did retrain at some ord more

(01:46):
study and became the legal teaching law which he really enjoyed,
apparently when they talked to him back in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, I imagine that could be a little more animated
than history at times, although there's a pretty colorful starf
in the history box. So that was at the time
when he started that Ashburton College was across sort of
three sites. That's exactly right, just a challenge tearing your
way from one side of town to the other to.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Come and you know it didn't worry us as students
having our teacher turn up fifteen minutes late for subject,
but yeah, that made it very awkward for them. They
in fact Mark and colleagues had a Ministry of Education,
it's an education department back in those days. They had

(02:34):
a car provided, but it was very unreliable. In fact,
I think he was going and of course they got
held up by trains many times going between the new
site and the Ashburton.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
High schools the Ashburton Bridge.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
That's exactly. Yeah, No, I didn't have to worry about
the bridge. But he said one time the steering wheel
came away in his hands, so that was the end
of that car. In the end, Mark used his own car.
He just founded a heck of a lot easier.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Oh as you would. Yeah, and many teachers sort of
find themselves calling on their own resources in different forms.
Why was he nicknamed Chalky?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Chalky for reasonably obvious reasons. He managed to get an
incredible amount of chalk all over himself, hands, clothing, everywhere.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
That makes sense.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, And he had sort of what I would like
to call sartorial elegance. He had jumpers from teacow netwhere,
but I think it's one has still survived to this day.
But he also had a pair of very loud beow
bottomed trowlers as they were sort of brown and white

(03:49):
and black.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Chairs was the fashion at the time.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh yeah, look, it was very trendy. But when I
talked to him at our interview, unfortunately those trousers hadn't
survived the year, so they are no more.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
The interview that your references for ash cole alumni, which
we must go and share on our Facebook page. Might
do that a little later today. That was when he retired.
It was about six years ago, was it about?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah, about year four or five years ago?

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh, okay, maybe not that long. Yeah, so he's still
with us, right, Oh.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Sure, yeah, you know, he's still very with it. He's
keeping himself busy. He loves woodwork. He's got grandchildren, so
he's building.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Oh, tree houses and all sorts of things. Absolutely, yeeah.
And there was another long serving Ashburton teacher who sadly
we lost last year.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yes, that was Brian Lynn. And I'm not sure how
many years Brian did, but the college would be able
to fill us in there. Yeah, he was there for many,
many years. And his wife, Rosalie, taught at Allenton. And
another long serving teacher which was who was everyone's favorite,
was Lynn McDonald She is still with us, but she

(04:57):
lives in christ Church now and very very active on
the esh COL alumni page. She's got lots of.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I wonder if I had her at one stage and
she taught me the greatest life lesson of all I
know everything and what I don't know. I make up
a good motto phrase that stuck with me. Fake it
till you make it all the same lines. Oh, cheers
for taking us for a trip down memory lane. There
a shirly