Note: this page is currently being updated so many of the profiles are incomplete.
[Names in COLOUR link to the appropriate Profile]
Tutors …
Marissa Baldassi | Kathleen Bambridge | Kay Bennetts | Christine Brumbt | Lesley Clarke | Coralie Creevey | Vicenzo Curro | Trevor Dean | Simon Degeling | John Eastaff | Giulio Eliseo | Etienette Fennell | Peter Franklin | Sue Garforth | Jenny Gregson | John Griffiths | Zheng De Han (Michael) | Joelie Hancock | Rod Harvey | Dorothy Heinrich | Gwenda Helsham | Keith Hempton | Beatrice Howarth | Ken Johns | Helen Kellaway | Ana Luthe | Maria Macdonald | Pauline McCreery | Walpurga Page | Susila Palaniappan | Leonie Pike | Lyn Porter | Alex Pouw-Bray | Bob Rabbitt | Pamela Rajkowski | Ann Rees | Waltraud Schmidt | John Slaytor | David Smith | Dianne Schwarz | Julanne Sweeney | Aura Valli | Adriaan van der Wyst | Laure Vincent-Allard | Steve Walsh | Raelene Wilsdon |
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Marissa Baldassi
Kathleen Bambridge
I have had an interest in Film from my childhood. I would like to share not only the film but to discuss the film after it is screened. I have recently retired. I have worked as an archivist for the past 18 years. I have also worked as a Public Servant for 25 years.2019
Feminist Talk, Film Biographies, World War II on Film — Japan, “Another Year” — 2010 Movie, “Character” — Dutch Movie, “Nowhere in Africa” — 2010 German Movie, “The Sea is Watching” — 2002, Japanese Movie, Our Oral History, Movie Nostalgia (with Helen Kellaway & Raelene Wilsdon), World War II on Film, Indigenous Films
Kay Bennetts
Kay Bennetts is a retired teacher with a life-long love of reading, live theatre and film. Although not able to study visual art at school, her self-education was valuably supplemented over her years as a volunteer guide at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Kay believes that social interaction is essential for human health. During the COVID crisis she is keen to explore how contemporary technologies can enable social interactions while maintaining essential social distancing.
Film Club 4th Tuesday Reading at Halifax, online… National Theatre Dinner Club, Beating the Drum, Free to Air Film Club, Netflix Film Club, Reading for Enjoyment
Christine Brumbt
Since retiring from a nursing career spanning more than 50 years, I joined U3A to keep my mind and body active. I love walking and enjoy the many and diverse opportunities around Adelaide. I now coordinate the Bush Walk program and am pleased to share the many walks I have discovered. Come join me.
Bushwalks
Lesley Clarke
Poetry Reading
Coralie Creevey
After obtaining a Master Arts (History) from UNSW in the 1980s, I worked in various professions until, since retirement, I’ve had more time for art, music and good literature. These restore one’s faith in human goodness and creativity which The News can undermine.
I’d like to share with interested people my knowledge of some of the most beautiful and enduring art of Western civilisation over the last 500 years.
Masterpieces of Western Art, European Art since C15
Vicenzo Curro
Italian Discussion (4)
Trevor Dean
I was born, bred and educated in S.A. but from 1949 I trained as a Christian Brother for 3 years and then studied at Sydney University for 4 years, majoring in French and Italian.The next 18 months were spent teaching in school and then I was sent to study theology in Rome where some of the lectures were in French. Another year at the Institute of Lumen Vitae in Brussels followed and there everything was in French.
Back in Australia, I spent most of the next 25 years in educational institutions — Teacher Training Colleges, Catholic Education Offices in Melbourne and Adelaide interspersed with stints in schools. I was Principal of St. Joseph’s Pascoe Vale in Melbourne and Community Leader at CBC in Launceston.Beginning in 1987, I was in West Africa (Liberia and Sierra Leone) for 7 years teaching scripture in a seminary for 70 students from those countries. Both countries were plagued by civil war and I became heavily involved in visiting camps for refugees and displaced persons.
Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire are both French speaking countries and together they surround Liberia and Sierra Leone. As the French speaker on the seminary staff, I went first into Côte d’Ivoire and later into Guinea on different missions which enabled the seminary to continue operating for some time. Eventually, just before the rebels took over Makeni in S.L. where we had all relocated, the seminary was closed down and all expatriates left the country. I returned to Australia and was living in Adelaide for a time in Regent St. South, of all places! I became aware, a few years ago, that a crisis had arisen at U3A Adelaide, because a French tutor was unable to continue teaching — I could hardly justify not volunteering to fill the gap.
French Elementary Conversation ( 2)
Simon Degeling
Son of Dutch migrants, I grew up on the NSW north coast and received degrees in French and History from Newcastle University. During my graduate days, I had a few holiday jobs working as a steelworks labourer for BHP. That paid for trips to Europe, which resulted in a lengthy stay in France, where I taught English and gained fluency in French.
After a working life spent teaching in ACT government schools, I managed to spend 15 months in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, teaching business English. One of life’s better decisions was retiring to Adelaide.
Quite by accident, I stumbled upon U3A several years ago. I was walking past the Box Factory, when I noticed it housed an outfit called University of the Third Age. I went inside, got a prospectus and the rest, as they say .….….
French Elementary Conversation (2)
John Eastaff
Mah Jong
Giulio Eliseo
Italian Consolidating (3)
Etienette Fennell
I was born in Paris, where I went to
primary school, coming to Australia at the age of 11. The remainder of my
education was in Adelaide and I have an Honours degree in French and degrees in
Italian, Fine Arts and Music. I was trained at the Elder Conservatorium as a
classical singer and I play cello with amateur orchestras. My other
interests include writing books and travelling. I am currently learning
Russian and have joined a small group of Russian singers.
Throughout my lifetime, I have taught French, Italian and Music at all school
levels and ended up, for twenty years, as a tutor in French at Flinders
University. Additionally, I have taught at Adult Education and also
conducted classes at the Elder Conservatorium in the topic of “French for
Singers”.
I initially connected with U3A Adelaide a few years ago when I took a French class with Tony Comin, who was then standing in for Andrew Beare. It was at the instigation of my friend, Tony Kelly, that I decided to teach a class for U3A.
French Breakthrough (3)
Peter Franklin
Having earned a living (in what I risibly call my career) as a public servant and university administrator, I have been fortunate to spend the following nearly 20 years pursuing the studies that should have been my focus all along. As I phased out of paid employment I made two particularly sound decisions, one to join U3A and the other to take up Chinese. U3A is indeed a university in the ideal sense, since its students seek only to increase their understanding. The study of languages is to the ageing mind what gym work is to the body. I should add that my role as a tutor is limited to helping my friend Dr Han Zhengde (Michael) continue the Chinese course he has offered every year since 1994.
Chinese Mandarin (3) (with Zheng De Han)
Sue Garforth
Latin Continuers, Royal Marriage Disasters, Spanish Beginners (1), Spanish Elementary(2)
Jenny Gregson
Drawing Without Fear
John Griffiths
I was born in England and came to Australia in 1969. (best thing I ever did!) I had worked with aeroplane engines but moved to the automotive world and became a service manager of a large dealership in Perth. I learned a great deal about the way cars are traded and service became my passion. I also had a love of aircraft and wanted to get my private pilot’s licence. This I did achieve in 1997 When I was 50 years old. I have tutored a course called Easy car maintenance and another called Come fly with me. I am a co ‑tutor with Leonie Pike, in Art for pleasure. Also with Beatrice Howarth where we play Bridge.
U3A has been like a family to both me and my wife Suzette, It has been very precious in our retirement.
Zheng De Han (Michael)
I am a retired pediatric surgeon from Beijing. I migrated to Adelaide in 1984. I became a member of U3A in 1994 and have offered this course every year since then, causing U3A to make me a Life Member in 2009, which I value deeply. The purpose has remained the same; to enhance mutual understanding and help you learn a little basic Mandarin. Since 2013, Peter Franklin has helped me run the course. We co-operate well.
I am very happy that the course continues to attract U3A friends, who learn from each other how to share life after retirement. We are not yet old, but there is an old Chinese saying: “活到老，学到老”, (the sound is “huó dào lǎo, xué dào lǎo”), which means “we must keep learning for as long as we live”.
Chinese Mandarin (with Peter Franklin)
Joelie Hancock
I have been co-ordinating the Play Reading group since 2004. It’s a role that I fell into when my father, who was attending U3A with me, volunteered us both to run the class — because he had access to a few charity second-hand book shops. Fourteen years later of regular checks at the Oxfam Book Shop, 120 sets of plays (and still collecting), I am still co-ordinating the group.
I retired in 1999 from being a Literacy Education lecturer at Flinders University. I also had a major role in producing fourteen books documenting good literacy teaching practice. My area was not drama or theatre but I love to read and share reactions with others who also enjoy literature. Experiencing and learning about drama has never been as enjoyable as in our Play Reading Group. I have learnt an enormous amount about play writes, their plays, and the social history of their times.
Play Reading
Rod Harvey
Bridge Beginners Group
Dorothy Heinrich
In my professional life I was for many years a university lecturer in Human Physiology and Pathophysiology. Since retiring I have continued my interests in writing, history and travel. With my husband I have visited diverse places, ranging from South East Asia, China and Russia, to countries of Europe, including Iceland. My U3A roles have included organising the Holiday Shorts programs and Out and About visits to places of interest.
I have given U3A presentations on the settlement of early South Australia, Iceland and its Viking origins, and how the humble potato has influenced the course of European history.Since early 2020 I have taken on the role of tutor of Writers Workshop, previously capably run by Lyn Arden.I have published two books: ‘Ada’s Story’, a family history, and ‘The Man Who Hunted Whales: A tale of Kangaroo Island and a doomed ship’.
Writers Workshop
Gwenda Helsham
Shakespeare on Stage and Screen
At the Movies — Gwenda
Keith Hempton
Keith was firstly a Modern Language Teacher (French and German at Sydney Grammar School) and then, for over 20 years, a professional singer. He sang principal roles with the major opera companies in Australia, including Opera Australia and the State Opera Companies of South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. He sand with such conductors as Mark Elder, Carlo Felice Cillario, Myer Fredman and Barry Tuckwell. He was the bass with the Song Company (Australia’s only professional classical vocal ensemble) from 1986 — 91.
From 1991 he was Lecturer in Charge of Wollongong Conservatorium and from 1995 until 2008 was Head of vocal Studies and Co-ordinator of the Honours Performance Programme at the Elder Conservatorium within the University of Adelaide. Keith has taken early retirement with the intention of returning to performing both as a singer and a presenter. He also hopes to have the opportunity to adjudicate, lecture and examine. Over the years he has acquired a vast experience and knowledge of classical music (he is also a trained radio presenter) and would like to find the opportunity to make challenging use of his particular skills.
French Vive la France (3), An Exotic and Irrational Entertainment (online)
Beatrice Howarth
Beatrice Howarth became an enthusiastic supporter of U3A Adelaide when she was invited to join in 2009 to teach Modern Greek. Since then she has taught a course every year sharing with participants her knowledge and love for the Middle Eastern and Greek cultures and history. She enjoys the challenge of research into areas she has studied at University many years ago but would like to learn more now and is encouraged by the enthusiasm, support, friendliness and scholarship of U3A students and staff.
Beatrice has studied and worked at the University of Alexandria (Egypt), the Australian National University (Canberra), the University of New England (Armidale, NSW) and the London School of Economics and Political Science of London University. She holds degrees in Classics as well as English and French Literature and a Master in Librarianship. She has studied Arabic and is fascinated by Asian and Arabic cultures. Since she retired, she rekindled her love for Greek culture and did a course on Ancient Greek Philosophers at Adelaide University.
She is a fluent speaker of Greek, French, Italian and English. She has lived and worked in England, Austria, France, Italy, Greece as well as Egypt and Australia.
Bridge (with John Griffiths)
Geoff Howe
Australia in the 50s
Soul Men
Sumerian Civilisation
The Peculiar Institution
I was a teacher, initially with High Schools, then as a lecturer in Adult Matriculation in Tafe and finally at Eynesbury Senior College. Over a long period I taught Year 12 Modern History, Australian History, American History and Classical Studies, as well as English and Legal Studies. I retired at the end of 2006 and have been a tutor at Adelaide U3A since then.
Philosophy, Life and Big Ideas (with Alexandra Hayes)
Ken Johns
Ken’s professional career was in business management in South Australia, mainly in the electrical industry. For many years he also conducted (part time) various management classes and Professional Development courses for various Management Consultants in Adelaide, on topics including negotiation skills, time management and marketing management. Ken is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute.
Since his retirement, he has pursued a number of other interests in both Philosophy and Psychology. Ken is currently a Tutor in both of these topics. He is also a member of the Depth Psychology Alliance and the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
Philosophy, Life and Big Ideas (with Alexandra Hayes)
Helen Kellaway
Movie Nostalgia (with Kathleen Bambridge & Raelene Wilsdon)
Ana Luthe
Spanish Intermediate (3), Spanish Let’s Speak (4)
Maria Macdonald
Italian Conversation Thursday (4)
Italian Conversation Tuesday (4)
Pauline McCreery
Since retiring at the beginning of 2009 I have been busier than ever before. I can devote more time to image based computing, to travel, to playing croquet, to learning French, to.…you name it! I love theatre, travel, reading, good food and wine and being a grandmother. I am a past President and past webmaster for U3A Adelaide and continue to serve on both the Programme Committee and the Board. I have recently relinquished my commitment as U3A-Adelaide delegate to U3A SA, the peak body for U3A in South Australia. Until the end of 2019, I continue as their webmaster. It is wonderful to be able to continue with my love of both learning and teaching.
GIMP It!, Start Your Photobook
Walpurga Page
Hand and Foot Canasta
Susila Palaniappan
Art Exploration
Leonie Pike
Art for Pleasure (with John Griffiths)
Lyn Porter
In semi-retirement, Lyn is enjoying living her two passions: Circle Dancing and Professional Counselling both of which carry a healing component and focus on group process and relationship.
Lyn graduated with a Science Degree and began her professional career as one of the first female geologists in Australia to work for private enterprise. Marrying a geologist and raising a family through many interstate and overseas moves gave her an opportunity for many lifestyles and career experiences as a High School Maths teacher and Mineral Exploration Information specialist. Return to Adelaide and career change for her husband prompted Lyn to transition into Professional Counselling via Lifeline training and Masters degree in Social Science. She gained rich experiences as a Lifeline Telephone Counsellor and Supervisor, Personal Support Program Caseworker working with the long-term unemployed, on women’s issues as a Counsellor at Women’s Community Centre, and through her private Counselling practice continues to offer support to family Carers as a brokered Counsellor to Carers SA and to employed people through sponsored EAP Counselling. Lyn has been enjoying Circle Dancing since 2002 and stepped up to leading and teaching upon the sudden death of previous teacher in 2011. She has Cert IV TAA as well as Circle Dance training from UK master teachers Mandy de Winter, Judy King and Andy Bettis as well as Australian teachers Krista Sands, Judith Keller & others.
Circle Dancing
Alex Pouw-Bray (M.A. PhD Dip. Ed.)
I was born in country Western Australia, in 1945, and completed my secondary education at boarding school in Perth. I have a Masters degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and a PhD from Flinders University both in the History of Education field. I have taught in a wide variety of educational settings in Western Australia, Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, and in South Australia. I was Head of History at Scotch College Adelaide from 1990 until 2009, and have published articles in history of education periodicals, and presented papers on a range of topics at various
conferences in Australia.
I have a lifelong love of playing cards that began with learning cardplay from my grandmother. I have played Bridge for 44 years, am a member of the South Australian Bridge Association and hold the status of Local Master. I enjoy sharing my knowledge of playing bridge with others and experienced success in this with the Adelaide U3A Beginners Bridge group in 2019.
Bob Rabbitt
My interest in music began in the early 1950s, I was about 11 years old, when my father used to work in the garden on Saturday afternoons and he would bring our big radio outside so that he could listen to the football while he worked. Following the football, which I believe was probably on radio station 5KA, there was a music programme which would play the hit songs of that time. Some of the artists I remember hearing were Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell, Doris Day, Johnny Ray, Rosemary Clooney, Jo Stafford, Marty Robbins and so on. Also, when I went to visit my aunty and uncle, who had a big phonogram and record player, they would play their LP records of the musicals of the 1950s. As I grew into my teenage years, music gained more significance. At home we had a small mantle radio and in the evenings, as we washed and dried the dishes, I was able to listen to the music of the Platters, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, etc., etc.
I think sometime during 1959, my father bought a small record player, which was hugely exciting for me. Then, when I left school, I could buy my favourite 45rpm singles as they came on the hit parade .….. and so I started my record collection. My girlfriend used to work at John Martins and, every week, she would bring me the 5AD Top 40 charts. She was so good at doing this that, eventually, I asked her to marry me.
Now, over 50 years later, she doesn’t bring me the Top 40 charts but she does have a habit of saying to me, “Would you please turn that music down!”
For the Record (with Adriaan van der Wyst)
Pamela Rajkowski
Australia’s Cameleers, Fascinating Poland
Ann Rees
I have been teaching music for more than 50 years, always with the desire to enable people of all ages and abilities to enjoy and gently extend their knowledge, understanding and pleasure. Recreational music-making is uplifting in many ways and group music is satisfying socially, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. Sometimes it is just plain fun! I played in my first recorder ensemble when I was 13 years old, have been hooked ever since, and have no intention of stopping now.
Recorder Group
Waltraud Schmidt
Before moving from Germany to Adelaide in 1992, I taught German, English and Geography at the German-French High School in Freiburg. While living in the USA for a few years in the early eighties, I had the opportunity to learn how to make pottery.
In 1995 I joined the WEA and taught German from ‘Beginners’ to ‘Advanced Conversation’ until 2010. In 2013 I started to teach ‘German for Beginners’ at U3A.
I also was a tour guide at the South Australian Museum for 24 years.
German Elementary (2), German Language and Culture (4)
John Slaytor
After graduating from Adelaide University (B.A., Dip. Ed.), John taught in high schools for a few years before returning to do a Master’s degree in Climatology. For the next 15 years or so he taught student teachers and, during this time, also did a B.Sc. John spent several extended periods overseas in institutions in Holland (Earth Sciences) and England (Land Management). For the last 10 years before retiring he was Senior Lecturer in park management at the University of S.A. He is a Life Member of both the Aust. Meteorological Association and the Royal Geographical Society of S.A.
So how is it that he’s running a course in Spanish? Well, since student days he has had an interest in foreign languages, but the opportunity to study only Latin formally at University. Yet this, coupled with a certain fascination with grammar (English and Latin) arising from its importance in his education in the mid-twentieth century, was of great help as a renewed interest in languages arose when he retired. Intrigued by the Graeco-Latin origins of the Romance languages, and spurred on by partner Mary, together they did SACE Spanish via the School of Languages. This is his only formal qualification in Spanish. So, rather than being a tutor, he regards himself as a coordinator of a group of like-minded autodidacts, still of modest Spanish conversational skills, but very enthusiastic, who are mostly refugees from the legendary Silvia Lang’s Spanish class and who, after her retirement, wanted to continue in the same way the study of the beautiful Spanish language, its literature, and culture.
Spanish Literature and Grammar (3)
David Smith
Wine Exploring
Dianne Schwarz
Let’s Keep Talking (Convenor)
Julanne Sweeney
Born Julanne Drynan on dairy farm near Beaudesert. All Hallows School Brisbane. B.A. Dip. Ed. 1957. 1st class English Hons 1986 UQ. 1958–2002 High School teaching in FNQ [Yeronga 1983–86] and cattle farming at Mena Creek with former husband Fabian; establishing native tree plantations from 1980s. Political campaigns (1972!) and environmental protests for Barrier Reef and World Heritage Wet Tropics.
At Cairns High 1958–9 encouraged debating for Pat O’Shane, first Aboriginal magistrate; in Townsville taught with Eddie Mabo at controversial Black Community School 1972–3; awarded Qld Multicultural Medal 1995(?) for voluntary community cultural activism in Innisfail area. Shakespeare specialist Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe (director Dr Bryan Nason) is still based in a hut (seen in new Oz film CELESTE) near my Tropic Valley waterfall on the Cassowary Coast.
At the birth of my wonderful Down syndrome granddaughter Isadora in 2002, I moved to Adelaide where 3 of my 5 children work in professional arts world. The other two are practising educators in visual and performing arts interstate. A great privilege [to top off a teaching career] has been to work with inspiring refugees, migrants and their teachers at the Adelaide Secondary School of English.
The exhilarating challenge of tutoring the Shakespeare Reading group at U3A came in 2014 when the youngest of 6 Adelaide granddaughters left Kindy ( pick-ups still almost daily!). My cognitive world changed: new wealth in profound texts is shared fortnightly. Neglected books (for Poetry and other U3A reading groups) jump off my shelves.
Shakespeare Play Reading
Aura Valli
Italian Continuing (3)
Adriaan van der Wyst
Takes the “For the Record” class with his co-presenter, Bob Rabbitt. He also presents occasional lectures on topics in the science field.
Adriaan taught maths and science in SA secondary schools for eight years before working in the Education Department in Research and Planning and in Personnel for thirty years. His main interests are music, philosophy, history, religion and bushwalking and golf.
For the Record (with Bob Rabbitt), The Boy from Oz
Laure Vincent-Allard
As a free-lance consultant and lecturer, Laure has combined her wide-ranging knowledge of European Art History (24 years as a conference-guide in French Historic sites and for private companies and 15 years as an Art History teacher) with her 18-year domestic and international experience as a trainers’ supervisor and team leader.
She has a Bachelor degree in Art history and Archaeology with honours, and various diplomas and certificates in guiding/lecturing and in management. She has provided lectures, conferences, led workshops and training in both European Art and Team Leadership (from stress management to training improvement, just to name a few). She specialises in expanding creativity, challenging intellectual and emotional perspective and building self-confidence with humour and kindness.
Laura’s website:- www.thewittyscope.weebly.com
French Perspective Française, Watercolour Affairs
Steve Walsh
At the Movies — Steve, Adventures in Film Music
Raelene Wilsdon
Raelene began her working life at the Electricity Trust, then moved to an Accountant’s office for the next 9 years until her first child arrived. After 11 years at home with her family, doing volunteer work in the school library, she returned to the workforce as a site secretary on several large building sites around Adelaide and the last 20 working years as Office Manager and Human Resource Officer in a large civil engineering company. Raelene enjoys travelling with her husband, reading, painting, theatre, cooking and the many history discussions held at the U3A. Raelene is on the Board of U3A Adelaide.
Movie Nostalgia (with Kathleen Bambridge and Helen Kellaway)