MONASH UNIVERSITY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Computer Science and Software Engineering John Hurst

UNCS

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UNCS People Page

The following people were members of UNCS. If you know any of the dates? or contact? details, or the existence of any home pages for these people, or of others who should be on the list, please mail John Hurst.

In the following table, if any person's name is a link, you can click on it to read some gossip about them.

Gossip!

Christina Hart (Karbowiak)

I was a member of UNCS from 1969 to 1972. For most of that time I was secretary, so you may remember me trying to organise you about! About a dozen UNCS members sang at my wedding to Terry in April 1975 (see photo). We lived in Hobart for four years, where I sang in the chorus of the Tasmanian Opera Company for about a year. I am now teaching physics and science at Presentation College, in Melbourne, and unfortunately don't have much time for singing. Terry still works at the Bureau of Meteorology.

Terry and I have two children. Philip is now 21, studying Arts/Engineering at Monash Uni. His passion is astronomy and he spends as many nights as he can star-gazing, but he is also heavily involved in student politics and many other things. Judy, 19, is also doing Engineering at Monash. She plays clarinet in the Melbourne Youth Symphonic Band, and enjoys going to the ballet with me. Terry and I are starting to plan our lives post-children, as both of them plan to travel overseas as soon as possible.

I was glad that Heather Leviston managed to contact me to let me know about the memorial service for John, and that I was able to catch up with Lesley du Ve and Kristina Macrae (Thorburn). There is quite a contingent of ex-UNCS in Melbourne!

Bevan Leviston

Just a little gossip on my movements since UNCS. In the early 70s, I returned to Melbourne, and for 10 years or so I was a maths lecturer at various institutions. When I found tertiary institutions becoming increasingly constipated in the mid 80s I decided it was time to try my hand at the business and corporate world. I worked for a number of organisations and eventually became the National Marketing Manager for Acorn/BBC Computers. This involved large amounts of time on planes and in corporate suites in strange cities, so music commitments had to drop back at this stage. I became increasingly frustrated with management styles and business practices around me, so in the early 90s decided to leave and form my own company to train business and management skills. That's what puts the food on the table at the moment, and I can't see myself ever going back to work for someone else.

Heather and I set up house in Prahran and added one girl (Zoe) to the existing boy (Conrad). Conrad was married at Easter. He now has the long hair & beard while his dad's has turned grey and disappeared at an alarming rate. Zoe has completed a Psych degree at Swinburne and is looking at becoming a forensic psychologist. Heather & I separated (amicably) in the mid 80s but still maintain cordial relations. My partner of a number of years, Glenda, is in the process of converting an inner city warehouse into living space (we choose to maintain separate living spaces - she knows that I spent several years living in the belltower of a church). We first met when I headhunted her from the Tasmanian Education Department. She recently sold her pre-prepared food business in the city and is currently Sales & Marketing Manager for Deakin Australia (the training arm of Deakin University).

On the music front, I spent about 15 years very heavily involved as conductor, performer and organiser. I conducted MONUCS for a number of years and then MUCS. At any one time I am usually conducting some choir or orchestra. In 1975 I formed my own group, Ars Nova, and we have had a great time performing anything from one man shows to a staged performance of Carmina Burana in the Concert Hall (bigger than King David?). For many years we were performing somewhere almost every week, but corporate life eroded that level of activity, and we are now settling into just several main concerts a year. Some of the works I have most enjoyed conducting are Stravinsk's Les Noces, Monteverdi Vespers, St John Passion, Catulli Carmina & Carmina Burana, Machaut Mass, Mozart Requiem as well as fun concerts such as The History of the Dirty Song.

I try to keep active in a range of interests. For many years I wrote as a music critic for the Herald, Australian and The Age, and I still write occasional articles on technology or education. For a while I devised and wrote educational computer programs, and still initiate the odd project in that area - I did some work for Sun Computers last year. Several years ago, I had to think about what I could do to create a job safety net for my children if there was no job to be found after uni, (and how I could support myself in retirement) so I set up a little zero start-up tourism company. At nights and weekends you can now found me or my guides dressed in some outlandish outfit running a cemetery tour or Murder & Mystery Tour or whatever I have become interested in that year. There's still a lot of things I want to do in life, and less time to do it in so I don't know what I'll be doing 2 years from now - but I know I'll be enjoying it.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone on Anzac Day.

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