Page 5883 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 2010
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Tom’s first wife, Elizabeth, unfortunately died on 2 October 1965. Tom and Elizabeth had four children, Thomas, Margaret, Nicholas and Danae. He married Margaret in 1967. Unfortunately, he lost his battle and died on 2 October 2010.
For his contribution to the manned flight program, he was awarded an MBE in the new year’s honours list in 1970 and was presented with the USA Public Service Medal at Tidbinbilla by the visiting US Vice-President.
He was a great person. He was a delight to be with. He was great to his friends. He was so incredibly supportive of Senator Reid. He had that dry Scots’ wit. He liked a wee dram. He was very brave to the end. His last gift to the people of Australia was that he actually donated his body to science, and he quipped, “There you go; I will get back into ANU yet.”
Canberra Critics Circle awards
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.08): Last week, I had the opportunity and the great honour to attend the Canberra Critics Circle awards for 2010. The Canberra Critics Circle is 20 years old this year and is the only such group of its kind in Australia. It runs across all major art forms, not just the performing arts. The Critics Circle changes each year because it depends on who is writing and broadcasting in the area and who is commenting on arts in its very widest form in the ACT and region which, for the purposes of the Critics Circle, is defined as anything within a 100-kilometre radius of Canberra.
This year the Canberra Critics Circle had a gala event at CMAG and announced a range of awards across the disciplines. The awards went to writers Kaaron Warren, Peter Stanley for his outstanding piece of historical non-fiction in relation to the war and Alan Gould for his novel, The Lakewoman. Filmmaker Christian Doran and visual artists Jude Rae, Simon Maberley, TJ Phillipson and Patsy Hely were given awards, as too were curators Deborah Clark and Mark Van Veen.
Dance artists who were given awards included QL2 dance studios, Jackie Hallahan and Jacquelyn Richards. In the area of theatre artists, Everyman Theatre, Boho Interactive, the Street Theatre, the marvellous Jordan Best for her direction of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tony Turner for his outstanding performance as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Louiza Blomfield and SUPA Productions and Phoenix Players for their production of Miss Saigon were also given awards.
Musicians Lucy Bermingham, who was highly regarded for her theatre and her theatre music, and David Pereira received awards. Shortis and Simpson, as well as Donal Baylor, Tobias Cole, the Street Theatre and the ANU School of Music were awarded for their collaboration and bringing up to date of Dido and Aeneas which, although I did not see it, was very highly complimented wherever I went at the time.
Painter Ruth Waller was singled out by the circle for her outstanding body of work and her strong advocacy for the visual arts. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance announced that the green room awards for professional productions went to sound artist Kimmo Vennonen and to the production When the rain stops falling.
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