Brian Gibbons
1937 – 26 June 2010

Brian had a great love of literature and music, with a wonderful turn of phrase and wit. He also experienced a discord between himself and the world which first manifested itself while he was at Manly. He was certainly not alone – over the centuries Jung, St John of the Cross, Blake, Coleridge, John Keats, John Lennon, to name a few – also experienced this discord between themselves and the world.

Brian was only seven when his mother died and in the Leaving Certificate class at St Columba’s College, Springwood when his father died. There were two wonderful men, who, through God’s grace, prepared him for his future role as an English teacher. The first was Br Gerard O’Donoghue, a classics teacher and one of those gifted Marist Brothers who happened to be in the right place at the right time for young men being formed in English studies. The second was Mgr Charles Dunn, Dean and then Rector of the Seminary, also a former English teacher, who gave so many of the students for the priesthood a love of the English language. Brian particularly remembered Charlie Dunn’s love of Francis Thompson’s poem The Hound of Heaven.

Brian’s first appointment was with Fr Roger Kennedy in Gateshead from 1965 to 1969. Roger and Brian were gifts to each other because they had a love of English and wordplay and a wonderful sense of hospitality.

It was at St Pius X College, Adamstown, from 1969, that Brian shone.

Brian was a brilliant English teacher whose wit and clever wordplay commanded the respect of his students. Brian moved to Scone in 1982 where he spent 11 very happy years. Photos of him at the piano signify the wonderful times shared with the Sisters of Mercy and the Scone parishioners who lovingly supported him. It was there in 1993 that he suffered his first heart attack and subsequently retired.

In retirement once again the discord between himself and the world returned to haunt him and he became very much a recluse. It was into this world that special friends and the members of his family were able to come and be greeted with the words, “You are very welcome, my friend.”

I am sure our loving God greeted Brian with these very same words on 26 June 2010.