Circular No 748

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 6 of March 2016 No. 748

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends,

This-issue is about teachers in the 1960s era.

Can you complement a few lines on each or those that were not mentioned??

Please support the Circular with a few lines, we would like to keep on going through 2016.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:43:19 -0800 (PST)

From:  "Attila GYURIS" <gyuris@yahoo.com> 

    Hi Specs:

Great update, thanks.

I too remember David Naraine, especially in the production "Hello Dolly"  in which he was dressed as Dolly and a "Man for all Seasons". 

Sorry to hear his passing.

What was the cause, do you know?  

Wasn't he a head prefect at one time? 

Either before or after Clark became the head prefect

Don't remember anything about Ronald Torry, but the last name sounds vaguely familiar.

I didn't get to take Biology in Form IV and V, since it was either that or Physics.

Nobody couldn't take both due to schedule conflicts.

So I didn't get to have Mr. Yip Chuck, but I remember him. 

He was a heavy smoker too wasn't he?

Sorry to hear he died too.

Do you know what became of Mr. Chow Fat?

If you see Mr. Basanta, please give him my fond regards.

He was my Spanish teacher also, and probably of all of the other Venezuelans too, of course a cakewalk subject for us.

I think he used to live in a house Tunapuna village on the East side of the main road up to the Mount.

Same for Miss Marcus. Give her a hug for me.

She (along with Mr. Chow Fat) was my favourite teacher in Forms IV &  V. 

When you see her next, please tell her that her Chemistry classes (and especially her lab sessions in qualitative and quantitative analysis) influenced me the most into choosing my degree in Chemical Engineering.

Would you believe, in my library I still have that green "A New Certificate Chemistry" by Holderness & Lambert textbook that we used in class.

It is such an excellent book that I still refer to it occasionally, even though it was published over 40 years ago. 

And I am the second owner too, because the first owner was Cecil Camacho, his name and some of his handwritten notes are in still in the inside pages of the book.

Thanks for the name of the piano teacher. It still doesn't ring a bell.

Specs, besides your many talents as the class clown, and abstract art painter, weren’t you one of the film projector operators for the Saturday night movies?

Peace and Merry Christmas to all,

Attila Gyuris

MSB 1964-1969

------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Michael D' Ornellas

<michael@elchicoeggs.com> wrote:

Dear Attila,

Thanks for this info.

I often wondered what had become of Lindsay.

I remember him quite well.

He was an extremely talented artist and painted many back drops for our plays.

I think Lindsay was connected with ' Mount Inside '.  

If I am correct, he was friendly with David Narine, who was very talented and was responsible for many grand productions at Bennett's hall.

Unfortunately, David passed away quite some time ago.

Another talented guy in that group was Ronald Torry .... I have no info on him.

Chow Fat was my Math teacher, he was an extremely good teacher. 

I understand that his brain got the better of him. 

Mr. Yip Chuck was my Biology teacher (That was my favourite science subject)

He also was extremely good teacher.

He died of cancer about 15 years ago or longer ... he lived in San Fernando.

I made several visits to his home after I left the Mount.

Another teacher I see from time to time is Mr. David Basanta, he was my Spanish & English teacher.

Last year, I arranged an evening of Sacred Music at the Abbey Church and it fell on Miss Marcus's  Birthday.

She had a wonderful time and is still bright as a button.

I am planning another sometime in 2007.

I think your Piano teacher was Professor Katz (not sure if spelt right )  He was Jewish.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Specs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Lindsay John Moffat

 <l.john@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Wow, great to make contact...

Yes I remember Mr. Chow Fat very well.

Your description is accurate.

I also remember him as a good teacher who could control the class with a focused look silence and more than a few throbbing of the muscles of his cheekbones!

Algebra was not by best subject but Biology was and it was taught by Mr. Yip Chuck who was my favourite teacher of all.

In fact the Chinese teachers there were the best.

Will never forget them and by strange coincidence was recently thinking of them with affection and wondering what happened to then and indeed if they were still alive.

I can't remember the frogs’ legs jumping and I never learned to spell!

Wondering who I am?

Though under the artistic name of Lindsay John now my full name: Lindsay John Moffat..................

Now living in Glasgow, Scotland, UK and am a Fine Artist and Lecturer

Wonder how this got through to me??

Always glad to hear from 'Mountainsiders' after all this time.

Keep in touch and regards to all.

Lindsay

----------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Achong wrote:

Forgot to give you my address

Stanley & Judy Achong

45 Supino Crescent

Brampton, Ontario > Canada L4L3T4

Home: 905-790-0101

Bus: 905-264-7278

Toll free North America: Bus 866-264-7278

E-mail: hanlan@pathcom.com

Skype: Stanley Achong

Regards, Stan

----------- Mensaje Original ----------------------------------------------
De: laszlo kertesz [kertesz11@yahoo.com]

Fecha: 28/01/2007 20:02:16

Dear Carlos

Good to hear from you.

In my last email to you, I asked to see you, maybe you can call me.

I hope that you are getting the Circular.

God Bless

Ladislao

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
"cedvorak@cantv.net" wrote:

Best wishes to you all.

I also remember Mr. Chow Fat as the best teacher in MSB, apart from good in teaching Physics and Maths O and A- levels, 

We also received from him some ways to remember things such as how to remember the rainbow colours,

Does anybody remember to: "Read Over Your Geometry Book In Vacations", I have never forget it.

Best Regards

Wish I could see some of you soon

Carlos Dvorak

----------- Mensaje Original ---------------------------------------------
De: Attila GYURIS [gyuris@yahoo.com]

Fecha: 21/12/2006 15:14:43

Hello Lindsay:

Good to hear from you after all these years!

Yes, I agree with you, the Chinese teachers were the best and the strictest.

I also always wondered what became of Mr. Chow Fat.

I think he inspired me to get into engineering school.

---000---

Sooo...what kind of fine arts are you into?

Are you still playing the piano?

After leaving the Mount I never continued the lessons, since we didn't have a piano at home.

Sometimes I wish I had. I can still play "chop-sticks" on the keyboards though,...and a pretty mean air-guitar! 

Do you still remember the name of our piano teacher? 

I forget. I think he was polish if I remember correctly.

Do you remember when he took us to a classical music concert once in Port-of-Spain.

I remember the concert was so good I fell fast asleep.

Attila Gyuris

MSB 1964-1969

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

From: Attila GYURIS

Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:47:29 -0800 (PST)

If I remember correctly, the skinny, chain-smoking, ping-pong playing Mr. Chow Fat was my Physics, Ordinary Math and Advanced Math class teacher in both Form IV and Form V. I thought he was the best teacher of the bunch.

He was allergic to chalk dust and he constantly had to go to the infirmary to see the nurse for treatment.

One time he even had to use latex gloves to teach the class.

Somewhere in the MSB box I still have a copy of a letter of recommendation from him for my university applications.

Miss Kitty Marcus was our Chemistry teacher in both form IV and form V.

Attila

------------------------------------------------------------------------.

Achong wrote:

Hi everyone .... 

Andres: I believe Mr. Chow Fat was in the Chemistry class, though I may be wrong.

Also recall one of the Fathers in our science class doing the experiment with the headless bull frog suspended by a spring and jumping when electricity was applied.

Was it Fr. Voosh?

See if we could get some help here....

Regards, Stan

 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Andres Larsen

Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 11:18 AM

Hello Stanley and Jan:

A few questions on Mr. Chow Fat:

Was he our Biology or Chemistry teacher ?

If I remember correctly he was an excellent ping pong player but also a chain smoker.

If someone would curse in class, or speak when not spoken to, he would say something like:

Go wash out your mouth with soap and water.

Was it in his Biology class that we used to make headless toads jump with electric jolts and was it there that we drowned stray cats in order to make arrow quivers out of their furry skins ?

I remember there was a time when we all had this craze with bows and arrows.

----------------------------------------------

EDITED by LadislaoKertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you would like to include.

-----------------------------------------------

Photos:

62LK0001FBVGRP, Fr. Bernard, Ladislao Kertesz and Yip Chuck

15AO1000ROB, Anthony O´Brien in Bogota

15RO2000ROCWFE, Richard O´Connor and wife Elspeth

05UN0001BPIFIL, Dominique Piton in the Philippines