Geoff Camm, Mac Ronan and Brian Stagoll at dinner at Kew Golf Club 27 October 2012.
Malcolm Ronan, teacher 1962
I came to Balwyn High after five years’ teaching at Macleod High School 1957-61. In one of those years I was involved in a head-on collision while driving home from school one day, which left me comatose for the next two weeks, with hampered mobility and a permanent limp. (The truck-driver was jailed for drunken and dangerous driving.) I was on the teaching staff at Balwyn High for only one year, 1962, when I taught in English, Humanities and Maths.
One of my aims was to refurbish the school magazine in style and content, a goal which was managed with the aid of a talented magazine committee of senior students buoyed with enthusiasm. Thus the magazine “Buchanan” was born, planned to be an annual product: though leaning more towards the model of a Year Book.
However I found myself promoted by the Education Department as senior master to the new and nearby Banyule High School, on the verdant banks of the Yarra River near Rosanna. I spent six years helping that school to grow and thrive, a high point in my career.
I had become aware that my teaching was more and more infused with current social issues, and also aware of the new discipline called Sociology, common in the U.S. I took a teaching position with the Victorian Institute of Colleges, and set my goal of graduate studies. The college also felt a need for growth in the social sciences and made possible my travel and enrolment in a Masters Sociology program at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the U.S. I graduated MA in 1971.
I was then persuaded to continue into doctoral studies in sociology for two more years—graduating finally as PhD in 1974. This culminated in my appointment at Caulfield Institute of Technology as Head of Department of Applied Sociology , which has since been absorbed by Monash University at Clayton. I remained in that post until retirement in 1986.
My retirement has been spent in writing (and self-publishing under my own Imprint Macron) heritage and historical research in north-east Victoria; composing cryptic crosswords; and sharing interests with my partner Geoff Allingham, who—while I was teaching at Balwyn High— was teaching Art at Heidelberg High School. Geoff and I have been together for 64 years, now in a registered relationship. (Note of interest…My Banyule High School was demolished several years ago, and Heidelberg High is under present demolition.) Mac Ronan 22 October, 2012.
OBITUARY 2019
From small town boy to significant contributor
ByPeter Jacovou
December 17, 2019 — 2.39pm
Malcolm (Mac) Ronan June 18, 1926-May 12, 2019
Mac Ronan went from 17-year-old temporary head teacher to university department head and from founding a grassroots gay organisation to seeing the arrival of same-sex marriage; from magazine correspondent to award-winning author and from life-threatening setbacks to busily pursuing his life’s work.
Mac was born on June 18, 1926, in Tallangatta, north-east Victoria, the younger brother of Heath (Blair) and son of Coral and James (Jim) Ronan, MBE, who were involved in many aspects of town life. Grandfather Ben Butler was a district identity. Jim, a teacher and wounded WWI veteran, served as a shire councillor and for various civic organisations and ran a small business. Mac was to follow his father into teaching.
He grew up in the aftermath of the Great War and through the Great Depression and would soon be living in the great shadow of WWII as it continued through his school days. And, from his earliest days, Mac had been aware that Tallangatta might one day be moved to another location because it had been flood-prone from first settlement. That momentous relocation happened in 1955-56.
Having completed formative schooling at Tallangatta, Wodonga and Wangaratta, Mac was a student-teacher at Tallangatta in 1944, and just 17 when plucked out and given the title temporary head teacher for a year at the one-man Gundowring North rural school that “proved a challenging but fruitful grounding for my future teaching career of what I can recall”.
Completing teacher training at Melbourne Teachers College and Melbourne University with TPTC, BEd and later BA, his first appointments were at Yea and Seymour.
His fledgling career however, suffered successive setbacks. In 1953, on a holiday in Europe Mac was hospitalised in Bern, the Swiss capital, with TB and quickly repatriated back to Australia and into the Melbourne Sanatorium. He spent most of 1954 recovering in Tallangatta.
In 1957 while a teacher at Macleod High School and driving home from school one day, he was involved in a head-on collision with a truck that left him comatose for the two weeks, resulting in hampered mobility and a permanent limp. The truck driver was jailed for drunken and dangerous driving.
In 1955, he was appointed teacher at his childhood Tallangatta school, the year before the planned relocation of the town. The school was transported to its new location over the Christmas period, and Mac found himself teaching in the same classrooms two months later but five miles away. He cherished that experience.
With loyalty, tact and resourcefulness, Mac’s outstanding qualities of scholarship, and leadership, augmented his professional skills as a teacher. His gentle disposition and adaptability saw him through often trying situations.
By the time he joined the Victorian Institute of Colleges in 1969, he had taught for 20 years with the Victorian Education Department, administering in English, history, and mathematics. He served as senior master and as acting principal on several occasions.
Mac had become aware his teaching was increasingly infused with current social issues, and also aware of the new discipline sociology, common in the US. He took a teaching position with the Victorian Institute of Colleges and set his goal of graduate studies. The college also felt a need for growth in the social sciences and made possible Mac’s travel and enrolment in a master’s sociology program at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the US.
He graduated MA in 1971 and continued into doctoral studies in sociology for two more years, graduating as PhD in 1974. This culminated in his appointment at Caulfield Institute of Technology as head of department of applied sociology, later absorbed by Monash University.
Under his 10-year guidance the department attracted and trained able and well-qualified staff, developed a wide range of innovative courses and gained a highly regarded reputation for applied social research.
Mac’s principled and compassionate nature led him to play a prominent role in the evolution and betterment of Melbourne’s gay community with his founding of a grassroots organisation that helped in the subsequent gains of the gay minority.
“Minorities” had been his main area of focus in his academic pursuits, just as the gay rights movement was emerging in the 1970s. Mac’s embrace for minorities and, in the case of the gay community, led to the important social and support organisation he founded in 1980 – ALSO (Alternative Life Style Organisation). The goal was to encourage the use of resources to improve prospects for gay people. He believed in gay people taking charge of their own futures and not as second-class citizens.
With his dulcet tones, Mac’s friendliness had a certain magnetic quality that drew people to him enabling a competent team of which he was president for 10 years.
ALSO was instrumental in the establishment and development of a wide range of gay organisations including the Victorian AIDS Council (Thorne Harbour Health), Radio Joy Melbourne, the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard (Switchboard Victoria), the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and Midsumma Festival. He was proud that “ALSO helped a lot of people find a place in the sun”.
A rationalist and proud Australian, he was delighted when secular Australia voted decidedly on the plebiscite of 2017 and that justice was done in the court of public opinion.
Mac paid tribute to his forebears who had risked all and made audacious, often treacherous journeys to the other end of the world, to become pioneers of this country, with two award-winning family histories, Across The Threshold (1993) – A Ronan Family History, from Kilkenny to Victoria, and Up and Down the River (1998) – the Butlers from Benenden.
He honoured his hometown with the celebrated “Old Tallangatta – a Town to Remember” (1995). “Seeking to recapture the flavour of the first 100 years, when Tallangatta had its exciting day in the sun, through the daily lives of the people who lived far from the city’s crowds – in the lush valleys of the Mitta River and the Tallangatta Creek.”
Two more hometown tributes are “Hearts in Stone – the saga of Tallangatta’s war memorials (2000) and The Century Book – Old & New Tallangatta (2001, with Harold Craig).
A fine pianist, he shared with partner Geoff a love of music, the cinema, stage musicals and travel. He propagated and raised peppercorn seedlings for tree lovers, created cryptic crosswords and puzzles, for The Senior and Coast and Country and in later years taught English to adult migrants at local community centres.
Meeting Geoff at the Princess Theatre, in 1948, while attending The Skin of our Teeth was the beginning of a devoted 72-year partnership and they were still together, in shared accommodation at their Kew nursing home.
Peter Jacovou was a friend of Mac Ronan and is executor of his estate.
One of my aims was to refurbish the school magazine in style and content, a goal which was managed with the aid of a talented magazine committee of senior students buoyed with enthusiasm. Thus the magazine “Buchanan” was born, planned to be an annual product: though leaning more towards the model of a Year Book.
However I found myself promoted by the Education Department as senior master to the new and nearby Banyule High School, on the verdant banks of the Yarra River near Rosanna. I spent six years helping that school to grow and thrive, a high point in my career.
I had become aware that my teaching was more and more infused with current social issues, and also aware of the new discipline called Sociology, common in the U.S. I took a teaching position with the Victorian Institute of Colleges, and set my goal of graduate studies. The college also felt a need for growth in the social sciences and made possible my travel and enrolment in a Masters Sociology program at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the U.S. I graduated MA in 1971.
I was then persuaded to continue into doctoral studies in sociology for two more years—graduating finally as PhD in 1974. This culminated in my appointment at Caulfield Institute of Technology as Head of Department of Applied Sociology , which has since been absorbed by Monash University at Clayton. I remained in that post until retirement in 1986.
My retirement has been spent in writing (and self-publishing under my own Imprint Macron) heritage and historical research in north-east Victoria; composing cryptic crosswords; and sharing interests with my partner Geoff Allingham, who—while I was teaching at Balwyn High— was teaching Art at Heidelberg High School. Geoff and I have been together for 64 years, now in a registered relationship. (Note of interest…My Banyule High School was demolished several years ago, and Heidelberg High is under present demolition.) Mac Ronan 22 October, 2012.
OBITUARY 2019
From small town boy to significant contributor
ByPeter Jacovou
December 17, 2019 — 2.39pm
Malcolm (Mac) Ronan June 18, 1926-May 12, 2019
Mac Ronan went from 17-year-old temporary head teacher to university department head and from founding a grassroots gay organisation to seeing the arrival of same-sex marriage; from magazine correspondent to award-winning author and from life-threatening setbacks to busily pursuing his life’s work.
Mac was born on June 18, 1926, in Tallangatta, north-east Victoria, the younger brother of Heath (Blair) and son of Coral and James (Jim) Ronan, MBE, who were involved in many aspects of town life. Grandfather Ben Butler was a district identity. Jim, a teacher and wounded WWI veteran, served as a shire councillor and for various civic organisations and ran a small business. Mac was to follow his father into teaching.
He grew up in the aftermath of the Great War and through the Great Depression and would soon be living in the great shadow of WWII as it continued through his school days. And, from his earliest days, Mac had been aware that Tallangatta might one day be moved to another location because it had been flood-prone from first settlement. That momentous relocation happened in 1955-56.
Having completed formative schooling at Tallangatta, Wodonga and Wangaratta, Mac was a student-teacher at Tallangatta in 1944, and just 17 when plucked out and given the title temporary head teacher for a year at the one-man Gundowring North rural school that “proved a challenging but fruitful grounding for my future teaching career of what I can recall”.
Completing teacher training at Melbourne Teachers College and Melbourne University with TPTC, BEd and later BA, his first appointments were at Yea and Seymour.
His fledgling career however, suffered successive setbacks. In 1953, on a holiday in Europe Mac was hospitalised in Bern, the Swiss capital, with TB and quickly repatriated back to Australia and into the Melbourne Sanatorium. He spent most of 1954 recovering in Tallangatta.
In 1957 while a teacher at Macleod High School and driving home from school one day, he was involved in a head-on collision with a truck that left him comatose for the two weeks, resulting in hampered mobility and a permanent limp. The truck driver was jailed for drunken and dangerous driving.
In 1955, he was appointed teacher at his childhood Tallangatta school, the year before the planned relocation of the town. The school was transported to its new location over the Christmas period, and Mac found himself teaching in the same classrooms two months later but five miles away. He cherished that experience.
With loyalty, tact and resourcefulness, Mac’s outstanding qualities of scholarship, and leadership, augmented his professional skills as a teacher. His gentle disposition and adaptability saw him through often trying situations.
By the time he joined the Victorian Institute of Colleges in 1969, he had taught for 20 years with the Victorian Education Department, administering in English, history, and mathematics. He served as senior master and as acting principal on several occasions.
Mac had become aware his teaching was increasingly infused with current social issues, and also aware of the new discipline sociology, common in the US. He took a teaching position with the Victorian Institute of Colleges and set his goal of graduate studies. The college also felt a need for growth in the social sciences and made possible Mac’s travel and enrolment in a master’s sociology program at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the US.
He graduated MA in 1971 and continued into doctoral studies in sociology for two more years, graduating as PhD in 1974. This culminated in his appointment at Caulfield Institute of Technology as head of department of applied sociology, later absorbed by Monash University.
Under his 10-year guidance the department attracted and trained able and well-qualified staff, developed a wide range of innovative courses and gained a highly regarded reputation for applied social research.
Mac’s principled and compassionate nature led him to play a prominent role in the evolution and betterment of Melbourne’s gay community with his founding of a grassroots organisation that helped in the subsequent gains of the gay minority.
“Minorities” had been his main area of focus in his academic pursuits, just as the gay rights movement was emerging in the 1970s. Mac’s embrace for minorities and, in the case of the gay community, led to the important social and support organisation he founded in 1980 – ALSO (Alternative Life Style Organisation). The goal was to encourage the use of resources to improve prospects for gay people. He believed in gay people taking charge of their own futures and not as second-class citizens.
With his dulcet tones, Mac’s friendliness had a certain magnetic quality that drew people to him enabling a competent team of which he was president for 10 years.
ALSO was instrumental in the establishment and development of a wide range of gay organisations including the Victorian AIDS Council (Thorne Harbour Health), Radio Joy Melbourne, the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard (Switchboard Victoria), the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and Midsumma Festival. He was proud that “ALSO helped a lot of people find a place in the sun”.
A rationalist and proud Australian, he was delighted when secular Australia voted decidedly on the plebiscite of 2017 and that justice was done in the court of public opinion.
Mac paid tribute to his forebears who had risked all and made audacious, often treacherous journeys to the other end of the world, to become pioneers of this country, with two award-winning family histories, Across The Threshold (1993) – A Ronan Family History, from Kilkenny to Victoria, and Up and Down the River (1998) – the Butlers from Benenden.
He honoured his hometown with the celebrated “Old Tallangatta – a Town to Remember” (1995). “Seeking to recapture the flavour of the first 100 years, when Tallangatta had its exciting day in the sun, through the daily lives of the people who lived far from the city’s crowds – in the lush valleys of the Mitta River and the Tallangatta Creek.”
Two more hometown tributes are “Hearts in Stone – the saga of Tallangatta’s war memorials (2000) and The Century Book – Old & New Tallangatta (2001, with Harold Craig).
A fine pianist, he shared with partner Geoff a love of music, the cinema, stage musicals and travel. He propagated and raised peppercorn seedlings for tree lovers, created cryptic crosswords and puzzles, for The Senior and Coast and Country and in later years taught English to adult migrants at local community centres.
Meeting Geoff at the Princess Theatre, in 1948, while attending The Skin of our Teeth was the beginning of a devoted 72-year partnership and they were still together, in shared accommodation at their Kew nursing home.
Peter Jacovou was a friend of Mac Ronan and is executor of his estate.
