Page 33 - Luce 2017

Obituaries

Jean Tom AO (Spring 1941) Ross Lipson (1975)
8 August 1922 – 28 May 2017 18 July 1957 – 9 December 2014

Throughout her life Jean was an Besides his family, Ross Lipson’s great loves were music
avid supporter of education for all, and the sea. He applied boundless talent and energy to
especially women. She felt privileged both; an adventurous sailor and surfer on the water, and
to have been a boarder at PLC East an equally adventurous musician.
Melbourne and a resident at JCH
when studying science at Melbourne Ross was born and raised in Geelong, one of three sons
University. At both these places she of Margaret and Menzie Lipson, both accomplished
made valued friendships. scientists who shared a strong social conscience.
He was educated at Geelong Grammar School and
After graduating, Jean married Bill Tom, completed a science degree at Melbourne University in
a farmer, and settled into a busy routine of farming, family 1977.
life and community activities. She brought up five children
all of whom benefited from her commitment to education. Teaching was on his mind, but so was music; the oboe
Two of her daughters (Helen 1966 and Alison 1968) were and saxophone were his specialties, and he joined the
students at JCH in the late 1960s. RAAF in 1978 to spend six years playing in what was
one of the best bands of the day.
Jean was committed to community service and was involved
with many organisations over her lifetime – local, state and His reached his pinnacle as a secondary teacher at
Australia-wide. She found her niche with the Country Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong
Women’s Association where she developed her leadership with the creation of the schoolgirl soul band the
skills and progressively served as a Group President, ‘Sweethearts’. They took their music to the world,
Victorian State President, and National President, from playing alongside the legends in festivals such as
1988 to 1991. These positions led to other appointments – Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival, Italy’s Porretta
serving on the Victorian Women’s Consultative Council, the Soul Festival and Jazz a Vienne in France, as well as
National Women’s Consultative Council, and serving as a Woodford, Port Fairy, Queenscliff and more in Australia.
Director and Trustee of the Victorian Women’s Trust. His work with the band saw Ross as a finalist in
Victoria’s Teacher of the Year awards, giving him the
Jean was a progressive thinker and worked with the CWA to opportunity of a teaching exchange in Alaska in 1998.
develop policies relating to many practical and social issues,
such as farm safety and family violence. She was Back at Matthew Flinders, Ross continued to lead the
particularly interested in women’s welfare and equality. team that had formed around the ‘Sweethearts’. The
band’s success helped empower Ross and his colleague,
In 1993 she was appointed Officer in the General Division Rick McLean, to develop a formal certificate IV
of the Order of Australia for service to the welfare of women qualification in music for Victorian secondary students.
in rural and remote Australia through the CWA. This is now established in the curriculum.

Ross was diagnosed with a form of throat cancer in
2013, a disease he fought stoically with the endless
support of his wife Bea. He is survived by Bea,
daughters Holly and April, and brother Bill.

The College acknowledges, in sympathy, those deceased alumni of whom it has become aware since the
previous edition. Together with the accompanying obituaries, the College has also learned of the following
deaths in our community.

We extend our sympathy to the families of these JCH alumnae:

Heather Murray (1946) Jennifer Cavill (Rau 1950)
21.6.1928 – 09.10.2015 5.12.1931 – 28.7.2017

Dr Nancy Cowling (McNeil 1940) Lady Leila Inglis (Butler 1946)
16.6.1921 – 27.2.2016 29.11.1924 – 09.08.2017

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