John Fullagar

Secondary School
Late in our second year with Miss Acason, Mum and Dad let me accept a boarding scholarship to The King’s School, which has profoundly influenced my subsequent life and would never have come my way without me attending Fort Street OC. It was part of TKS culture that service to others came first (whether the school or wider community) and that self-interest was somewhere down the priority list. I had opportunity to embrace many interests, some begun at Fort Street or earlier: many kinds of music (band, chapel and choir, G&S productions, piano and organ), photography, printing, woodwork, Tyndale Society (pursued Biblical Christianity) and Faraday Club (explored Physics). My sports included cricket, rowing, athletics, football (Rugby Union - playing and refereeing) but I was nowhere near any top team. We all did our best in representing the school, irrespective of our aptitude and talent levels. “Getting involved” has stayed with me ever since - and those closest to me question whether this has been overdone.

Paid Work
From TKS, with a Commonwealth Scholarship and cadetship with CSR (you’ll remember the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited), I embarked on Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sydney. After graduation, my CSR career included a few engineering roles and then some managerial appointments, most within building product groups but with brief stints in the minerals and coal businesses. Whilst with the Company, I also had opportunity for postgraduate business studies at University of Chicago and London Business School. A couple of years later, after 18 mostly-happy years at CSR, I accepted a Senior Lectureship in Mech Eng at Sydney U, with responsibility for the field called “Industrial Management”. Whilst at Sydney, I overhauled all courses in IM, re-shaping some, pruning or extinguishing others, and developing some new ones for undergrads and postgrads. I loved helping my students to develop skills and attitudes that were professionally relevant. With an industry colleague, the Centre for Engineering Management and Innovation was established and won federal funding. I had a three-year term as an external director of two materials handling companies. With other colleagues around Australia, Australian Conferences on Management Education for Engineers was established and I personally underwrote two conferences, using their financial surplus to establish the ACMEE scholarship at UNSW. After 11 years at Sydney, I had brief stints at two other universities in leadership roles at the university-industry interface. My next career phase was establishing a personal consulting business relating to organisational development and the enhancement of business performance, which has been interesting and satisfying. However, I’ve never made what you’d call “serious money”.

Work as a Volunteer
Since TKS, there’s been a constant stream of voluntary contributions to numerous organisations and causes - mostly relating to music, to professional interests and/or to my Christian belief. Music (especially church music) has always been there - singing in my local church choir and often being organist (or an assistant) and choirmaster. The choir of my current church (St Swithun’s at Pymble) has enjoyed two stints in English cathedrals at Winchester (2001) and Lincoln (2004). Decades ago, I enjoyed being in G&S productions (and chaired a musicale company). As a volunteer, I had local and national roles within the Institution of Engineers, Australia, plus the honour of being elected Chairman for 1991-92. I still help judge Engineering Excellence Awards. For the last decade, my focus has been on Value Management, serving as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of IVMA. Since leaving TKS, my local church (wherever I have been) has attracted my involvement (various ministries, including parish councils, leading small groups, youth fellowships, Bible ministries, and building and equipment matters - plus music, of course) as have some other Christian organisations (beach missions, missionary teams, inter-church groups, vacation camps, property management and school ministries) and community projects. After successful surgery for prostate cancer early in 2003, I trained as a Cansupport Volunteer for the North Shore Hospitals and now have additional roles to support PC diagnosis and management.

Sporting Accomplishments ?
There have been several attempts to develop some sporting abilities in tennis, football (Rugby), cricket, rowing, golf, squash but the results are best described as “patchy”. There’s been modest evidence of promise in some sports but consistent mediocrity is still my sporting norm.

Home Life
Married life (with Margaret - Mother and primary teacher) caught up with me in 1972. We have three daughters (Elizabeth, Alison and Rosemary, all now in their 20s), Casper (who adopted us years ago as a Burmese kitten), two 15-year-old hatchbacks, a 90-year-old house that now needs more work than when we moved here in 1975, and an often-noisy backyard of lorikeets, rosellas, galahs, cockatoos, native mynahs, kookaburras, magpies and currawongs (after whom our place was named by a previous owner), replete with a comprehensive collection of weeds.

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