An Evening with John Ferris...
All the world’s a stage...
And all the men and women merely players.
And one man in his time plays many parts.
His acts being seven ages.
The sixth age shifts...
Into the lean and siipper’d pantaloon.
With spectacles on the nose and pouch onside.
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank,and his big manly voice Turning again towards childish treble pipes
And whistles in his sound
Last scene of all...
1s second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Gentlemen,
I guess I sit somewhere between Shakespeare’s sixth and seventh age, and I must say it is good of you to turn up to listen to an old man talk about his life and his faith, but this is what I was asked to do and you may have to bear it.
I have also committed this story to paper, following Father Kevin’s homily practice, and in any case, it will stop me from wandering.
By the way, to have lived through the tenure of eight popes really brings home one’s age.
I am nearing ninety, been married happily for sixty three years, have five grandchildren, eighteen grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren.
I was born in Concord West, then an outer suburb of Sydney, in 1925.
My parents were only children and their parents were dead, so that we had no relations and until 1932 when my brother was born we were a somewhat isolated family of three.
My mother was a spritely Irish Catholic and my father was a sober and thoughtful theosophist. Neither were tertiary educated but were ambitious for their children’s education.
My mother’s determination for her offspring’s catholicity was aided and supported by my father and so at about five or six I started my Catholic education at Saint Ambrose Primary School Concord West, run by the sisters of charity, and then at seven continued at Saint Patrick’s College Strathfield - a Christian Brothers school, until my leaving certificate in1941.
In my case those eleven years of Catholic educational and religious care were unmarked by any of the incidents andtragedies that apparently occurred in the system during the 70’s and 80’s. The Brothers and Sisters (for there were no lay teachers) were generally dedicated and caring people and in many cases made up for their own lack of qualifications and training by putting all their time into supporting theirstudents
It is hard to measure the influence of teachers and parents on my soul and mind during those formative years but by the time I was due to leave the Catholic Cocoon, at age 16, my faith was firm (in fact overly sure and smug) and I was firmly of the view that whenever you properly asked God for something, you would probably receiveit.
What a shock when I took up an exhibition to Sydney University in engineering to find that lecturers really had no interest in you, that the majority of students were irreligious and frequently anti-catholic, and that freedom of expression and action was stronglyadvocated.
I remember feeling the need to combat this and so I joined the Catholic Newman Society, enrolled in Philosophy at the Aquinas Academy run by Doctor Woodbury, and attended all the debates between Doctor Rumble, Doctor Ryan and the atheist Professor Anderson of Sydney University.
Of course after all that, I was convinced that questions like the existence of God and the creation of the universe, and the existence of our immortal soul, could all be logically proven, and that faith was based on reason alone. A viewpoint which I would now feel the need to temper.
We were expected to complete our engineering degree then become an army or airforce engineer, but almost at the completion of our degree in 1945 the war ended and at the age of twenty one I was launched upon the world.
I had won a place in the New South Wales Athletic Team for the Australian Championships in Perth, had secured a position with the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station and was entitled to vote - it was all too much.
The big questions of life started to become less important and things like sport, promoting a career and meeting the right girl started to emerge. It was a lovely light-hearted time and eventually led to me meeting my companion and marrying in 1951, Marie Plunkett, My lifetime companion.
I hope that you who are married have had the same all consuming experience that we have had.
The idea that the two of you become one is true, and the joy that results from putting another’s needs before your own has only to be tried to prove true. It helped that we both had Irish heritage, we both loved music, and our aspirations were the same.
Post-war building was difficult and materials were scarce, but we decided to buy a block of land and live in a concrete garage while we built a modest house, rather than rent a flat. Conditions were primitive and we were still in the garage when our first child was born.
We had four children in four years and, but for self imposed constraints, this rate might have continued. As it happened, we had our fifth child some twelve years after our fourth. I remember a friend of mine who had been sexually sacrificing at the time in accordance with the Church’s decrees saying that if ever the church changed its mind he would march on the Vatican. Certainly there was much discontent amongst the faithful in the fifties.
As every parent knows, the twenty or so years of raising children is a trial and a triumph. Each child is different and requires special treatment, the financial burdens can be at times intense, there is never enough time to carry out your tasks, the pressures of work conflict with the needs at home, and the plethora of emotions between all members of the family are multifold.
If it wasn’t for love, and I mean unselfish love, then all could be lost.
Yet another factor of course, is to retain a sense of humour. I recall when second son Anthony was about eighteen he was creating havoc in the house and his mother urged me to discipline him, so I told him that as he was not complying with the family rules he should pack his things and find other accommodation. A little later he came down the stairs with my best pig-skin bag and said “Dad, which car can I take!”. Well we all exploded at that stage and I told him that if he couldn’t find his way to the railway station he better stay home. Marie, who by this time was regretting her earlier decision, was greatly relieved and he started to improve hisways.
While Marie was running the whole family, that is feeding and clothing and mentoring and disciplining and advising and loving, I was attempting to build a career. As I often told my business partners, such a task pales into insignificance compared with building a successful family.
Aka civil / structural engineer I found that employment in the public sector was most likely, although even in the fifties bigotry was strong and that as a Catholic I might be employed by the water board, but I might not find a position with the main roads department. Masonry and the Catholic equivalent were quite influential.
For some eleven years after graduation I worked with the Commonwealth Works Department, The Sydney City Council, and as Chief of Fire Researchat the Experimental Building Station. I also taught part time at the University of New South Wales and in order to keep the home fires burning took on private tutoring of engineering and architectural students.
My true love, however, was in structural design, particularly of large buildings, and so in 1957 I decided to run the risk of starting my own consulting practice. As it happened however a colleague of mine, Peter Miller, was looking for a partner in his small practice and so together with another engineer, Alan Milston, we formed a new practice - Miller, Milston, and Ferris - and operated out of new offices in Caltex House Sydney.
Peter was an Anglican, Alan was a Jew, and I was a Catholic - a formula which was bound to succeed as we covered the field of believers.
This practice grew in size and influence and was responsible for the structural design of such major buildings as the National Art Gallery and the High Court of Australia in Canberra, the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, numerous high schools and office buildings throughout New South Wales.
During the period between 1957 and1990, when the original partners were in charge, the practice gave employment to many engineers and drafts persons including a great number of immigrants from Europe and Asia. There never seemed to be any racial or cultural problems amongst this varied group.
There was however one occasion which tried our racial tolerance, for we had employed a number of Hungarian engineers and had them designing structures for Westfields. On arriving one morning at the office I noticed the absence of these engineers and on enquiry was told that they had been offered direct employment by Mr Lowy and would no longer be working for us. This move followed Westfield’s prior complaint that we were charging standard fees rather than cut fees.
A major problem in our practice was the growing tendency for investors and building owners to become overly litigious and to seek compensation for any apparent fault that developed in a building. It did not matter who was the cause of the fault but rather which party was best able to compensate either through indemnity insurance or otherwise. Frequently we would be sued for compensation even though the problem had been caused by shoddy building and the builder was not carrying sufficient insurance to cover the cost of rectification.
Fortunately the profession of engineering does not throw up the sort of ethical problems that beset medicine, law and possibly finance. However matters like fair pay, equal treatment of employees, avoidance of shoddy design methods to save costs and avoidance of unfair denigration of competitors, spring to mind as applicable and these matters are incorporated in a code of ethics adopted by the consulting profession. Granted some time after the Hippocratic oath.
Achievements in the practice led the partners to become heavily involved in industry and government bodies operating within the construction sector. I was appointed chairman of the Concrete Institute, chairman of the Association of Consulting Structural Engineers, Member of the Heritage Council and later chairman of the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was an honour to receive an A.M. Award in the Order of Australia in 1984 and to be asked to return as a visiting professor in Structural Design to my Alma Mater in 1990.
It was interesting that when I graduated in 1945 not a female was sighted in the faculty of engineering, but on returning in 1990 I was teaching a class including 50% women, and they were the better half.
Like many others in the parish of Denistone (1951-1980) and later at Hunters Hill (1980 - 2014) I was involved in the ministry of the Eucharist and Liturgical reading.
I also was appointed to the financial advisory committee of the Archdiocese of Sydney, to the Chair of the Conservation of St Mary's Cathedral and as Chairman of Radio Station 2SM.
It has also been a privilege to be on the boards of Saint Margaret’s Hospital and the Little Company of Mary Healthcare.
I was blessed to receive a KCSG from the pope in 2000.
As my final gesture I was appointed chairman of the Hunter’s Hill Parish council in 2008.
They say that you are never free of the concern and even the care of your children and I can vouch for that. However life would be empty without them and any effort you make to support them is worthwhile.
Now that I can see and frequently feel that the journey is ending Irealise how important my faith has been in my life. High up in my values is the belief that a spirit envelops us all and is moved by love to give us the opportunity to embrace eternal life.
I now firmly believe that in asking God for a particular favour you should ask to be helped to achieve the result through your own efforts rather than expect it to be delivered on a plate.
I often think of Father Shepherd who would frequently say in his homilies that no matter what problems or difficulties arose during the day, with faith and prayer you could rise above them. Also Father Miller, another great Marist, who in every sermon he ever gave insisted that “God loved you no matter what!”. With this kind of priestly advice it’s hard to go wrong.
Many of us will remember Barry Miller testing God’s love one Sunday morning by driving his vehicle down the steep embankment at our Woolwich Church towards Arthur Boyd’s home; fortunately the undergrowth impeded his progress and he emerged relatively unharmed.
On a personal note, the said Arthur Boyd - a long term Woolwich parishioner - went through civil engineering with me during the ‘40s and is celebrating tonight his 90th birthday with family. I certainly wish him well.
Well this concludes my life story and I thank you for causing me to collect my thoughts and memories and allowing me to assault you with them.
And all the men and women merely players.
And one man in his time plays many parts.
His acts being seven ages.
The sixth age shifts...
Into the lean and siipper’d pantaloon.
With spectacles on the nose and pouch onside.
His youthful hose well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank,and his big manly voice Turning again towards childish treble pipes
And whistles in his sound
Last scene of all...
1s second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Gentlemen,
I guess I sit somewhere between Shakespeare’s sixth and seventh age, and I must say it is good of you to turn up to listen to an old man talk about his life and his faith, but this is what I was asked to do and you may have to bear it.
I have also committed this story to paper, following Father Kevin’s homily practice, and in any case, it will stop me from wandering.
By the way, to have lived through the tenure of eight popes really brings home one’s age.
I am nearing ninety, been married happily for sixty three years, have five grandchildren, eighteen grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren.
I was born in Concord West, then an outer suburb of Sydney, in 1925.
My parents were only children and their parents were dead, so that we had no relations and until 1932 when my brother was born we were a somewhat isolated family of three.
My mother was a spritely Irish Catholic and my father was a sober and thoughtful theosophist. Neither were tertiary educated but were ambitious for their children’s education.
My mother’s determination for her offspring’s catholicity was aided and supported by my father and so at about five or six I started my Catholic education at Saint Ambrose Primary School Concord West, run by the sisters of charity, and then at seven continued at Saint Patrick’s College Strathfield - a Christian Brothers school, until my leaving certificate in1941.
In my case those eleven years of Catholic educational and religious care were unmarked by any of the incidents andtragedies that apparently occurred in the system during the 70’s and 80’s. The Brothers and Sisters (for there were no lay teachers) were generally dedicated and caring people and in many cases made up for their own lack of qualifications and training by putting all their time into supporting theirstudents
It is hard to measure the influence of teachers and parents on my soul and mind during those formative years but by the time I was due to leave the Catholic Cocoon, at age 16, my faith was firm (in fact overly sure and smug) and I was firmly of the view that whenever you properly asked God for something, you would probably receiveit.
What a shock when I took up an exhibition to Sydney University in engineering to find that lecturers really had no interest in you, that the majority of students were irreligious and frequently anti-catholic, and that freedom of expression and action was stronglyadvocated.
I remember feeling the need to combat this and so I joined the Catholic Newman Society, enrolled in Philosophy at the Aquinas Academy run by Doctor Woodbury, and attended all the debates between Doctor Rumble, Doctor Ryan and the atheist Professor Anderson of Sydney University.
Of course after all that, I was convinced that questions like the existence of God and the creation of the universe, and the existence of our immortal soul, could all be logically proven, and that faith was based on reason alone. A viewpoint which I would now feel the need to temper.
We were expected to complete our engineering degree then become an army or airforce engineer, but almost at the completion of our degree in 1945 the war ended and at the age of twenty one I was launched upon the world.
I had won a place in the New South Wales Athletic Team for the Australian Championships in Perth, had secured a position with the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station and was entitled to vote - it was all too much.
The big questions of life started to become less important and things like sport, promoting a career and meeting the right girl started to emerge. It was a lovely light-hearted time and eventually led to me meeting my companion and marrying in 1951, Marie Plunkett, My lifetime companion.
I hope that you who are married have had the same all consuming experience that we have had.
The idea that the two of you become one is true, and the joy that results from putting another’s needs before your own has only to be tried to prove true. It helped that we both had Irish heritage, we both loved music, and our aspirations were the same.
Post-war building was difficult and materials were scarce, but we decided to buy a block of land and live in a concrete garage while we built a modest house, rather than rent a flat. Conditions were primitive and we were still in the garage when our first child was born.
We had four children in four years and, but for self imposed constraints, this rate might have continued. As it happened, we had our fifth child some twelve years after our fourth. I remember a friend of mine who had been sexually sacrificing at the time in accordance with the Church’s decrees saying that if ever the church changed its mind he would march on the Vatican. Certainly there was much discontent amongst the faithful in the fifties.
As every parent knows, the twenty or so years of raising children is a trial and a triumph. Each child is different and requires special treatment, the financial burdens can be at times intense, there is never enough time to carry out your tasks, the pressures of work conflict with the needs at home, and the plethora of emotions between all members of the family are multifold.
If it wasn’t for love, and I mean unselfish love, then all could be lost.
Yet another factor of course, is to retain a sense of humour. I recall when second son Anthony was about eighteen he was creating havoc in the house and his mother urged me to discipline him, so I told him that as he was not complying with the family rules he should pack his things and find other accommodation. A little later he came down the stairs with my best pig-skin bag and said “Dad, which car can I take!”. Well we all exploded at that stage and I told him that if he couldn’t find his way to the railway station he better stay home. Marie, who by this time was regretting her earlier decision, was greatly relieved and he started to improve hisways.
While Marie was running the whole family, that is feeding and clothing and mentoring and disciplining and advising and loving, I was attempting to build a career. As I often told my business partners, such a task pales into insignificance compared with building a successful family.
Aka civil / structural engineer I found that employment in the public sector was most likely, although even in the fifties bigotry was strong and that as a Catholic I might be employed by the water board, but I might not find a position with the main roads department. Masonry and the Catholic equivalent were quite influential.
For some eleven years after graduation I worked with the Commonwealth Works Department, The Sydney City Council, and as Chief of Fire Researchat the Experimental Building Station. I also taught part time at the University of New South Wales and in order to keep the home fires burning took on private tutoring of engineering and architectural students.
My true love, however, was in structural design, particularly of large buildings, and so in 1957 I decided to run the risk of starting my own consulting practice. As it happened however a colleague of mine, Peter Miller, was looking for a partner in his small practice and so together with another engineer, Alan Milston, we formed a new practice - Miller, Milston, and Ferris - and operated out of new offices in Caltex House Sydney.
Peter was an Anglican, Alan was a Jew, and I was a Catholic - a formula which was bound to succeed as we covered the field of believers.
This practice grew in size and influence and was responsible for the structural design of such major buildings as the National Art Gallery and the High Court of Australia in Canberra, the Entertainment Centre in Sydney, numerous high schools and office buildings throughout New South Wales.
During the period between 1957 and1990, when the original partners were in charge, the practice gave employment to many engineers and drafts persons including a great number of immigrants from Europe and Asia. There never seemed to be any racial or cultural problems amongst this varied group.
There was however one occasion which tried our racial tolerance, for we had employed a number of Hungarian engineers and had them designing structures for Westfields. On arriving one morning at the office I noticed the absence of these engineers and on enquiry was told that they had been offered direct employment by Mr Lowy and would no longer be working for us. This move followed Westfield’s prior complaint that we were charging standard fees rather than cut fees.
A major problem in our practice was the growing tendency for investors and building owners to become overly litigious and to seek compensation for any apparent fault that developed in a building. It did not matter who was the cause of the fault but rather which party was best able to compensate either through indemnity insurance or otherwise. Frequently we would be sued for compensation even though the problem had been caused by shoddy building and the builder was not carrying sufficient insurance to cover the cost of rectification.
Fortunately the profession of engineering does not throw up the sort of ethical problems that beset medicine, law and possibly finance. However matters like fair pay, equal treatment of employees, avoidance of shoddy design methods to save costs and avoidance of unfair denigration of competitors, spring to mind as applicable and these matters are incorporated in a code of ethics adopted by the consulting profession. Granted some time after the Hippocratic oath.
Achievements in the practice led the partners to become heavily involved in industry and government bodies operating within the construction sector. I was appointed chairman of the Concrete Institute, chairman of the Association of Consulting Structural Engineers, Member of the Heritage Council and later chairman of the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was an honour to receive an A.M. Award in the Order of Australia in 1984 and to be asked to return as a visiting professor in Structural Design to my Alma Mater in 1990.
It was interesting that when I graduated in 1945 not a female was sighted in the faculty of engineering, but on returning in 1990 I was teaching a class including 50% women, and they were the better half.
Like many others in the parish of Denistone (1951-1980) and later at Hunters Hill (1980 - 2014) I was involved in the ministry of the Eucharist and Liturgical reading.
I also was appointed to the financial advisory committee of the Archdiocese of Sydney, to the Chair of the Conservation of St Mary's Cathedral and as Chairman of Radio Station 2SM.
It has also been a privilege to be on the boards of Saint Margaret’s Hospital and the Little Company of Mary Healthcare.
I was blessed to receive a KCSG from the pope in 2000.
As my final gesture I was appointed chairman of the Hunter’s Hill Parish council in 2008.
They say that you are never free of the concern and even the care of your children and I can vouch for that. However life would be empty without them and any effort you make to support them is worthwhile.
Now that I can see and frequently feel that the journey is ending Irealise how important my faith has been in my life. High up in my values is the belief that a spirit envelops us all and is moved by love to give us the opportunity to embrace eternal life.
I now firmly believe that in asking God for a particular favour you should ask to be helped to achieve the result through your own efforts rather than expect it to be delivered on a plate.
I often think of Father Shepherd who would frequently say in his homilies that no matter what problems or difficulties arose during the day, with faith and prayer you could rise above them. Also Father Miller, another great Marist, who in every sermon he ever gave insisted that “God loved you no matter what!”. With this kind of priestly advice it’s hard to go wrong.
Many of us will remember Barry Miller testing God’s love one Sunday morning by driving his vehicle down the steep embankment at our Woolwich Church towards Arthur Boyd’s home; fortunately the undergrowth impeded his progress and he emerged relatively unharmed.
On a personal note, the said Arthur Boyd - a long term Woolwich parishioner - went through civil engineering with me during the ‘40s and is celebrating tonight his 90th birthday with family. I certainly wish him well.
Well this concludes my life story and I thank you for causing me to collect my thoughts and memories and allowing me to assault you with them.