First NEUC marathon, 1941

Rummaging in my bookshelves this afternoon I came across a slender volume called “The Golden Years”, which was published in October 1988 by the University of New England Alumni Association. It describes itself on the fly leaf as:

A collection of reminiscences from the pioneers of the New England University College to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the University of New England as a College of Sydney University.

Amongst those reminiscences is this brief snippet:

1941:    NEUC’s first marathon, round the university.

First man in, Max Hartwell, collapses on Booloominbah steps.

Second man in, Frank Rickwood, only slightly puffed: “Must have left my run too late”.

Max Hartwell and Frank Rickwood both feature in New England University Rugby Team 1939.

Max Hartwell had a distinguished career as an economic historian, becoming Reader in recent economic and social history and a professorial fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford in 1956, and Curator of the Bodleian Library in 1966.

Frank Rickwood was involved in oil exploration in New Guinea straight after World War II, became a senior lecturer in Geology at Sydney University 1950-54, and worked for British Petroleum 1995-80. In 1969 he became President BP Alaska and BP Pipelines New York, in which positions he was responsible for development of Prudhoe Bay and Alaska oil pipeline. In 1975 he became Director BP Trading, London – responsible for world-wide oil and gas exploration and development, gas sales, minerals and coal.

Other relevant posts on the New England University College/University of New England include Booloominbah, Education and the New State of New England and What a privilege it was ...