Alex was very special to me when I was in his “Extra Science” or “Science Second Subject” class as it was properly known in form 4 and was lucky enough to come first in the mock exam at mid-year. I believe that at the time there was no book prize for the subject and that Alex put his hand in his own pocket for the book prize that I eventually chose – Aku Aku by Thor Heyerdahl. It is the only book prize I ever won and is one of the few books that has followed us to Australia. However, it was in 1960 that he stamped the memories of many of us for ever. Alex had been transferred to the inspectorate during 1959 in our first year of Higher School Certificate and by our final term in 1960, we had had 5 teachers in 5 terms and learned little having taken advantage of a complete lack of discipline. How he did it, we never knew, but in the last term Alex returned from the inspectorate for the term and drove us through the entire syllabus is a scant 6 weeks before settling down to setting two mock exam papers a week in the afternoons with repeats at night for “failures” under 50%. His teaching may have been unconventional and his “spotting” of likely exam subjects the result of his experience, but whatever, we achieved the incredible result (if I remember correctly) of 17 principle level passes, 5 subsidiary level passes and only one fail. I am sure that I would not have been able to continue with my tertiary education without my result and many in the class were probably in the same boat. (part of e-mail from Nigel Seaman)