Acknowledgement

Peter Hoban In preparation of this site I have received help and guidance from many sources. Some of these are referenced but others remain unacknowledged. Of the latter the most important is my former wife Margaret. Her contribution to my discovery of who I am has been fundamental.

Autobiographical note

I was born 1945 in Melbourne Victoria (Australia) but lived the first decade of my life in a very small country town in Gippsland Victoria. We moved to Melbourne and I was sent to Wesley College, an exclusive private school, where I failed miserably and was required to repeat years 10 and 12.

Wesley sought to force me into a mould I did not fit at all. For all their brave talk, the business of private education is very much about standardisation of the package as that makes it cheaper to deliver. I was not a standard model. It was interesting that some of those I knew at school long ago still reject my differences.

I studied engineering at Monash University with better than average results and was then conscripted for two years.

A sequence of coincidences (definitely no plan) saw me enrolled in a psychology degree which I completed with honours in the minimum time and without ever leaving full time employment as a professional engineer. I was also concurrently active in the rowing club, the university dramatic society and the choral society. (So much for the exclusive private school drawing the best out of this student!)

The private school did at least introduce me to rowing, a sport at which I was a bit better than average. After 13 years and many very affirming experiences (mostly in single sculls) I suddenly quit rowing, sold my boat and have never wanted to go back. I took to racing sail boats – dinghies, inshore and ocean racing (no, not at the same time) – with much more satisfaction than success.

Recovery from a failed affair of the heart in 1973 found me in Gippsland again with friends where I met Margaret, to whom I owe most of my understanding of life. Notwithstanding our separation and her subsequent choice to divorce, and the profound disappointment I feel in that, she was pivotal in my growth for more than 28 years. We married in 1975 and have three adult children.

Along the way I worked with the Maritime Services Board in Sydney, Westgate Bridge (Melbourne), Barclay Bros (PNG) at Lae and Arawa. Following our marriage in 1975 I spent 5 years with the NSW Department of Main Roads at Bega and then another 6 years in Sydney. Part time study in this period completed my MBA and ThA.

We moved to Launceston, Tasmania in 1987 to make a break from the big city and to redefine our lives in a community of more personal scale; I guess the buzz-phrase is ‘quality of life’ reasons. I found work as a self employed technical management consultant. I also taught mathematics and management courses at undergraduate level.

In 1990 I joined Scott & Furphy P/L as the manager of their local engineering office. I stayed on for five years until the Tasmanian operations were closed following a merger. I have again been self-employed since 1995 working mostly for the legal profession as an expert witness in technical and safety related matters, and teaching management and engineering finance to undergraduate students.

In early 2003 I felt compelled to separate from my wife of 27 years. Our shared desires (children) had enabled the denial of issues which ultimately drove us apart. The differences which once seemed so easy to manage, ultimately became intolerable; the person I chose for a mate was unsuited to my maturity. Her expectations were much higher than anything I was going to be able to live up to, and her resentment of that was unacceptable to me. I learned that neither of us changed in the ways the other may have hoped. I am profoundly sad, but thankful it lasted as long as it did.

Life holds no entitlements for any of us. We do not earn or merit love, we find love by loving and by offering that without expectation. That she not love me is an option she is free to choose.

There were other pages I wrote in this context, however it was suggested that these touched issues which others may have considered private. Not wishing any such harm, I have removed them.

Formal Qualifications

Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) – Monash University, 1968.
Bachelor of Science (Psychology) – University of NSW, 1973.
Master of Business Administration – Deakin University, 1984.
Associate in Theology – Australian College of Theology, 1986.
Municipal Engineer, Tasmania – Certificate No. 141.
Building Surveyor, Tasmania – Certificate No. 631.
Hydraulic Engineer, Tasmania – Certificate No. 150.
Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1995

Original: August ‘99
Revised: June ‘05

This page is part of “Living in the Light”
found at: http://www.geocities.com/phoban2000/

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