Reunion of the graduating classes of 1963 and 1964 in the Australian College of Optometry

Historical Significance: The email from Peter Dwyer dated 16 Dec 2014 to which this image was attached read ' Brien Holden and Leon Garner arranged a 50 year reunion for the cohort with whom they had shared an undergraduate year. Image attached. (I can supply a larger file if this is of use). I attended with some sense of dread given a recent high school equivalent. My anxieties were not realised and it was a great event, held at the Brighton Baths function room. Three hours or so was just the right amount of time. Most of our group are holding up pretty well with Geoff Hardy Smith the only death and Brian Carney is reported to be in ill-health. About the worst you could say is that we have just become more polished caricatures of our undergraduate selves. There were some interesting stories of course and a vote for the best clinical teacher went to John Nathan and the worst lecturer was tied between Geoff Henry and Wolf Gartner. No one questioned their earnestness. Rod Watkins told an interesting tale involving you. At the completion of second year he wrote a substantial critique of the optics course and how it could be taught in a much more interesting way, illuminating the beauty of the math involved. He heard nothing more but at the end of the course he reported that you handed back the treatise without showing any signs of it being read. My retelling might be garbled but there is a wonderful precociousness about the tale and what's more he still has a copy of the letter.' The reunion was for two years because Brien Holden failed a year of the four year optometry course and had associations with two cohorts of students. He went on to be appointed Scientia Professor of the University of NSF, earn an international reputation for his research in the cornea and contact lenses, establish the Brien Holden Vision Institute and be awarded the medal of the Order of Australia. The group were among the first to qualify with a BAppSc (Optometry) in the University of Melbourne that was first awarded in 1961. Prior to 1961 the College's optometry course lead to a diploma of Licentiate of Optometric Science. The group has a remarkable number of people who were high achievers in academia and in the profession, notably Brown, Dwyer, Garner, Johnston, Harris, Holden, and Watkins