When the remarkable Ray Yates died last week, Monbulk was left to mourn the loss of one of its greatest champions. Ray truly was one of a kind.
On top of a 54-year teaching career, 38 years of which were spent at Monbulk Primary (28 as principal), Ray also had an active career in local politics and was a tireless worker for the arts, for the elderly, in regional planning and in the establishment of the local Bendigo Bank.
My wife and I first met Ray when we enrolled our two kids into Monbulk Primary School in 1994. We had already been “hillbillies“ for five years in Belgrave but were happy to move to friendly Monbulk and find our niche. People like Ray were key to that. It is not as though my wife and I were VIPs but he made us feel that way and immediately put our kids at ease with his friendly, comfortable approach.
He made it clear that he was massively proud of his ramshackle “little school that could“ and that he was happy to work tirelessly to further it and the community that it lay at the heart of. And further it he did. The school now, 11 years after Ray’s retirement, is transformed and is as fine a Primary School as you will find in Melbourne’s South-East. Part of that is the handsome arts centre there, which now bears the name of the Raymond Yates Arts Centre. Ray may have finished his teaching career but he worked tirelessly behind the scenes for his beloved school and I was delighted that this was acknowledged.
Ray knew back in the 90s that I worked as a senior journalist for The Age in the city and always loved to talk about the big stories of the day with me, whenever I saw him at the school or bumped into him on Main Street. That continued for years.
Time passed, our kids grew up, moved schools, grew up some more and became adults themselves, with their own children. Each time I would bump into Ray, the first thing he would ask was how the kids were – and he would always refer to them by name, even though almost 30 years had passed since he first met them. This always astonished me. I later found that he would do this over and over, with so many mums and dads, so many former students.
He had an encyclopaedic recall of people and their lives.
I hadn’t bumped into Ray for a year or two before I heard of his passing but even that last time – again, a chance Main Street meeting – showed how fiercely proud he was of Monbulk’s community spirit. I never knew Ray personally; didn’t know his family but he always made you feel that you did.
Vale Ray. You were one of the good ones and I hope that Monny gives you the public send-off that you deserve. Thanks.
