Student returned to lead the way
Paul McKeown, AM, 1923 - 2010
Paul McKeown was an inspirational headmaster of Canberra Grammar and an honoured and respected Australian educator. In 1975 he served two years as chairman of the Headmasters Conference of the Independent Schools of Australia; he was also president of the Arts Council of Australia (1968-71), chairman of the ACT chapter of the Australian College of Education (1970), and president of the Australian Association of Religious Educators (1978).
McKeown lived and breathed education in all its forms, from preschool to matriculation and beyond. The humanities, sciences, performing arts, sport and the Australian bush all played important and complementary parts in his passion for teaching. It was his ability to unlock an individual's capabilities and to encourage lives that were fulfilling on a personal level, while contributing to the wider community that made him an outstanding educator.
He spent 27 years at Canberra Grammar and became its longest-serving headmaster. He also transformed the school. When he arrived in 1959 there were 300 students; when he left there were 1350 and the school had an enviable Australia-wide reputation for academic excellence.
Paul John McKeown was born in Tumut on November 1, 1923, the second of three children, and the only son, of Canon Kenneth McKeown and his wife, Florence (Whitaker). His education was initially at the Young primary school, before his father was appointed a canon and vice-dean of St Saviour's Cathedral, Goulburn. The last three years of his schooling was as a boarder at Canberra Grammar, where he excelled at sport and set many records, some of which he held for 30 years.
While he was waiting to gain entry to the University of Sydney World War II broke out. He was too young to enlist in his own right, so he sought his parents' permission. They were opposed to killing people, but permission was given, provided he was not in a direct combat role. He joined the medical corps, serving in New Guinea and Borneo.
After the war, he fulfilled his wish, with a veterans' grant, to study at Sydney University. He joined St Paul's College, where he was involved in cricket, rugby and athletics, and graduated with an arts degree.
From there he did two terms as senior English teacher at the Hamilton and Western District College, in Victoria, before going to Oxford in 1950 to study for his diploma of education. In Hamilton he had met Wilma David, a music teacher, and they were married in 1951 in England. On completion of his studies he spent a year as a master at the Dragon School, a leading Oxford preparatory school.
McKeown had heard about the Outward Bound Movement, which was just getting started at Gordonstoun in Scotland, and went to learn more about it. He was appointed as one of the early instructors at the Outward Bound Mountain School, which was being established at Eskland in England. There he met Eric Shipton, who became warden of the school. Shipton selected the route that Edmund Hillary took to reach the summit of Everest in 1953 and McKeown met Hillary when he returned to England and to Eskdale to thank Shipton for his assistance.
In 1954, McKeown became deputy superintendent at the Northampton Remand Home. Then he applied for a position in Australia as a teacher and was appointed as an English master at Timbertop, an annexe of Geelong Grammar School in the Victorian Alps. There he established the Outward Bound principles of mountaineering, rock climbing, swimming and hiking.
In 1959 McKeown was appointed headmaster of his old school, Canberra Grammar - at 35 the youngest to be offered the post. It was his headmastership here that defined the man. He poured himself out for the school. When he arrived the dormitories for the boarders were above the classrooms. He built new accommodation for them and turned their old quarters into classrooms. As the school expanded, new facilities were added. The junior school was greatly enlarged and the infants school in north
Canberra was built.
His greatest love and achievement was the school chapel, with a specially designed altar front and stained glass windows.
In 1966, McKeown was awarded an inaugural Churchill Fellowship. He went to the United States and England to study the development of independent schools. During a sabbatical in 1971 he went to Russia to see what was happening there in education. In 1979, he was made a member of the Order of Australia.
Paul McKeown is survived by Wilma, their sons Christopher and Jonathan, daughters Deirdre, Elizabeth and Penelope, his sister Theodora and their families.
John Farquharson
