Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

‘I would never have graduated from the
University of Life!’
For me, all those years ago, the SSE Scholarship was an
exciting and constructive way of avoiding taking A Levels
(though I suspect that was never the scheme’s true
intention)! After making a bit of a hash of my O Levels the
first time round, and then successfully re-sitting them the
following year, I realised that I was either going to have to
stay on at school for an extra year or put my name in the
hat to attempt to spend an exciting, potentially lifechanging,
year in what Giovanni da Verrazano, Dvorak,
d’Anghiera et al had dubbed the ‘New World’.
My eight months at Cranbrook, one of America’s finest
prep schools in an extraordinarily affluent town a mere 15
miles from Detroit, was both a thrilling opportunity and, as
it turned out, an eye-opener. My education was followed by
three months traversing the States (in a car loaned by
Chevrolet – a huge advantage of being at a school close to
‘Motown’ where several of the governors were top dogs in
the motor industry), which provided an opportunity for me
to stand on my own feet three and a half thousand miles
from home in a world still free of mobile telephones, faxes
or e-mails. Until then, travel for me had been almost
entirely restricted to family holidays in Europe, CCF camps
in Germany and Denmark and a student train trip to
Warsaw, Moscow and Leningrad (as of course it still was in
1965).
Since my scholarship, the US has become almost a second
home - indeed, I did once resist the strong temptation of
acquiring one in Manhattan way back in the ‘boom times’!
I reckon I have now crossed the pond well over 40 times.
Furthermore, having been to school in the relatively remote
Midwest, many of my classmates moved on to the major
cities around their nation to pursue their livelihoods and
careers. Thus, my scholarship has also provided me with
years of happy experiences visiting them all over the
country. Having been Chairman of the Stowe alumni body
a few years back, I even spent a contemporaneous spell as
the European representative on Cranbrook’s Alumni
Council – not a bad double!
And that ‘degree’ from the aforementioned ‘University of
Life’ Modesty aside, it has proved to be summa cum laude.
Thank you, ESU!
John Fingleton – SSE (formerly BASS) 1967 – 8
DIALOGUE 39