Think of and about you Conrad!

Contribution to Dad's Eulogy in his Bangalore Service

Words are from his good friend Chris Furnell

"Conrad came to St Joseph's in 63, 6th Standard.  I joined in 64 and shared a dorm with Conrad and Terrence Leyland.  That's how we became friends for life, we were 11 years old.

Conrad's greatest strength was his sheer guts and determination to achieve something in life.  He was fiercely loyal, hard working and dedicated.  This was evident right from our young days on the sporting field and he carried this through life where he worked bloody hard to set up a comfortable life for his family and the way he has brought up his 2 lovely sons Andrew and
Sean.

Examples of this are too numerous and would keep the service going until midnight but take cricket for example. Not the most talented with his wild cross-bat shots or the tongue-out side-on leg spinners, he could only just
make it to the 2nd eleven if lucky. But he wanted to be and feel part of the 1st eleven and he prided himself on his neat handwriting. So he took up scoring and became the "official" scorer for the team in '68. And when we
won the Cottonian Shield after a gap of 10 years in a 5 day thriller against Baldwins, Conrad was right up there in the celebrations.

Football was his game and he did make it to the 1st eleven in '68 with his never-say-die attitude. I was useless at football, but could run. So for an inter-house match against St. Georges in '68, Conrad said I must
play and they got me a pair of steel-capped army boots. Conrad's advice was if one of them had the ball, go hard for their shins and when I got it just kick and run. Rodney DeWorsop must still have a mark on his shins with that
coaching. One can never forget the pain Conrad felt every time we lost to Cottons in football.

Then take his music. Gifted with a hoarse bass voice, we took part in a couple of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas that Fr Menezes orchestrated in St Joseph's college - Gondoliers and Patience. Conrad was in his element with
his booming voice as part of the chorus. I'm sure Jean-Marie and the girls of St Joseph's would remember the trip to Managalore with the ensemble.

Then the guitar. In '69 during the 6 mths break between school and starting college, Conrad decided to learn the guitar after watching Woodstock and Jimi Hendricks. Again he was self-taught and had great pride in his guitar work especially Purple Haze and a Whiter Shade of Pale which he mastered.

All goes to show how he achieved everything he wanted by just trying and working hard.

Then in 1970 on a Sat afternoon I got a call from a girl who I didn't know. She said that their family had just moved from Hyderabad to Bangalore and Colleen Hartnett who was my neighbour when I was about 6 or 7 yrs old said to contact me. That night we were having a party at Antony LaRives place, so Anton, Conrad, George Mani and myself went to check things out.
The caller was Dutchy Barnes, Micky's sister, and we invited them over. Never seen the wild Conrad so bewildered after he met Micky. He said this is the girl for me and the rest is history.

In '74 he went with Micky to Dubai where Marnie and Egbert lived and worked and they got married in '78. From then it was always family first as it should be. Life then took him to Canada in the late '80's where he finally found and reconnected with his Mum and then on to Sydney in the mid 90's.

His passion for St Joseph's and walloping Cottonians carried on in Australia. He even flew down from Sydney to Melbourne for the annual OBA cricket match we used to have. His son Andrew showed me his "proud" trophy on the mantle-piece after his funeral. Flew down all the way and scored a first ball duck, but we won and that was the most important thing for Conrad. So he fittingly was awarded the trophy for Teamwork.

A great guy and a true friend who took his values from school all the way through life. May his soul RIP."