Denis the Teacher

I was lecturing in sport management and was the course convenor at Bond University a couple of years ago. I needed to find some additional teaching support, and I wanted to bring in people from the sports industry. I was sitting there thinking about who on the Coast is highly qualified, educated, possesses great credibility and would potentially be able to teach. Almost immediately, Denis came to mind. At this stage, I had never met Denis. I did some research and called the law firm that he was working at. I was told that he had just left the firm in the last week. I was disappointed and didn't immediately try to track him down.

A couple of days later, I received a call and Denis is on the phone. I asked him whether his former firm had contacted him? He didn't know what I was talking about. I asked him then what he was calling about. He told me that he had a yearning to teach and therefore decided to contact me. I couldn't believe it! I told him that I had just tried to contact him about possibly teaching in the program. We both laughed and, in typical Denis style, he wanted to come out straight away to the Uni and meet with me.

Our first meeting, and every meeting after that, took place at the Uni cafe. No offices for Den! Denis wanted to know everything - absolutely everything! He even wanted to know the ins and outs of doing a PhD - I said, mate let's get you going in class first of all. The rest is history - as Bugs spoke about at the service, the kids loved him! I have never met a more natural teacher.

I have always said that the best teachers are people that could walk in from off the street who just connect with people and have a story to tell. Is there anyone you know that had a better story to tell than Denis? He was a deadset born teacher - I don't mean that in an academic sense (as good as he was). Denis taught all of us so many lessons - lessons in how to live life to it's fullest, how to conduct one's self in life, how to laugh and smile and keep things in perspective. Every person that ever met Denis and was lucky enough to have been 'taught' by him will always remember what 'lessons' Denis gave to them.