The old school tie
Bill Deutrom isn’t too comfortable talking about himself – characteristically so for a man whose actions have always been his calling card. In his long career, the eminent businessman in Australia has worn many hats and faced many challenges but what brings him back to the land he left behind in the ’60s is simply a call of the heart. These past few months, the distinguished old boy of Wesley College is a man with a new mission – to make his beloved alma mater the best school of all.
It may seem a tall order but Arthur William Deutrom is all seriousness. The premier Methodist boys’ school, Wesley College, founded in 1874, is steeped in history and proud tradition, has produced statesmen, scholars and sportsmen of distinction, yet perhaps lacks the recognition its more vaunted peers receive. The potential for excellence, he is convinced, is there. Every morning at 7.30 a.m, he is at ‘College’ , impeccably dressed in long-sleeved shirt and tie despite the sticky heat. Folk at Wesley, from the students to the staff and minor employees have grown accustomed to the lanky figure patrolling the corridors. There isn’t much that his eagle eye misses.
He is here just to help, he stresses, no official capacity, but that help has been substantial as he liaises with the school’s governing body and main committees involved in its administration. In the interim period as Wesley awaits a new principal after the highly results-oriented Dr. Shanti McLelland’s term, Acting Principal, old Trinitian Upali Ratnayake is at the helm, and Bill Deutrom is there to help in any area -Sports, Finance, Maintenance — people all know they can turn to him.
“Bill has always been a great benefactor of our school over the years- financially and in so many ways, ever ready to galvanise things into action. This time he readily responded to our call and agreed to come back to the country for a period, selflessly giving his time, to get things done,” commented another old boy.
Bill’s Wesley ties stretch back more than a few decades. It was in 1949 that the young Arthur William joined Wesley and 1965 when he left, in-between stamping his mark as an excellent sportsman, earning colours in cricket, rugby, tennis and hockey, and playing for the Public Schools hockey team, also being a house captain (Passmore) and prefect. His mother Doris Deutrom was a well-loved kindergarten teacher at Wesley- she also taught music, but her son has other less fond memories of her presence in school. Those were the days when errant behaviour earned a beating and he recalls with a wry smile, being hauled out of detention and roundly smacked by her.
In his old haunts: Bill Deutrom at Wesley (top) and the 1965 Wesley College cricket team with a young W. Deutrom seated second from right. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
The Deutroms, like many Burgher families of that era, migrated to Australia in 1965 but Bill remembers that his father, an executive at Brown & Co. was not at all keen to go. The political climate of the time however, left them little choice. Bill himself, having already begun accountancy studies in Sri Lanka, found he had to start all over again and take the Aussie exams. Having earned his finance and marketing degrees, he went into the hospitality business with an old Josephian and dear friend Errol Graham. From there it was the property trade and he can look back on a satisfyingly successful career, sitting on the boards of numerous corporations and earning notable awards. He was inducted into the Queensland Hotels Association Hall of Fame in 2002 and the following year came the Australian Hotels Association President’s Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the Australian hotels industry. He was also Chairman of the Federation of Sri Lankan Organisations in Queensland and is Deputy Chairman now of the PA Research Foundation, that funds medical research into deadly and debilitating diseases.
In 2004, Bill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list ‘for services to the Australian and Sri Lankan communities and the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation’. “I think it was for the work I was doing with the Princess Alexandra Hospital Research Foundation (he is still Deputy Chairman) for the community and for the cricket, he says, pausing to talk of the cricket connection that has lasted from his days as an opening bowler and batsman for Wesley. In Australia, where work commitments kept him from serious cricket he was heavily involved in supporting the game as Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cricket Foundation in Queensland. The Foundation assisted the cricketers when they toured Australia. Incidentally his cousin Malcolm’s son Warren Deutrom is the CEO of Irish Cricket, that branch of the family having migrated to England.
He was there when the infamous no-balling of Sri Lanka’s ace spinner Muttiah Muralidharan took place in 1995 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and recalls he was sitting with Frank Tyson, the legendary Australian quick in the VIP box. “Tyson said ‘you know Bill they are going to call him today’. And they did. It was a total set-up,” he says, still irate. “And then Murali bowled leg spin and they still called him. The Aussies (in the box) too were so disgusted.” Coach Dav Whatmore was a close friend and those were immensely stressful days but he is all praise for Murali’s strength of character that saw him weather that most painful of assaults. Today Australia has asked him to coach, he says, with great satisfaction that the wheel has turned full circle.
When he went to Australia, most Aussies didn’t know where Sri Lanka was but the cricketers have done us proud, he says, deeply appreciative of the calibre of the likes of Mahela (Jayewardane) and (Kumar) Sangakkkara. “I’m so impressed with them. They should be Wesleyites,” he grins. “They’re not just champion cricketers, they’re champion people.”
But the longtime commitment to cricket apart, it was actually the tsunami disaster that brought Bill back to Sri Lanka regularly and got him started on what has been an ongoing albeit low-profile journey to do his bit in fund raising for many causes – cancer care, CKD, Wesley. In the aftermath of the tsunami, along with 30 other Lankans in Australia, they formed the Sri Lanka Disaster Relief Fund and in total built 220 houses in Kalutara, Maggona, Kalkudah and Seelamunai. After an initial assessment visit, they lobbied the state government in Queensland and managed to get 2 ½ million Aussie dollars… “they have never done that before,” he says. 130 houses were built with those funds alone. It was tough going, especially in the Northeast with the war still raging but they found a way partnering with the Ramakrishna Mission whose help was invaluable.
He is also active in Australia, fundraising for charities like the CCC Foundation (CCC stands for courage, compassion and commitment) “supporting the wonderful work done by the Sri Lankans on the ground here” he says, speaking with sincere admiration for founder Chairman Jetha Devapura and the dynamic team in Sri Lanka. The CCC House was a desperate need- for relatives of patients and children undergoing chemotherapy at the Maharagama Cancer Institute to have a place to stay overnight especially when they had travelled from afar. He recalls how the specialist they had sent from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne came back and told them how all the good work would be in vain if outpatients had to spend the night on the floor where stray dogs wandered about. They thought of building a 20-room centre but the Director of the Maharagama Cancer Institute Dr. Kanishka Karunaratne had been adamant -200 beds. And so it was. Built in 2010, the funds for upkeep are provided from Australia.
The CCCline, a free telephone counselling service (Tel; 1333) is another cause he supports, with the priority now to get volunteers for the night shift. Last year’s awareness-raising bike-athon was a huge success. Efforts like this, he feels, go a long way in addressing the need. “From 100 calls, it went up to 3000 a month and now it is about 2000,” he says, hopeful that the next bike-athon in August will help in this effort to bring people out of the shadows.
Chronic Kidney Disease is another issue he can talk at length about –where Kushil Gunasekera’s Foundation of Goodness, the CCC and the Lions Club are all working to help but state support is vital, he feels. At Wesley, the problems are more manageable in some ways, with the ready goodwill that the old school tie engenders. When Acting Principal Upali Ratnayake expressed a wish for Bibles in the chapel, a Buddhist old boy promptly obliged, in true Wesley spirit, he says.
The way he sees it it’s the leadership that’s needed and his role is helping put the infrastructure in place to ensure smooth running in the future. “You need someone on site. Other old boys don’t have the time; I have the time now. It’s very rewarding,” he says, matter of fact. That he has strong contacts in Australia and the extended old boy network of some 300-350 staunch old Wesleyites there, willing to rally round certainly helps in getting things done promptly. Keeping the Old Boys informed is important, he feels and the OBU website www.wesleyobu.lk, is designed for this purpose among others dedicated to the school. No area goes unnoticed meanwhile. To ensure toilets are clean, the job has now been outsourced because in his book, the boys should work in a clean, safe environment. It’s reflective of the way the school is run: “You create the right environment, standards will improve.”
“We’ve got the right calibre of boys. We can make the boys proud Sri Lankan citizens. All our colleges have to produce strong Sri Lankans who have the vision of helping the country,” he says. His Australian wife Maureen whom he married in 1969 loved Sri Lanka and was so impressed by the warmth and inherent goodness she found among the people, he reflects. She died in 2008 from asbestos-related cancer and Bill is determined to do all he can to have the material banned in Sri Lanka. All the major countries in the world have done so – why is Sri Lanka lagging behind he asks with some frustration. Their four daughters all love Sri Lanka, “they’re very jealous when I come here.”
The Deutrom families in Colombo are all gone, he thinks, but the connection to the country is still deep-rooted. Wesley was where Bill Deutrom spent many happy years, learnt the discipline and values that mostly shaped his life and he’s glad to have the chance to give something back.
-Renuka Sadanandan