Friel

Br Kevin Friel receives his BH Neumann Award from Professor Neumann at a function at the Red Hill restaurant, Canberra, on 24 May 1997.

Citation

Kevin Friel was born at Innisfail, Queensland. His first teaching appointment was at Bondi Beach in 1950. His qualifications include BA (University of Queensland) 1959, MA (University of Sydney) 1968 and Dip Ed Admin (University of New England) 1969.

From about 1960 until 1989 he was a member of the NSW HSC syllabus committee.

In the early 1960s he helped, in Catholic schools, in a supervisory role with primary schools' final marking.

During the late 1960s, he set trial examinations for all Catholic schools' HSC mathematics courses.

For about 5 years in the late 1960s he was involved in setting NSW School Certificate mathematics examinations. He was also one of the supervisors for marking at the Showground.

From 1960 to 1969 he gave several lectures ranging from 1 to 4 hours at country venues ranging from Lismore to the Riverina, and many venues in Sydney. These lectures were heavily oriented to mathematics, but some were in Physics.

In the late 1970s and 1980s he became involved in the NSW Olympiad to select the top 20 NSW students to attend the National Summer School in Canberra. For some time, he actually set the written exam, which he then also marked. He also marked the take-home question and attented final selection meetings with Geoff Ball (Convenor) and the late Jim Williams. Over the years he has occasionally visited other schools and given a lecture on a topic to a 4-unit HSC class. He has also given tuition to several teachers over the years.

He was always interested in the possibility of a national competition such as the AMC and became aware of the competition organised by Peter O'Halloran in 1976.

In 1977 he became aware of the pilot program for an AMC and he enabled Parramatta Marist High School to be one of the schools, acting as its competition manager.

In the early 1980s, he became a moderator for the AMC Problems Committee. In 1986, he became a member of the AMC Problems Committee and has continued as one of its most valuable and productive contributing members.

Since the introduction of the Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians, he has also been one of its moderators.

In conclusion, Br Friel has a long and distinguished career as a mathematics educator in this country. His knowledge and dedication during his career have been second to none and he is a worthy and outstanding holder of the BH Neumann Award.

Peter Taylor

24 May 1997