ROBERT JOHNSTON
| Town/City | Melbourne |
|---|---|
| First name | ROBERT |
| Last name | JOHNSTON |
| Country of Origin | SCOTLAND |
| Date of Birth | 1/4/1934 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1969 |
| Submitted by | Carol Johnston |
Story
Reason for leaving homeland
Robert Johnston was a scientific and mathematical genius who worked for Einstein\’s GENEVA CERN project as a young man. He then worked in Universities in Scotland, Ireland and England before coming to live in Australia. He came to Australia as a founding ACADEMIC at La Trobe University with his wife and three daughters.
About the Journey
Robert saw this trip as an opportunity of a lifetime for his young family and planned and executed a trip from the UK that included Denmark, Russia, India, China (HK), Thailand, Phillipines, Bali and then AUSTRALIA.
Impressions on Arrival
Robert and his young family arrived in Sydney for a weeks’ stay with friends. It was very hot and two of his children were caught in a rip and stung by a bluebottle at Bondi beach. So a challenging environment in this new foreign country with great heat and ocean dangers was experienced. The first day in Melbourne was more comfortable for Robert and his family with their new leafy East Ivanhoe home being similar to the areas in the UK that the family had lived in before.
Robert loved the multiculturalism of Melbourne which was just starting in the 1960’s and was very exciting and well experienced by Robert over the years before his death in 2003. He was a great believer in racial and cultural harmony and inclusion stating often “We are all the same – we all have one blood”.
Sebaticals and world trips over the years
Robert took his family back to the UK and Europe on a number of occasions over the next 20 years while living in Australia. Over these many trips Robert and his family visited many, many countries on all continents except South America and the north and south poles. He loved travelling the world nearly as much as Mathematics, Science and helping people to learn. He had an ambition to visit the Antarctic and his ashes finally travelled there in May 2003.
Becoming an Australian
Robert Johnston was Scottish and with his family he also became an Australian (Australia day in 1984). However he always called himself a WORLD CITIZEN and taught everyone he met to think this way. He really believed and always taught ‘WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE’!
A wonderful Teacher and Learner
Robert Johnston was an amazingly energised man. He lived ‘life to the full ‘and was literally interested in everything. He was a genius but yet a simple man. He collected a huge library over the years (mostly second hand books) showing a great interest in all cultures and peoples of the world. His daughter Carol is currently establishing an English book library in Tianjin China – a country he loved; in memory of her much loved father with some of his most interesting and eclectic books and art including first editions that he had collected over the years (his passion).
His greatest contribution and gift to the planet was his love of teaching and learning. He embodied what we now call ‘Lifelong Learning’ and touched literally thousands of lives with his teachings and writings over the years of his life. He also helped an amazing amount of people in a quiet way without wanting personal reward, he was a giver and was truly benevolent in many ways. He gave freely his time, his ideas and intelligence and embodied the collegiality of Academia, the sharing and caring before this new century when even Universities have now become businesses which he did not agree with.
The last years
In his last few years Robert still travelled and also, although retired from the University, he kept teaching and learning as the President at the local Probis club (Rotary) and through volunteer work teaching ICT to aged members of society and running the ‘Mathspals’ project with his daughter Carol.
He died on May 7th 2003 (A significant day to Robert – Armitage day from the second world war). He is now free and still with us in a spiritual state. He believed and often said “We live in the past, the present and the future simultaneously” and with his expertise mathematically and in quantum physics he even had complex mathematical proofs for this belief. He also believed “Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift” and lived always in the moment with his family, friends and colleagues. He is daily missed by his family and friends but travels with us still in infinity.