My 1977 Group Study Exchange in East Anglia - a Rotary Alumni Reminisces

 
Rotary Alumni Reconnect Week is intended to remind Rotarians that there have been literally tens of thousands of people who have taken part in and benefited from Rotary programmes over the years and whether they have just returned home or participated much longer back they should be encouraged to continue to engage with Rotary if they have not already done so.
 
One of the best ways to do this is to have some of the stories from the Alumni told and here is but one of these from our own very respected club stalwart Kevin.  Log in to the RotaryNZ Facebook for more over the coming two weeks.  If you have a story that illustrates the benefit of participating in a Rotary programmme, by yourself or others, please send to Colin for a very wide international audience (pic and a paragraph is OK).
 
Coming up 40 years ago, and I remember it like it was yesterday. However, for reasons I cannot recall, I had decided to learn French. Possibly, I’d probably not got over my Sartre-Camus passion. Back on point; in my Alliance-Francaise group was Rotarian, the late Ken Buchler, a charming man and the MD of the South African French fuel giant, Total. So he clearly had a good reason.
 
I was a pioneer in South Africa’s delayed foray into the television era. The ruling faction feared TV would bring on change. There they were perceptive. So I found myself selected along with a law professor, a nuclear physicist and the leader of the Freemarket Foundation. Our Rotarian guardian and companion, a leading radiologist and a distinguished member of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.
 
Unfortunately, because the powers-that-be decided we should be presented alphabetically in the brochure which accompanied us, I occupied prime position. Clearly that presented some challenges for the editor who tried to find something to capture my unique talent or accomplishment, particularly in this august company. So opted for: “Kevin Kevany is single.”
 
Obviously that led to all the mothers, I think they were still Rotary ‘Annes’, locking up their daughters. It was fortunate (in these circumstances only) that I bore more than a passing resemblance to a leading British TV personality of the time, Sir Terry Wogan – as a young man, I should add.
 
This meant that the wary mothers fussed me hugely and I was royally treated; all fears for their daughters forgotten.
 
While a number of our hosts are now sadly departed, for many years when I returned to Britain on business or holidays I still made a point of travelling out to East Anglia – Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge in particular to renew those friendships – and as a consequence of my week’s ‘Work Experience’ (an often underestimated benefit of GSE) with Anglia TV and the BBC, I subsequently worked with ‘Panorama’ and ‘Newsnight’ in South Africa.