Nugget says it’s time to go home
THERE are few retired teachers who can warmly reflect back on a career that lasted for 57 years.
Jim “Nugget” Nugent is one of the dedicated few who packed his lunch and walked through the school gates for all those years.
Last month he finally called it a day leaving his last assignment at St Bernard State School on Tamborine Mountain with students and fellow teachers waving him a fond farewell.
Jim said his love of education and young children fuelled him to keep going long past when many teachers call it a day.
“I kept getting offers to return and I kept accepting them,” he said.
His last stint suited him perfectly as it was in Mount Tamborine where he has lived in the same house for more than 50 years.
He fondly remembers a book full of funny experiences over his teaching years and particularly one just before he retired from St Bernard.
“They gave me health to teach at the school probably because I was so old,” he laughed.
“When I was talking to a room full of preppies about how long you can live they asked me my age.
“When I told them I was 78 one of the kids raised their hand and said ‘gee, Mr Jim, you’re going to die soon’ my reaction was just to burst into laughter and they all joined in,” he said.
While that was another happy day at school Jim’s life didn’t start out as a happy one.
As a two-year-old he was separated from his five sisters and sent to a Nudgee orphanage, later named St Vincents Home, where he stayed until he was 14.
He was then accepted into St Laurence’s College where he was issued an ultimatum on his first day that he would be expelled if he mucked up.
“They were obviously wary about me because I had been in an orphanage, even though I had learnt the fundamentals of Latin there and I was the head alter boy,” Jim said.
Any concerns about the new pupil quickly dissipated as Jim excelled at the college going on to captain the rugby team and winning a senior Chemistry Award.
“After completing his mandatory two years of training at Teacher’s College Jim played an important role in more than 20 schools.
“I opened the Gavan State School at Helensvale with just 60 students and three years later there were 875 on the books,” he said.
In his later years Nugget Nugent put his walking shoes on and hand in hand with his wife, Mary, travelled the world.
“My journeys are far from over and I have been blessed by touring the globe, it liberated my mind.”
His final message to all his students is this quote from Sir Isaac Newton:
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” .
If anyone in Tamborine Mountain would like to discuss the meaning of this quote you can catch up with Nugget on the green at the local bowls club.
He’ll now be there a lot more often.
