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| THE SKILLICORN FAMILY WEB-SITE | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ** Introducing you to Ruth and Keith Skillicorn ** | Introducing you to Paul (our son), Rebecca, Alexa and Antonio | |||||||||||||||||||
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WELCOME:- We consider it a privilege to have you as our Guest. This site will enable you to get to know us better by directing you to our numerous, personal web-sites, a full index of which may be found by clicking on at the very bottom of this page. If you are like many of our regular visitors, you could never imagine that we are "oldies" - only 76 years young! At heart, we are a like a couple of teenagers. To see what we looked like a few years back, please access our autobiography and go down the page to the Introduction of "An Impossible Dream" In that 16 chapter autobiography of our 31 years spent in India and Bangladesh, you'll get to know of our family activities from 1951 to 1988, when we "retired" from our overseas work to settle in Modbury, a north-eastern suburb of Adelaide, on the south coast of Australia." Ruth was born into the Morrall family, with two sisters, Mirrie (Holloway) and Irma (Rackemann) and spent most of her early years in Brighton, Melbourne. Her father was the gallant Ashley Morrall who was known for his bravery in World-War One, in which he was injured quite seriously but made a wonderful recovery due to his loving wife Mabel (Long), whom Ashley met in England, after the war. Early training in Domestic Science, together with Church and office training in the Burroughs Calculator and other office skills, equipped Ruth for the difficult years she was to spend in Asia, living in most primitive conditions for 31 years. We tell it all in our book. Keith was born in Sydney but early in life moved to Melbourne, to live with parents Ernest Philip and Ethel Florence Skillicorn, with brother, Noel, in the northern suburb of Pascoe Vale. Keith was trained in electrical fitting and later, during the World War 2, converted his training course to that of aeronautical electrical fitting, enabling him to serve in the Air Force (RAAF) for 4 years. After the war, Keith spent a further four years studying theology at the Glen Iris College of Churches of Christ, graduating as an ordained minister in 1950 It was in January 1951, that Ruth and Keith, with four year old Robert and 7 months old baby Paul, sailed for India to spend half a life-time in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh provinces, mainly involved in caring for leprosy sufferers, conducting rural education and community development projects. For many years, we had to train ourselves in medicine and also simple surgery and dentistry, although we did receive 14 days of professional dental tuition on the initial sea voyage to India. That was made possible because our two dining-room companions on the ship (RMS "Himalaya") were dentists going to Britain for post-graduate dental training. It was that dental training (only in extractions - no fillings etc.) that triggered off our rural health program which developed into aleprosy - T.B. work, but also included immunisation programs against smallpox, typhoid, cholera etc.. Being many miles away from proper educational facilities meant that we had to send our children to boarding school - a most painful experience to be parted from our children in those early formative years. We were fortunate to have our three children (Bruce came later) avail of the high academic standards of Woodstock School, in Landour, Mussoorie, a Himalayan hill-resort in U.P.Province, India. You may access Woodstock's Web-Site at our Home-Page dedicated to "Our Beloved India - land of our adoption". While Paul and Bruce adjusted well to boarding school, Robert found it a difficult experience and, during our first furlough, decided to opt out, preferring to remain in Australia with his grandparents and aunts later to pursue his higher education in Britain, gaining a B.A. at Hull University, where he met Susan Davis and married her to produce four children - Thomas, Ashley, Deiniol and Rhiannon. Robert had a real compassion for "the underdog", particularly the exploited miners of Wales, where he, with Susan, settled down at Deiniolin, exercising a caring role as Regional Secretary for the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE). Tragically, due to a combination of factors - overwork and Asthma / Allergy problems, Robert passed away at the early age of 39 years. We still have not fully recovered from the shock of losing our eldest son. Robert's contribution to Welsh culture was most significant. He helped to achieve for the Welsh people, bi-lingual programs (Welsh / English) over BBC Radio - T.V.. Also, he was successful in introducing bi-lingual road signs and Govt. forms. Being very fluent in Welsh, won him to the hearts of many Welsh people, from the humblest "working-class" people, to the highest academics, politicians from all parties, and many other dignitaries, who shared in farewelling Robert - Son of Wales - at his Memorial Service held in one of Carnarvon's main theatres. . On the occasion of Robert's death the BBC, over Welsh Radio and T.V., announced Robert's death every half hour. While our 31 years spent in India and Bangladesh, were amongst the most wonderful experiences of our lives, they were difficult times and can be explored in our book. They even included real persecution because we became involved in caring for the exploited and rejected people of society, particularly those affected by leprosy. Powerful land-lords, money-lenders and the alcohol shop people who had been using these unfortunate and disadvantaged villagers as a source of income, saw their revenue slipping from their hands as their victims became educated and free from disease and unemployment. In order to maintain their strangle-hold on the rural population, they brought false criminal charges against Keith, on account of which he had to spend one month in a most primitive jail. That was an experience never to be forgotten. Happily, it culminated in his full acquittal, which won us to the hearts of many Indian people. That close relationship was sealed when we adopted Pamela , (a widow) and her four children. Pamela is the neice, by marriage, of the late Miss Miriam Dass, to whom we have dedicated our book, "The Making of a Miracle" (ISBN 0 909116 30 X). Following our "retirement" in 1988, we have been actively involved in teaching leprosy and the Hindi language on the Internet. We also have been promoting the work of The Leprosy Mission. Our involvement in leprosy via the Internet, was due to the kind invitation of THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION's Dept. of Leprosy.We also have been working in close relationship with THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF ANTI-LEPROSY ASSOCIATIONS (ILEP)  |
PAUL, our second son, grew up hardly conscious of any racial or linguistic differences. He was as much at home speaking Hindi, India's national language, or Gunwari, our local village dialect . He also is fluent in a number of other languages and dialects of our part of northern India. For that reason, following his graduation from Woodstock School, in the Himalayas, Paul felt the desire to stay on in India and managed to get a really good position as a Field Officer, with UNICEF, overseeing the establishment of irrigation wells in M.P., Bihar, W.B. and U.P.. His close Woodstock School friend and "Buddy", Tom Alter, affectionately known to you film-lovers in India as "Mr. Tom", achieved his wish and actually became an Indian citizen and the idol of many Indian cinema-goers. Paul was fortunate to gain admission to a number of colleges and universities in the U.S. but chose to take a B.A. in Experimental Psychology at Erchard College, St. Petersburg, Florida. He did so well at Erchard, that he managed to take further studies at Johns Hopkins, University, Baltimore, majoring in Environmental Engineering and gaining a M.A. degree. Following that, he earned a M.A. in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Washington, D.C.. While living in the university city of Davis, Califormia, Paul was challenged to do further research in Environmental Engineering which earned him a Ph.D and, for a while, he served on the faculty at Johns Hopkins. Paul is a pioneer in the utilisation of Lemnaceae ("Duckweed") for commercial purposes and through The Prism Group" of which he became President, introduced this dynamic acquatic plant in Bangladesh and Peru to produce fish, poultry and animal fodder, as well as solving a real waste-water and sewerage problem in those countries. After much experience in this area of environmental engineering, in Mexico (Chetumal University), Guatamala, Belise and Hondurus, Paul, as President and CEO of "GreenGold Corp. Inc., was invited by "BioNet" to North Carolina to launch his wonder - working "GreenGold technologyto help solve a massive pollution problem caused by the many thousands of pigs in that state for which there was no adequate facilities for the disposal of farm effluent. At the same time, the harvested Duckweed will produce much needed protein for the pigs. Paul's partner, Rebbeca , a Fulbright Scholar whom he met in Peru, and married in the U.S., is almost through her Ph.D studies in agriculture, after being honoured with the "National (U.S.) Science Foundation Award" . Paul and Rebecca have two children Alexa and Antonio. We have only very briefly mentioned some of Paul's expertise; if you want to know more, please access his web-site to get a glimpse of his curriculum vitae. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Introducing you to Bruce, Jenelle, Peter and Christy | ||||||||||||||||||||
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BRUCE, our youngest son, is a family member of whom we are very proud, because, in spite of his health problem, he has made it ! With his brothers, Robert and Paul, Bruce studied at Woodstock School in the Himalayas of India and grew up with a very real understanding of Indian culture and language. Thanks to one of his teachers, Frank Wesley, a famous Indian artist who was on the staff of Woodstock, Bruce excelled in art and was commissioned to paint several murals around the school campus and they remain to this day. Because the Woodstock curriculum is based on the American High School education system, Bruce could not gain entry to an Australian university and unlike his brother, Paul, Bruce had no desire to settle down in the U.S.. Bruce found one Australian college which would admit him to a course, in spite of his grounding in the U.S.educational systems.. That college was The Bible College of South Australia, then based at Victor Harbor. Three years at BCSA, qualified Bruce to be admitted to the ordained ministry of the church and led to ministries at Chadstone, Victoria, Junee and Newcastle in New South Wales, and Warwick, in Queensland. Although Bruce completed another three years theological course in Kenmore, Queensland, his heart was in art and he was challenged to establish his "Skillart" business. It was not long before Bruce was contracted as Stage / Scene Art Director for productions of the Queensland Opera Company , including "The King and I. " Bruce was commissioned to paint portraits of a number of distinguished Queensland dignitaries, including the Premier of the State, and the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland where Bruce graduated with a B.A. and, for a short period, also taught art. Specialising in Set Design and Scenic Art, qualified Bruce to receive the "Hugh Childs Memorial Award" and, by the City of Warwick, Queensland, Bruce also was honoured with the "Australia Day Cultural Award". He was also recipient of the "Cuasnauth Art Award" (India) . At the time of writing, Bruce is taking further university training to prepare himself for a career as a professional Counsellor He has two daughters, Jenelle and Christina and one son, Peter. ******************** PAMELA is our adopted Indian daughter. During our years spent in India, we became close friends of Pamela's late husband, Prabhat Kumar, who really put himself out to help us move urgent relief grains when we were fighting a critical famine situation. You may like to read all about that in our book on the Internet - "An Impossible Dream". Sadly, Prabhat developed a liver problem which took his life, leaving Pamela a widow with four young children. Fearing for Pamela, who would be very vulnerable as a widow, in India, her aunt by marriage, Miriam Dass, pleased with us to adopt Pamela and her four children, Jayshree, Rajshree, Paul Sudhir and Prashant Jacob. Pamela, who has degrees of M.A. and B.Ed., is a senior high school teacher in Bihar, while Jayshree has graduated as a nurse, Rajshree has gained a B.A., and Paul and Prashant are going on to take B.A. and B.Sc. degrees respectively. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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