<< Back to Lion December 2020 homepage
Obituaries
Declan Oppenheim (OW2013)
06/09/1995 – 01/05/2020
In this moving tribute, we reproduce a letter circulated by Declan’s loving parents, Jane and Alan, in the days that followed Declan’s death. His Wesley teachers in particular experienced an enormous sense of loss for this former School Captain of Elsternwick, a campus he loved and where he is remembered as the IT go-to guy for assemblies and productions, as an IB graduate and as an outstanding young OW.
‘Late on Friday night, our brilliant and very tall son Declan suddenly passed away in our home. Some of you knew his best mate and business partner, Jake Reeder. Declan and Jake have been making many videos for Ego Pharmaceuticals over the years – videos for training, videos of staff, for our website, to encourage people to join Ego and more. For the last 15 years every video shown at a sales conference was made by Declan and Jake. They were the awesome video team, bantering off each other to make every video perfect beyond any mere mortal.
‘Declan has been a Non-Executive Director of Ego and a member of our Board of Directors. He brought a brilliance, an attitude of youth and a very strong responsibility that Ego should leave the planet a better place. He drove carbon reduction hard and fast – more solar power and why not now? He was very keen on the reduction of packaging going to landfill. This passion saw Declan on the team for sustainability development, and he was going to make a video for a big project.
‘Underneath, our Declan had a huge heart, always helping those in need. He had enormous patience and politeness. He worried about everything wrong in the world, taking that responsibility on his very broad shoulders. When New Caledonia held their referendum on independence from France, Declan and Jake were there making a documentary in French with subtitles. Because Declan had an “I will help others” attitude, he concerned himself with a very broad knowledge of the world, politics, oppressed peoples, refugees and sciences. He was a walking encyclopedia that updated itself daily. Sometimes he would argue with fellow board member Barry O’Gorman on a topic of physics – Barry admits that Declan was always right – and the discussion always had a fun twist.
‘Declan and Jake made videos for many other clients including the famous Melbourne restaurant Vue de Monde. They also wrote and produced their own short films for entertainment and to build industry credibility, believing that one day they would make a feature film.
‘At home Declan was our amazing ICT team; when the television did not stream, he rescued us often. Declan frequently talked about aeroplanes, airlines and airports with his dad and was lucky enough to experience many. In December 2019 they experienced flying a Qantas 747 simulator together, which he talked about to friends for weeks. It was a great father-son experience.
‘Declan loved to learn new things, teaching himself from the internet. He loved to have his mind changed by quality argument and facts – he loved learning so he could understand the world better and be an advocate for the best solution to the world’s problems – whether it was climate change, refugees, aborigines or the environment. He shared many of these passions with Mae, his friend.
‘Charlotte is Declan’s sister and they were soul mates, sharing so much of each other’s lives with a wicked spirit of fun. Charlotte, Declan and Jake worked over a weekend to create a series of energetic photos that we enjoy every day in our offices. We’ve been in video contact with Charlotte isolated in Spain. Declan never used the word “values”; he just lived them quietly as he tried to help everyone else.’