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Obituaries
Mervyn Geoffrey Pizzey (OW1940)
08/09/1923 – 22/05/2020
Mervyn Geoffrey Pizzey (OW1940) was born in Melbourne, arriving at Wesley College in 1937. He always considered his days at Wesley as the best days of his life. Mervyn had a great love of sport and flourished with all the magnificent sporting facilities available to him at school. Amongst his many sporting achievements, he was a member of Wesley’s First XVIII and rowed bow in Wesley’s First VIII, obtaining School Colours in Football and Rowing and House Colours in Gymnastics.
When he left Wesley, Mervyn had to wait until he was 18 years of age before he could join the services for active military duty in the Second World War. In the interim he joined the leather tanning division of George Pizzey and Son. On 19 January 1942, he enlisted with the RAAF and was immediately despatched to Sale in country Victoria for training in radar, wireless and signals technology.
After completing his training with the RAAF, Mervyn was transferred to an RAAF radar and communications site at Adelaide River, 112 kilometres south of Darwin. As the war against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea started to hot up he was then transferred to Finschhafen, 325 kilometres north of Port Moresby, a site that was frequently bombed; on one raid Mervyn was severely burned in a petrol explosion.
Following his discharge in October 1945, Mervyn rejoined the tanning division of George Pizzey and Son at the main tannery in Richmond. At the time the tannery was processing 80,000 hides a month and was the second largest tannery operation in Australia. Mervyn went on to become General Manager of the Tanning Division in the early 1960s.
In 1946 Mervyn married Pamela Eaton Millar – a marriage of 73 years. Pamela passed away on 16 February 2020. Together they had two sons, Euan Pizzey (OW1965) and Liel Pizzey (OW1967).
Mervyn’s early business life was very busy. His job required him to complete a course at leather trade school and then to travel extensively overseas and undertake chemistry training courses applicable to the tanning industry with large German and Swiss chemical manufacturers such as BASF and Ciba-Geigy. When the business was taken over in 1974 Mervyn teamed up with several senior managers to establish Ariens Echo, a business specialising in the importation and distribution of agricultural equipment, brush cutters and ride-on mowers. Mervyn eventually retired and sold his equity in the business in 1988.
Mervyn, like most of the Pizzey family, was a passionate supporter of the Melbourne Football Club. Many Saturday afternoons were spent in the Olympic Stand at the MCG together with his wife and two sons. He was also very keen on cricket and for many years would take the family to the MCG on Boxing Day to see the traditional Victoria versus New South Wales Boxing Day match, long before Test matches were played on Boxing Day.
Mervyn was the driving energy in his family, always injecting good humour and positive feelings. His family always felt strong and energised and a sense of fun when he was around. He always put his family’s needs first and provided unconditional support to his wife and two sons. He loved Wesley and at the age of 95 wrote a wonderful letter, published in Lion, recounting some of his vivid memories of the teachers and the great times he enjoyed at school. He will always be remembered by his family and friends and will be sorely missed by all.