Saturday, July 28, 2012

Joe Birrell - Olympic Hero

Our kids had to do a presentation on an Olympic hero. Louis and Elliot chose a guy who competed in the 1948 "austerity" Olympics in London called Joe Birrell. He was my maths teacher at school and got me through my O Level resit. He never boasted about his sporting achievements, in fact he was a bit of an enigma to be honest. Here's a story about 'Joe Biz' from the Lancaster Guardian.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this man Michael. He also helped me over the line in my maths O Level. Such a witty teacher, even if he didn't actually realise it. I still see him striding around the streets of Bowerham and Scotforth. If not quite as fast as he once was, he still covers the ground brilliantly for a man of his age. I met him in Booths' a few months ago and whilst, sadly, he could hardly see me, he knew me immediately as soon as I introduced myself. Great, great man.

Joe Koller said...

I too was taught by Joe at LRGS back in the 1970s. A true gentleman, a great teacher, one of the few who treated his pupils with respect and we in return respected him back. He was very modest about his achievements and was very supportive of the school sports teams, always having a word of praise and encouragement for those involved.