RIP Fr. Tony Skillen
Phil McCarthy (St Mary’s 1970 to 1977) shares an article with us about the influence the late Fr Tony Skillen had on him. The article has been published in the latest edition of The Tablet, the International Catholic news weekly.
I will help you understand the structure and meaning of the universe. Everything the others will try to teach you at this school is just stamp collecting.”
I was in my first week at St Mary’s Grammar School, Sidcup. Fr Tony Skillen’s words made a deep impression on me, and I looked forward keenly to his classes.
Tony Skillen had read natural sciences at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before completing his Marist philosophy and theology studies. After ordination in 1968 his first appointment was to St Mary’s teaching physics. His style was well suited to the new Nuffield inquiry-based curriculum which sought understanding rather than rote learning. He asked us questions: “What do you expect this experiment to show?” and he seemed interested in our answers. Such was his success that by the time I entered the sixth form in 1975 more than half the year chose physics. One contemporary told me: “I learned more about scientific methods during `A` level classes with Fr Skillen than in three years studying physics at university. I picked up how to think logically and to figure things out from first principles.”
Fr Tony took the same approach to questions of the meaning of the universe during our religious studies discussions. He challenged us to debate and to move beyond our primary school formulations of Catholicism. Nothing shocked him or disturbed his equanimity or his wicked sense of humour. I had dismissed religion aged ten when a friend told me: “You know all this God stuff? It’s just rubbish; they tell it to us to try to make us behave.” Tony’s lessons led me to understand that we need faith in the validity of the questions we ask to make progress in matters of science or religion.
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Fr Tony Skillen: Nothing disturbed his equanimity or wicked sense of humour says Phil McCarthy.
Apart from teaching the “structure and meaning of the universe” Tony coached year rugby teams with skill and enthusiasm, often accompanying us to matches across south-east London on Saturdays.
Sadly for Sidcup he was appointed to Marist College, Hull in 1976. Later he was a chaplain at London University. His kindly but challenging attitude towards young people made him ideal for the role. Years afterwards, when my grandmother was a resident at a care home at West Wickham, I spotted that he was the chaplain. Sadly our paths did not cross, and he died in 2008, much missed.
At the age of eleven I was unaware that Tony was echoing Ernest Rutherford’s famous dictum that “all science is either physics or stamp collecting.” I went on to study medicine at university and was disappointed to find that the first two years of the curriculum was mostly scientific “stamp collecting”. I gave up actual stamp collecting when I was ten but, more than fifty years after I first met Tony Skillen, I enrolled on the London Jesuit Centre’s Science and Theology course. Tony inspired me to keep asking questions, and I’m grateful to him.
Best teacher ever. Tony joined St Mary’s as our form teacher for 1 Alpha in 1968 and we were lucky to have him as our form teacher for the next five years.
Physics was an esoteric subject in those days. I remember Tony telling me that of all the physicists who had ever lived, 99% were still alive then (in the 1970s). Lovely man, intellectually stimulating teacher, tolerant, funny and brilliant.
My single biggest influence in my intellectual development as a person, along with my parents and grandparents.
Very sorry I was unable to attend his funeral. RIP.
Our form teacher/tutor for five years ( 1968 alpha intake ) ; a great man, a mix of everybody’s favourite uncle, James Burke and Bamber Gascoigne all rolled into one.