Phillip John Day

Phillip John Day was born in Clovelly, the son of Neville and Norma Day. He attended Randwick Public School, then Sydney High before getting a teaching scholarship for a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of NSW, then a diploma of education at Alexander Mackie Teachers College.

As a bonded teacher, Day was sent to Murrumburrah Central School, about 30 kilometres north-west of Yass. After that he taught at Vaucluse High School and Canterbury Boys High School and, in 1984, he transferred to Sydney High and spent the rest of his teaching life there as a teacher of economics and Head Teacher of Social Sciences. In these last two positions that he enriched the lives of generations of Sydney High School boys - providing an education in all aspects of life.

It is said that if you tried to walk in Bondi Junction with him, it would take you an hour to cover 100 metres. “Hey Phil, Hi Mr Day, sir - how are you?” came from all sides and he would stop and ask after the hailer, and his or her parents, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, UAIs, studies, work, sport and any movies seen recently. When Day asked “How are you?”, he really meant it.

He was sought after for Economics coaching in the Eastern Suburbs and he progressively coached whole families of students who in turn recommended him to others. A number of private schools offered him promotion positions but he remained committed to public education of which he was a product.

Day’s attitude to other people was a product of a strong Christian faith. His lifelong attachment to the Anglican Church started at St Jude’s, Randwick. He was a churchwarden and a member of a number of church groups including the Sydney Committee of the Anglican Board of Missions and Anglican Catholic Renewal. In the early 1980s he moved his spiritual home to St James’s, King Street in the city, where he enjoyed its expression of Catholic Anglican worship and fellowship of the Guild of St Raphael.

Day was also a bon vivant and gourmet with a passion for coffee, dining, theatre, cinema and classical and religious music. He was always impeccably turned out.

Towards the end of 2005 he was diagnosed with cancer and subsequently medically retired. A series of retirement dinners followed and many old boys stood to applaud him.

A solemn and moving requiem eucharist, attended by an estimated 11,000 (including old boys, colleagues and friends) was sung at St James’, King Street, Sydney. The church was packed to overflowing with predominantly men of all ages paying tribute to the teacher who had made such an impression on their lives. Afterwards, the owners of his favourite coffee shop set up a portable machine in the crypt of the church and shouted everyone one last cup.

[Based on an obituary by Con Barris (1971) and Terry O'Brien published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 31 March 2007.]