Michael John William Byrne 02/05/1946 – 1/07/2017 (SVC 1958 – 63)
Michael John William Byrne 02/05/1946 – 1/07/2017 (SVC 1958 – 63) Mick Byrne was born in 1946, to Avis and Jack Byrne in Queenstown where Jack worked with Mt Lyell Mines. The family soon moved to the area round New Norfolk where Jack built a house, and worked for at the Boyer paper mill. Mick received much of his primary schooling at St Bridget’s in New Norfolk and then went to St Virgil’s in Hobart. As well as being a successful student, he was active in many of the College’s extra-curricular activities. In his final year Mick was the Deputy Head Prefect. He Captained the State Championship swimming team, was a member 1st XVIII and cross country teams, and had an involvement with the debating team and the YCS group. Mick boarded at the College for a number of years before being able to continue as a day student when his parents moved to Hobart.
He matriculated at the age of 16 and worked with the Australia Post for year before heading off to Corpus Christi College Werribee in 1965 to study for the priesthood. In 1972 he was ordained and worked as a chaplain to the Young Christian Workers movement and in a number of parishes around Tasmania. Mick went to London in 1981 to do a Master of Theology at Heythrop College within the University of London, completing his Masters with a thesis entitled Thankfulness: A Political Ecclesiology for a Rich Society. He returned to Tasmania for a few years after that and was starting to think about, and plan new directions for himself. Mick moved to Brisbane and married in 1985 He initially worked for St Mark’s Anglican Parish in a western suburb of Brisbane, working as a Community Development worker supporting local people in responding to local needs Mick became a proud and loving father to a daughter and son, now aged respectively 31 and 29. Mick studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1992. Much of Mick’s work at the bar was with criminal and family law matters. He became increasingly convinced that an adversarial system of settling legal matters was expensive and less effective, so he trained in mediation and worked as a mediator until his retirement in July 2016. Mick died as a result of advanced melanoma in July 2017. Rest in peace Mick Byrne.
