School reunion for Teesside trio

Last time friends Steve Penrose, Pete Stackhouse and John Bark walked around Middlesbrough, Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and the Bay City Rollers were topping the charts.

Back in 1975, the trio were completing their studies at Teesside Polytechnic. Over 30 years later, they have enjoyed their own college reunion and toured the University's hugely changed campus.

Honorary degree The reunion was initiated by Steve, who has received an honorary degree of Doctor of Business Administration. Steve is now based in New Jersey in the USA, where he is Senior Vice-President of ADP. The company has over 47,000 staff, and is one of the largest providers of integrated computing and business outsourcing in the world. Steve invited his former college friends to share his second graduation from Teesside and tour the campus.

Steve is now 56 and first came to Middlesbrough aged 18 from his home town of Bolton, to study Computer Science. He said: 'I have very happy memories of my studies at Teesside Polytechnic; it was a very pleasurable time. Computer Science was a very new subject back in 1971 and I was very happy with the education I received. Back then, the whole place had over 2,000 students, now I'm told there are nearly 25,000!

'The campus is an interesting mix, much of it is very new but I also recognised the original building where we had most lectures and the former 'Buttery' where we all used to socialise. I took up playing bridge as a student; it became quite a dominant part of my life in Teesside! I was thrilled to receive the Honorary Degree and it was great to get us all together again.'

Computer facilities are outstanding Pete Stackhouse, 57, was one of Steve's invited college friends. Pete achieved a degree in Mathematical Science and now works as a Company Financial Accountant in Scunthorpe. Pete said: 'The University is much larger than I expected, with modern buildings and excellent study resources and equipment. The computer facilities are outstanding now compared to 1975 when we had only two mainframes using tape and punch cards.

'As there were only a few full time students we all mixed together including the art college and engineering students, and found our entertainment in the local community, such as playing squash and swimming in Billingham. I clearly remember power cuts in 1973 due to the miners' strike. We had to move to different parts of the town to study, mainly in a pub where we worked together!'

John Bark is the final member of the Teesside trio. John, 55, lives in Hull, East Yorkshire, and works at the University of Lincoln, where he manages the Application System Support team. Like Steve, he also graduated in 1975 with an honours degree in Computer Science.

John said: 'I hadn't seen the University since I graduated but was very impressed with the campus. There are many new buildings but it was good to see some of the older established buildings like the Constantine Building still standing. I had some great times at Teesside and made some lifelong friends including Steve for whom had I had the privilege of being his best man, and have so many happy memories. The reunion gave my wife and me a great chance to see old friends for the first time in many years. We've resolved to have a weekend together this year to catch up, including Steve and his wife Angela if they are over from the USA.'

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