When Summer Merrie (Wyvern 1998) (left), Cameron Brown (Wyvern 1999), and Tom Hutchinson (Wyvern 2000) (right) met, they broke down the year level barriers through their mutual love of tennis, and passion for the College. Sixteen years later, the three were brought back together in a bitter sweet reunion when Cam faced a terminal illness. This is ‘The ties that bind’ for three people, with one sorely missed.

Tom ‘Hutch’

When I was a fresher in 2000, there was a coterie of very independent and strong-willed O-Week leaders and Summer was one of them. My first coffee party was in her room on 2nd South. She was super energetic, extremely friendly, loved her sport, and very enthusiastic about Queen’s. She was the Female Sports Rep, and we quickly bonded over sport, and a shared passion for the College. Summer showed me the value of the community at Queen’s and inspired me to want to go on and become a leader, as President of the GC in third year.

Summer invited me and a few other freshers to her 21^st in Mt Eliza which was a really exciting invitation for a first year to get from a third year. We just got along really well, she’s such a great person in so many ways.

Cam and Summer were great mates and spent a lot of time together. Cam was the year between Summer and I and he was also Male Sports Rep when he was on GC. An interest in sport, but particularly tennis, brought the three of us together. It was a succession, Summer was third year, Cam second year when I was a first year. It was quite unusual.

I’ve always loved Summer’s feistiness. She’s a mean competitor and that continues to this day, running a very good marathon time only earlier this year. She started out as a secondary school teacher and now works for the Victoria Police as a strategic advisor in road policing, supporting the Assistant Commissioner, so is used to running big teams in organisations. Summer is a true leader, an action-oriented person who is always on the go.

The environment was always important to Cam. His first job was in sustainability at Close the Loop in Melbourne, then he went on to work at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria working in environment technology investment. After that, he travelled to the UK and undertook his MBA at the London Business School and also worked at a large global tech sustainability consulting firm as an Associate Director. He always had lots of volunteering, mentoring roles for various start-ups and sustainability ventures, right up until he became very ill.

I wasn’t in touch with Summer for 15 years or so after College, then when Browny became sick with a grade four brain tumour – glioblastoma multiforme – we were brought back together, so something good came from his passing.

In 2001, when Cam was sports rep, we won the Cowan Cup for the first time in Queen’s history, which was a huge milestone for the College. We were reflecting on things when he was sick, and I said to him, ‘Where do you put winning the Cowan Cup in your ranking of highlights?’ And he said. ‘It was the best thing’. On top of his MBA, and having been a director at a very young age, for him to say this was the best thing he’d ever done, was an, ‘Oh wow,’ teary moment, very special. We took the Cowan Cup to Cam when he was in palliative care and sat it on his bed. It was a really nice moment.

Off the back of that, we had some conversations with him about how we could best honour his legacy. It developed into doing something around an environmental cause. It happened organically in those last few weeks to help deal with the grief and loss.

When we lost Cam, Summer coped through a lot of deep thinking and reflection about who Cam was, and what was important to him. We were all extremely sad but it was really important to remember him the right way.

Summer and I will always be tethered through our experience at Queen’s, and the things we did in 2017 and 2018 to launch the Cameron Brown Community Innovation Fund (CBCIF). We sought the support of many Wyverns, peers of Cam’s from Queen’s and the London Business School, the College, and friends and family to provide the money necessary to start the fund, with it all to be donated to College to manage the corpus. The fact we were able to achieve something really special in memory of Cam is what will bind us in the years ahead. When you spend time with Cam’s wife, Nikki Brown (nee Gunawardana) (Wyvern 1999), sister, Felicity, and his mum and dad, Carol and Tony, you see what it means to them as well. It was such a traumatic thing for the family to go through so it’s lovely to help in their grieving, and memories of Cam.

Reconnecting with Summer was so natural. Whether it’s her personal values or just being a great person, we picked up exactly where we left off last time. Even though a lot of water had gone under the bridge, our friendship is very comfortable, very familiar, it’s really nice.

Summer

I remember Hutch coming to a coffee party in my room. He was a funny guy, confident, comfortable in his own skin from the get-go, not arrogant just had that nice confident humility. I admired that as a third year because I don’t think that was me. He came from Wodonga and one of the things I loved about Queen’s was that a lot of people were from the country. There’s a salt-of-the-earth goodness you can detect about someone who grew up in the country and I remember that shining through in Hutch.

Hutch had a really nice group of outgoing friends, and in third year your year level friends don’t always stay on. The beauty of College is you are not thinking of the level you are in or the age you are, because you are tied together by the moment in time, and what you are getting up to.

I clearly remember his antics at the inter-floor volleyball competition, and his voluminous red hair. We used to call him Ronald and he embraced it. It was all innocuous, good, clean, harmless fun. There was always sledging involved. That’s Tom to a tee. He has that glint in his eye, cheeky smile. He brings good humour to everything, he makes people laugh. It’s absolutely one of his qualities that I like. He’s one of those people who lift the energy in the room.

When it comes to challenges, Tom doesn’t let much get in his way. He tackles it with gusto, always with a glass half full approach. Challenge equals opportunity. He’ll take a breath, won’t have a solution straight away but he’s always thinking, you can see there’s something ticking away in his brain. He has a great memory and attention to detail. As founder and managing director of TWH Advisory, offering search and recruitment advice to businesses, he’s a good communicator, can share his ideas clearly and bring people along, he’s someone people want to be around and follow.

We definitely have a three in this ‘The ties that bind’, with one missing. Hutch, Cam and I bonded over tennis early in 2000. Sport was a great connector for us. When Cam brought home the Cowan Cup, Hutch was right behind him, with the rest of the College, in every facet, doing anything he could to support Cam. Another common denominator for the three of us was we were all happy to sit around and shoot the breeze, have a good laugh.

I knew Cam very well, he was one of my best mates. He was very humble. Values, and making a difference in the world, mattered to him. He was thinking about environmental problems well before any of us and always about small differences he could make.  He was always thinking about others too.

It made a huge difference to Cam, knowing the CBCIF was being put into place. It was never about being forgotten, he always wanted to make a mark on the world, to make the world better. It gave him a lot of comfort to think there was a marker at College. That was a really pivotal time in his life, where he met his wife Nikki, and made many lifelong friends. It gave him a lot. We talked about College a great deal in his last few weeks, maybe that was where his key memories were. It gave him a real sense of comfort.

I love talking about Cam, and being able to tell the Queen’s students about him. It feels like you are doing him a service and making sure his life really mattered, which it did. You ask anyone who knew him, his life really mattered. It feels super important and helpful to still be able to do that.

In a terribly sad way, Cam’s passing brought Hutch back into my life. I hadn’t seen him for quite some time, it’s really sad but lovely, and I’m sure Cam would have loved that. It brought Tom and I comfort too, for sure. Through our grief, Tom and I were good for one another, really helpful.

I wish I’d spent more time with Hutch over the last two decades. I am picturing fewer gaps in our catch ups in the future. Seeing him reminds me how important long friendships are, and that it’s ok to have gaps of time in between them. When you develop those really strong foundations it’s pretty easy to come back, find that common ground again and enjoy each other’s company or support each other. He’s taught me that it’s really important to stick at things, carve off time, to do the important things that matter for other people, even in a busy world.

As the years go, the CBCIF will need to be tweaked and changed. Tom is not scared of change and I see our partnership continuing to support Cam’s family. We need to keep Cam, and the things he stood for, alive by inspiring more people to be like Cam. That’s the biggest legacy we want to leave behind. If there were more Cam’s in the world, that would be great.

Established as an active way to honour Cam Brown who passed away in 2016, aged 35, the Cameron Brown Community Innovation Fund encourages Queen’s College students to engage in innovative, community-based projects that represent Cam’s personal passions, drive and integrity.

To contribute, please visit https://queens.unimelb.edu.au/giving/donate

Cam receiving the Cowan Cup in 2001.