Old Collegians Association
Hall of Fame Citation 2019
Father Tom Sheeran (Class of 1952)
Hector Thomas (Tom) Sheeran was born 13 April 1935 in Elsternwick, Victoria. He attended school at Sacred Heart School Sandringham and St Bede’s College Mentone, graduating in 1952. From 1955 to 1960, Tom attended Corpus Christi Werribee in Victoria. In 1962, he attended Pius XII Provincial Seminary Banyo in Queensland. Fr Tom was ordained to the priesthood in St Patrick’s Cathedral Melbourne on 29 June 1964 by Archbishop Justin Simonds. Fr Tom was parish priest of St Mary’s in Warwick from 1992-2004appointed to the Cathedral, Cunnamulla, Warwick, Mitchell, Administrator at the Cathedral and back to Warwick. He also held many different Diocesan Offices at that time from Vocations and Youth to Dean of Warwick. Fr Tom was a man of many talents. He spent much time in Western Australia where he established boxing and gym facilities that attracted many indigenous youth some who progressed to International standards representing Australia. Father Tom was a renowned boxing coach, even reaching an international level of skill as a referee. He was chosen to be a boxing referee for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. Fr Tom was also equally well known for his vintage car collection and appreciation for antiques. His hobby of rebuilding and restoring vintage cars was a source of great enjoyment for him. He also had a flair for the artistic, enjoying acting, painting, sketching and cartooning.
We are proud to acknowledge Father Tom Sheeran as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 1 | 6
Anthony Vuat (Class of 1966)
Tony was a very accomplished athlete during his time at St Bede’s. He “burst on the scene” of the school boys athletics squad in 1961 and began winning race after race in record times. But his 100 yards in 9.8 seconds in 1965 and the ACC Combined sports carnival was his best ever.
As his coach Br Josephus once said: “ there was something exciting about Tony’s sprinting. He would explode out of the blocks with the pistol shot and the race would then be a demonstration of his piston-like leg action driving him to the tape. He seldom gave opponents a chance and the St Bede’s cheer squad would go wild.” After leaving St Bede’s Tony became disillusioned with Athletics and instead focused on his career. He started out in television in 1969 as a stagehand with the ABC, giving him a general knowledge of the everyday workings of a tv studio and being apprenticed to some of Australia’s foremost Producers and Directors. Tony was a founder member of the COUNTDOWN Team with Molly Meldrum as its host and produced and directed many of the music shows during the 70’s and 80’s. After these success, and on the back of his success on the Athletics track as a school boy, Tony was invited to join the ABC TV Sports Department. He produced and directed VFL, football, motor racing, tennis, swimming, golf, basketball and gymnastics and in 1982 was the producer/director for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games. After 17 years with the ABC Tony resigned to take on the challenge of Freelance producing and directing. During this time he produced many shows for network TV including the Bert Newton Show, Tonight live with Steve Vizard, Take 40 TV and many more
We are proud to acknowledge Tony Vuat as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 2 | 6
Anthony Dalton (Class of 1979)
After graduating from St Bede’s College in 1979, Tony joined the Navy in 1980 as a direct entry aviator, completing his pilot training in 1981.
Over the next 17 years he amassed over 5500 flying hours in Iroquois, Sea King, Gazelle and Seahawk helicopters making him one of the most experienced serving naval aviators.
He flew on four Australian Naval Air Squadrons and spent time on exchange as an instructor pilot with the Royal Navy’s 705 Squadron. He commanded 805 Squadron in 2000-01 and the Fleet Air Arm in 2008-09. He has held various staff appointments in Navy Training Command, Navy Systems Command, Fleet Headquarters and the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO).
Tony is a graduate of the US Naval War College, class of 2003. Dalton was promoted to Rear Admiral in 2012 to head the DMO's Helicopter Systems Division, responsible for the acquisition, sustainment and disposal of all the ADF's rotary-wing and tactical unmanned aerial system assets. He is currently the head of the Joint Systems Division.
Tony enjoyed a short retirement from the Navy in 2018 before taking up his current position of xxxx
We are proud to acknowledge Anthony Dalton as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 3 | 6
Dr Rolf Gnomes (1991)
Dr Rolf Gomes was born in Calcutta, India and came to Australia when he was 9. He started at St Bede’s in 1986 before graduating with his VCE in 1991. After graduating as an electrical engineer and working in that role for 2 years, Rolf left his job to pursue a career in medicine to “do something useful with his time while chatting to people”! Rolf became a qualified Cardiologist in 19xx. By combining the dictum of medicine to “prolong life and ease suffering” and the mantra of many engineers “to make it happen” the idea of the Heart Bus was born – bringing lifesaving medical care to outback Australia. As the son of Indian immigrants, Dr Gomes had a desire to give back to the Australian community in exchange for the chance to “grow up in this country and receive such a good education and all the opportunities I’ve had”. Since founding the Heart of Australia project in October 2014, Rolf and his team of specialists have seen almost 4,000 patients. In the first six months alone nine were referred for open-heart surgery. Earlier this year, Heart of Australia received Federal Government funding of $12million to support 2 Heart buses and assist to provide a third service. The mobile specialist’s clinics aim to deliver 930 clinic days a year, see up to 18,000 patients and service 25 communities each month across Queensland.
We are proud to acknowledge Dr Rolf Gomes as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 4 | 6
Dr Peter Hughes (Class of 1990)
Graduating from St Bede’s College in 1990, Peter began his medical degree at Monash University. Once qualified, he undertook his advanced training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Austin hospital. Peter was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council scholarship to perform a PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. He has been a consultant Nephrologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital since 2008 and has been the Physician in charge of renal transplantation since 2012. His research interests include transplanting across immunological barriers, thrombotic microangiopathy and complement mediated disease. In 2017 Peter was appointed as Director of the National Paired Kidney Exchange Program.
Associate Professor – Melbourne University Dr Hughes has many medical publications and is an Associate Professor at Melbourne University.
We are proud to acknowledge Dr Peter Hughes as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 5 | 6
Eugene Galekovic (Class of 1999)
After enjoying plenty of success on the soccer pitch during his time at St Bede’s Eugene started his career with the Morwell based National Soccer League side the Gippsland Falcons as a 19-year-old in December 2000 before signing with South Melbourne the following season.
He stayed with South Melbourne until the NSL's closure in 2003–04 when he secured a place on the list of Beira Mar in Portugal on the back of holding the number one spot for Australia's Olympic football campaign in Athens in 2004.
In 2005 Eugene returned to Melbourne to sign with the inaugural A-League side Melbourne Victory, debuting in the opening match against Sydney FC
He played 11 matches for the season in an unusual goalkeeper rotation policy.
In October 2007, Eugene signed for Adelaide United. In January the following year, Galekovic kept his first clean sheet for Adelaide in a 2–0 win over Brisbane. December 2008 saw Galekovic made a string of impressive saves to ensure Adelaide kept its 1–0 advantage over Perth Glory and in the process giving him his fifth clean sheet of the league season.
In February 2010, Galekovic capped off another brilliant year by winning the Adelaide United Player of the Year Award.
In the middle of the 2011–12 A-League Eugene Galekovic became captain of Adelaide United.
In 2016, Galekovic reached 250 appearances
In June 2017, he signed a 2 year deal with Melbourne City FC and in 2019 was their Team Player of the Year.
International Galekovic has been called up for Australia in a preliminary squad after his impressive performances in both the A-League and the Asian Champions League. He made his first senior international football debut for the Socceroos on 28 January 2009 in an AFC Asian Cup qualifying match versus Indonesia. Eugene was part of the 2010 World Cup 23 man squad. He was selected for a 2013 EAFF East Asian Cup qualifying tournament.
In total, Eugene played 12 games representing Australia as a Socceroo.
We are proud to acknowledge Eugene Galekovic as a member of the St Bede’s College Hall of Fame.
Page 6 | 6