05 April 2009

Farewell to IPC Dean of Foundation Program Marian Hilder and to Ken Cunningham

Finishing after 19 Years of Dedication to IPC

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

Marian Hilder accepting a gift from IPC, presented by Hiro Tsumakura (IPC Senior Student Support Advisor)

Marian expressing her thanks to all the staff

Ken Cunningham remembering his first year at IPC

Marian Hilder has been a staff member at IPC for a long time. She started working in 1990, the year IPC was established. First as an English lecturer, and later as a Dean of the Foundation Program, Marian played an important part in the planning of the IPC Foundation education program. She has always taken a personal interest in every student, and shown kindness and given support, no matter if the student was in her class or not. However, in order to give more attention to her family, Marian finally decided to resign from IPC in March this year. An afternoon tea for staff members was held in the Senior Common Room to give an opportunity to say farewell to Marian.

A letter from the Chairman of the IPC Board, Mr Hiroshi Ohashi, read by IPC Senior Student Support Advisor, Hiro Tsumakura, stated that "Marian has the ability to build a good relationship with co-workers and students from all backgrounds. Her role in English language education at IPC is very valuable. Thank you for your dedication to IPC."

In her message to all the staff, Marian said, "I would like to thank each and every one of you for being such great colleagues and friends in my time at IPC. It has been a difficult decision to walk away from the place where I have worked for the last nineteen years, but this seemed to be the right time. I will leave with many good memories of a lot of good times but also those seemingly impossible challenges that we all managed to overcome by working together."

When asked what she would do after resigning, she answered "I want to keep learning and finding new things each day, just like now." Marian also wanted to spend more time with her family and keep up her hobbies of jogging and swimming.

On the same occasion, the staff also said farewell to Ken Cunningham who has held position of IPC President from 2008 till March 2009, but who, like Marian, has worked at IPC since its beginning, although he went away for a while. Ken remembered how different IPC was in the beginning and how he, together with Marian, welcomed the first intake of IPC students from Japan.

About his plans for the future, Ken commented that he would like to keep up his golf practice and enjoy time with his family.

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