The Spaghetti Chronicles
A tribute to Paul Kennett Osborn (22 Nov 1951 – 20 Dec 2020)
PBHS Museum Curator March 2018 – December 2020
Losing a family friend of forty five years is a seriously sad affair, it takes chunks out of one’s being, wreaks havoc with pleasant and familiar routine and leaves in its wake a considerable void. Fortunately, reflecting on a longstanding and rewarding friendship revives a host of very fond memories – thank goodness for that.
Paul was intimately involved with the School on three distinct occasions. Firstly as a pupil, matriculating in 1969, then as surrogate to a weekly boarder at Rissik House in the eighties for parents stationed overseas and, until his passing in December 2020, as curator of the PBHS museum for nearly three years. Apart from this he was involved in Forty and Fifty-Year-On class reunions and promoted the School on every possible occasion. He often attended Old Boys Dinners, Remembrance Day Assemblies and National Highland Gatherings held at PBHS, all of which he looked forward to with great fondness, pride and appreciation.
Having studied at UCT, Paul became a senior auditor at what is now KPMG, he joined the Junior Rotary Club, but being something of a polymath and avid reader of history, politics, business and trends in science & technology, he inevitably became restless. He entered politics by joining what is now the Democratic Alliance (formally PP/PFP) and was a local government candidate for Sunnyside in 1984. The Election Steering Committee, of which he was a member, managed to urge retired PBHS headmaster, Mr Desmond Abernethy to stand as a candidate in the Transvaal Provincial Council election. Unfortunately, neither candidate was successful, which was the norm in those days.
Never shy to start up a company and explore new possibilities, Paul became involved in a number of businesses including real estate, property development, TV production, media project management, and new and emerging electronic media as it related to sport TV, tourism and the SA Weather Service. Due to failing health, he steadily downscaled to consulting on media projects, technical tenders and business-related matters and was elated to be appointed in 2018 to the three-days-per week position of School museum curator.
My friendship with this mild mannered, shy but strongly independent gentleman, mobile encyclopaedia and fine conversationalist, started in the seventies when we discovered we had both attended an extraordinarily fine school. Some twenty years ago, after we were both well and truly settled back in Pretoria, I mentioned to him, that I was considering entering the electronic age and had ordered a personal computer. Oz, as he became known, ever at the forefront of media and computer technology, came around one Thursday evening, showed me how to turn it on and we immediately digressed into a lengthy discussion on local, national and international affairs and if memory serves, also items such as Y2K, the Hansie Cronje saga and a new, “thing” called Google.
Clearly, what was needed, was a bit more tuition and plenty more discussion so we decided to follow up a week later after which it became a permanent, two-decade-plus event. To avoid family disruption, this confirmed bachelor and I agreed to do a regular Thursday, “pasta”, dinner – an event that became known as the Spaghetti Chronicles. Over time, we covered a myriad of items of interest including pressing problems such as primary, secondary school, and university projects with the kids (now adults!), plotting for victories in school potjiekos competitions and many more serious ventures such as organising the participation in trade exhibitions in Beijing and New York.
In recent times, discussion included Brexit, Capexit, the US election, climate change and every aspect of the Elon Musk phenomenon. All the while, many a fine, and not so fine, wine was sampled whilst steadily and unnoticeably in the background, together with the family, we developed the world’s finest Spaghetti alla Carbonara formula. Covid slowed down the weekly meetings, now they have stopped.
The Spaghetti Chronicles is dead, long live the recollections of the Spaghetti Chronicles.
Owen Frisby (1966)