magazine - Somerville College - University of Oxford
magazine - Somerville College - University of Oxford
magazine - Somerville College - University of Oxford
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<strong>Somerville</strong> Magzine | 11<br />
Val Malone<br />
31 Years <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Somerville</strong> service<br />
Val Malone retired on 31 August 2009 after more<br />
than three decades <strong>of</strong> service to <strong>College</strong>. She<br />
always got on well with the students and Fellows<br />
and enjoyed getting to know them. Everyone at <strong>Somerville</strong><br />
wishes Val the very best for the future – and we thank her<br />
most warmly for her dedicated service over many years.<br />
However, Val is all the more special, as four generations<br />
<strong>of</strong> her family have worked for the <strong>College</strong>. Her mother<br />
Audrey was the fi rst member <strong>of</strong> the family to serve<br />
<strong>Somerville</strong> – as a scout in Vaughan. Audrey worked for<br />
the <strong>College</strong> for 21 years. Val’s father also worked part<br />
time in the lodge and kitchen for four years, but sadly<br />
died shortly after leaving.<br />
Next came Val herself. She started as a scout in Vaughan<br />
and worked there for approximately three years before<br />
leaving to have one <strong>of</strong> her children. When her son started<br />
school she came back to <strong>Somerville</strong> and worked in<br />
different buildings as a floating member <strong>of</strong> staff for 11<br />
months before getting a permanent position as a scout on<br />
the top floor <strong>of</strong> Penrose. Val was responsible for ten rooms<br />
and one tutor’s flat. When she first started in Penrose, she<br />
worked for Jean Banister for three years, then for medic<br />
John Walker, followed by Gráinne de Burca, a Law Fellow,<br />
who moved to Italy but always kept in touch with Val.<br />
Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Stephen Weatherill was the next occupant <strong>of</strong> the<br />
flat, followed by Frances Stewart for a couple <strong>of</strong> years.<br />
Moving on to the third generation, Val’s son Peter was<br />
the fi rst to join the <strong>College</strong>. He started in the pantry,<br />
then worked in the kitchen – and <strong>Somerville</strong> paid for<br />
him to train as a chef. He is currently a chef at New<br />
<strong>College</strong>. Peter’s sister Sarah and husband John Malone<br />
also worked in the pantry.<br />
Although Val’s eldest grandson David left to become<br />
a chef after working in the pantry for a couple <strong>of</strong> years,<br />
her grandson Martin Brain has been a kitchen porter<br />
at <strong>Somerville</strong> for four and a half years now. He thus<br />
represents the fourth generation <strong>of</strong> the Malone family<br />
in <strong>Somerville</strong>.<br />
Antoinette Finnegan, Annual Fund & Alumni Relations Officer<br />
A tribute from Gráinne de Burca (Law Fellow, 1989–98)<br />
I have very fond memories <strong>of</strong> Val from my time at <strong>Somerville</strong>. My <strong>of</strong>fi ce was in Penrose (next to a bedroom, where I<br />
also lived for a year from 1990 to 1991), and Val and I used to enjoy chatting each day when she came to clean the<br />
room. We became friends, and occasionally we went out for tea together. I particularly remember enjoying tea at the<br />
Old Parsonage, just across the road from <strong>Somerville</strong>. Val is a very kind and incredibly generous person – I used to<br />
worry that she was spending more on Christmas presents for me than she earned in a week! Her warm character and<br />
open personality won her good friends amongst the students too. I remember on one occasion that she went to Poland<br />
at the invitation <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the students to whom she had grown close. She has a great curiosity about the world, and I<br />
think that, had the circumstances <strong>of</strong> her life been different, she would have loved to travel more. We continued to write<br />
to one another and to exchange postcards for years after I left <strong>Somerville</strong> – she was one <strong>of</strong> my best correspondents!.