Knighted 6 Mar 1672. dsp
Full Text:
Byline: DAVID WILLINGTON ObituaryCharles Tullis Shiffner, teacher, historian
Born: 2 February, 1944 Died: 5 July, 2001, aged 57
ALL who knew him will be saddened to learn of the death of Charlie Shiffner after a short illness. He was well-known in independent school circles in Scotland, both as a historian and games referee.
Charlie Shiffner came from a naval family in Leslie, Fife. His father was a captain, and his brother an admiral. He was educated at Craigflower School, Sedburgh, and the University of St Andrews. After a year of research, and travel in the Middle East, he took up a post in the History Department of Glenalmond College in 1969, for a year - and remained there until his death 32 years later. In due course he became Head of History and Housemaster of Patchell's. He retired from the House in 1999, but continued to play a full part in school life until shortly before his death.
This recital of the facts of his life will convey little impression of the great impact Charlie made upon succeeding generations of Glenalmonds - pupils, colleagues and parents alike. With his death, the college has lost a great usher (his own word).
He was a man of wide interests, an expert fisherman, ornithologist, sailor and hill-walker. In his youth he had been an accomplished shot. For years he led the school's Munro Club, and the writer remembers many happy days, in fair weather and foul, along the ridges of Torridon and elsewhere in the Highlands.
On one occasion, his superb mountain navigation, and the survival instincts of his spaniel, Sam, rescued us from a white-out on Ben More Assynt.
He was a very experienced coach and referee of games, and a season with him was a sharp learning curve for pupils and staff alike. For some years he ran the 1st XI cricket team; he coached rugby throughout the school; he played squash until his wife threw away his racket, and took part in cross-country running until his last term. Because he was averse to donning CCF uniform, he was put in charge of the college Fire Service, which may have enhanced the safety of the college, but also provided great scope for his impish sense of humour.
He taught History at all levels, and English and Latin. To everything, he brought his considerable scholarship, and the fruit is a succession of Oxbridge candidates who passed through his hands.
Charlie was not a tidy man. His bachelor rooms in college were littered with ice-axes, tents, books, scripts of essays, and old shirts. His classroom was in a similar state of confusion. To the end, he abhorred the word-processor, and wrote everything in his own spidery hand. But he was thoughtful and meticulous in everything, whether leading a hill-walking expedition, preparing his teaching, correcting or running the house.
In Patchell's, he and Ros, his wife, were a formidable team. They were devoted to the house, which they ran as an extension of their own family. The many successes of Patchell's and Patchellians are a testament to their efforts.
He had a great rapport with the parents, who much appreciated the wisdom and care with which he treated their sons. He knew how boys think and how to motivate them, and took infinite pains with his problem pupils. No-one put in longer hours than he did; he was the last to go to bed (thereby forestalling any boys who wanted midnight adventures), and the first to rise, walking his dogs before dawn.
Though never a conformist, he was wise in the ways of the school and there flowed from him shrewd comments and ideas. When he was president of the Senior Common Room, he sat in on council meetings as the staff representative.
Charlie talked well; he was allusive and humorous. He and Ros sparked off each other and spoke their own private language. Their home, whether at Glenalmond or his beloved Kishorn, was always welcoming, and full of warmth and laughter. If he talked of himself, it was in understatement, and he much preferred to hear from other people about themselves.
He had an inner self-confidence, supported by a firm Christian faith, and he bore the progress of his cancer with great, and typical, fortitude. There was nothing mean about him: he was generous in spirit, generous with his time, generous in his hospitality. To everything he did, he brought his own, inimitable style.
Our sympathies go to his wife, Rosamund, their daughters Katherine and Elizabeth, and son Robin.
Title:Charles Shiffner
Source:The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland). (July 13, 2001): News: p16.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2001 Johnston Publishing Ltd.
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/