"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
The foregoing quotation is attributed to The First Lady of the United States (1933-1945) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962).
For Dilip & me, it serves aptly as our personal tribute to two great minds, Brother Joseph McNally & Bob Lewis when they met at the former Mountbatten Campus (at Goodman Road) of the Lasalle College of the Arts around the very late nineties or early 21st century to discuss one of Bob's pet projects, 'The Museum of the Brain'.
[In the foregoing group snapshot: Immediately on Dilip's right was Bob Lewis, followed by Brother Joseph McNally. The guy in a white vest is yours truly. On my immediate left was my late wife Catherine. The remaining guy was a senior staff member of LASALLE.]
The late Brother Joe (1923-2002) came to Singapore in 1946 as a teacher with the De La Salle Order of Brothers.
In 1984, he set up a small arts education center, with his own personal funds, at a time when Singapore was not ready at all for the creative arts industry.
As an educator & an artist for most of his life, he saw his baby as a place to nurture creative excellence in painting, ceramics, sculpture & music.
The arts education center eventually became today's LASALLE College of the Arts.
Today, LASALLE College of the Arts stands proudly at its swanky new city campus on McNally Street.
More information about the LASALLE College of the Arts &/or Brother Joe can be found at this link.
The late Bob Lewis (1921-2005) hailed from Aspen, Colorado in the United States. He was a hands-on nature-based science teacher, program designer, environmental education innovator, landscape ecologist, international consultant on biology curricula, idea man & dreamer, all rolled into one.
One of his pet projects which didn't take off was a museum about the human brain, actually shaped like a structure of the human brain, that would illustrate its inner workings. He called it 'The Museum of the Brain'.
Dilip has illustrated several pictorial aspects of 'The Museum of the Brain' in his wonderful book, 'Surfing the Intellect'.
More information about Bob Lewis can be found at these two links:
- Aspen Times;
- Aspen Field Biology Laboratory (Bob Lewis was its founder);
I first met the colourful Bob Lewis in the nineties. Dilip met him later through Brother Joe. Details of my initial encounter with him can be found at my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog.
Both Dilip & I had picked up some interesting & unique perspectives from these two gentlemen, especially in terms of creating a learning ecosystem (including learning safaris) as well as designing the proposed curriculum for the Brainaissance University, one of Dilip's newest pet projects.
Suffice to say, the foregoing group snapshot brings back sweet memories of our meeting with two great minds!
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