As I recall, it was blinds down, lights out and projector on in the geography block.  The class was relatively small but the interest was immense.

If a teacher was to remain in my mind more than any other when I was at school, it would be Robert Orme.  Yes, I qualified as a chartered accountant and later qualified as a licenced insolvency practitioner but that was academic, literally. The true ‘teacher of impact’ was Mr Orme.  It is ironic that neither of us draw or paint but Mr Orme installed in me a passion for the arts and architecture.  That passion was born with Mr Orme but has stayed with me ever since.  As I walk down Oxford Street and look above the ground floor to see the wonders of British architecture, I am eternally grateful to Mr Orme for lighting the fuse of that passion.  As I look down on St Pauls from above and note the screen walls of the upper story built to conceal the flying buttresses, I am always reminded of my History of Art classes.  As I explain to friends about the anamorphic skull in the foreground of Holbein’s The Ambassadors, I don my cap to the great Mr Orme.

My world is a better place as a result of his infectious teaching and I salute him.  He is a true legend and both Latymer and I have been richly enhanced as a result of his contribution.

RIP