Peter Steele's path to something better

02 July 2012

Peter Steele SJ, 22/08/1939 – 27/06/2012

‘Things can only get better', was Peter’s characteristically self-deprecating response to the list of publications, qualifications, accolades and many achievements rehearsed as he rose to receive an Honorary Doctorate from the Australian Catholic University last year.

His half chuckle, and by then somewhat hoarse and high-pitched, response summed him up – at least for himself and those who knew him.

A man of grand and gracious gesture, it was always for others.

For himself, the manner was ordinary and the presence bordering on the shy. even if the prose could be prolix.

Those verbal explosions came from an abundant inner life that was complex, at times moody, yet always affirmative. But such effusions came after long consideration and what he used to call ‘brooding’.

This is captured in his portrait at Newman College (pictured). There he is in an ill-fitting doctoral gown, almost unaware of wearing it as it slides off his shoulders.

On his lap are books on which his hands rest loosely. The look on his face is part bewilderment, part surprise, completely vulnerable and not a little sad. He seems to be saying, 'Mate, has it come to this?'

Peter’s adult life, his professional career and the character of his vocation are all indelibly marked with Melbourne University. Proud to say he was a boy from the bush, he crossed the Nullarbor in 1957 to see what it might be like on the other side. Adventure, travel and discovery were the hallmarks of his life for the next 55 years.

But it was at Melbourne University that he most expansively found out what life was like on the other side, going there in 1962. And there he met his lifelong mentor, though he presided at his funeral in 1988: Vincent Buckley. It was Vin who licensed his muse, fostered his talent and shaped some of the enduring features of his imagination.

Vin’s life and work, despite his melancholy, were about ‘the honeycomb’, the sweeter things, their depth and perseverance at the heart of our living. For a good deal of Vin’s middle life, that focus centred on the Incarnation.

Peter shared that passion lifelong, though he added to it. He shared with Vin an unusual sensitivity to how that deeper sweetness could be brutalised. To survive the glare of that sight, Peter took comfort in the relentless commitment to irony, which was the subject of his doctoral thesis on Jonathan Swift.

However sunny

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Peter Steele's path to something better

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