Ernst Raetz was present at the creation of university comms. He was around for so long at La Trobe that CMM assumed he was on holidays when he went quiet earlier this year. In fact he had quietly retired. The Raetzian paradox was that while rigorous in celebrating LT U he was an unassuming man.

Mr Raetz joined the university from the now gone Melbourne Herald 40 plus years back to publish the staff newsletter – which he produced on his own press. This was in the Mesozoic era of the media, when reptiles of the press received Raetz press releases in the mail – although he would send reporters breaking stories by taxi.

The pace may have changed but no one now recognises what makes a good yarn better than he did.