I have known Bro. Brian Thomas for 28 years in a number of capacities. We met at the Australian National Boomerang Championships in Canberra in 1974, so I first saw him as a boomerang thrower, organiser and competitor in a little-known sport. His achievements in this field are legendary, but for those who donít know, here is a summary.

Very few people get to break national records in their chosen sport. Brian did this, not once, but six times. His new record for an event called the Aussie Round, in 1983, also broke the world record for that event, with a score of 90 out of 100, a score that was unbeaten for over a decade. He won first place in championship events over 100 times in his 27 years of competing. And if records had been kept for the Veterans Division (over 50 years of age), Brian would have been the record holder in all five of the most popular events. His Accuracy score of 42 out of 50, in 1984, made it into the Guinness Book of Records.

He was the Don Bradman of Boomerangs, and not just in the competition scores he achieved. He was born on Don Bradman's birthday, 27th August, and, like Sir Donald, he was admired and respected by all for his character & for the man, not just the sportsman. He loved cricket and developed his hand/eye co-ordination skills in his early years by playing cricket with Keith Stackpole, legendary spin bowler and opening batsman for Australia. He was secretary of the Mersey Valley Cricket Asssociation in Tasmania, and played competition cricket for 10 years (1966-1976), once making 183 in one innings, including 16 sixes and 13 fours. He also played competition handball, tennis and squash; and I never could beat him at table tennis, even after he turned 60.

But boomerang-throwing was his favourite sport. In 1979 he helped get boomerang throwing officially recognised as a sport by the Australian Govt. In 1981 he was the Captain and Coach of the Australian team in the first international Boomerang Test Series, Australia v. U.S.A. In 1983 he was invited by Japanese businessmen to go to Yokkaichi where he gave boomerang demonstrations to businesses and school children. He also threw boomerangs at the Australian Embassy in Japan; in Emmaus; in Rome (in St Peter's Square!); in Bethlehem; in the amphitheatre at Pompeii; in East Berlin while it was under communist control (even landing a light one on the back of an East German guard at Checkpoint Charlie!); in Brussels; in the Vienna Woods; Mainz; Kiel; Sussex; Blarney Castle; Waterford) the home of Christian Brothers' Founder, Edmund Rice); on the island of Rhodes; from a hot air balloon over Tuross (bringing it back for a catch in the balloon basket!); off The Gap at Watson's Bay and from the Three Sisters at Katoomba; and in many other places in the U.S.A. and around Australia. He even presented a boomerang to the Pope! He was, he still is, the Boomerang Brother.

I knew Brian as a fellow teacher. We often talked about teaching, especially ways of keeping boys focused on their work. Not that that was a problem to Brian: he had them learning math by playing crib, and mah jong, and he got the non-sporty kids outdoors by getting them into boomerang throwing. He always thought of those excluded by disability. He helped produce a boomerang for blind children, that made a beeping sound when flying and even when it lay on the ground, so they could find it and enjoy the sport as much as sighted children. He used boomerangs as modern-day parables to teach children lessons about life: there are different types of boomerangs for different jobs, and we are all different because God has different jobs for us to do; you canít judge a boomerang by its looks, because the prettiest ones usually don't work but the rough ones often do; and so on.

I knew Brian as a man of integrity, a peacemaker who could calm warring factions and bring about consensus between individuals and groups. I knew him as a follower of his order's founder, Edmund Rice, always thinking of the poor. Few people would know that he sold many valuable boomerangs overseas to get money for missions in poorer countries where Christian Brothers, Caritas or other relief agencies were operating. Most recently he parted with some of his most prized boomerangs to raise money to send to East Timor and Mozambique.

He was a prolific letter-writer, sometimes writing over 300 letters a year, often to people he had never met, often to people he had met only once at a boomerang event. Recently, he showed me a letter from someone he had met just once at a boomerang contest overseas but with whom he spent a lot of time talking between events. This man had now written to Brian, some months later, saying that at the time of the contest he had been severely depressed with little to live for, but that Brian had given him a much more positive hope for the future and he was now able to get on with his life. He was writing to thank Brian for making a difference.

I knew Brian as a man of unique humour, someone who could see a lighter side to serious situations. When we were watching the news and seeing Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, Brian said, "No, no! Give them boomerangs to throw, not rocks". Even when he was on medication for his brain tumour, he joked that he would not compete in a boomerang contest in case he won and got charged with being drug-assisted! In the hospital he did not like the food. I asked him if he wanted me to smuggle in a chocolate. "No!, he replied, but a cake with a file in it would help".

 I knew Brian as a friend. There was nothing he wouldn't do for someone; and over the years he confided that the image of Christ that he most wanted to emulate was that of a servant, a life of dedication to the well-being of others. What he wanted most was a more equitable world, where the rich weren't so rich and the poor weren't so poor. "It won't happen in our lifetime," I once said to him. "It didn't happen in Jesus' lifetime either," he said, "but that didn't stop him from making a radical difference everywhere he went".

 Today, I thank God that I have had the pleasure of knowing Brian for 28 years. I thank God that the suffering he had from his brain tumour was mercifully short. Though I will miss him, I do not mourn his death today; rather, I thank God for a life that brought so much joy to so many people in so many different ways. A life that left this world a better place because Brian Thomas was here.

Tony Butz, 26th April, 2002