Ex-tennis champion gets PhD in economics at age 82

Once a national tennis champion, later head of department and then chairman of the Board of Special Commissioners of Income Tax, Edward J. Spiteri, who will be 83 next February, yesterday graduated PhD in economics.

There was only one factor dulling his accomplishment - the absence of his wife Josephine, who passed away two years ago only two days after their 55th wedding anniversary.

"I can't rejoice without her. She would have been with me if she were here. I wanted to drop everything when she died but I was encouraged to continue working on my thesis and present it," Dr Spiteri said, brushing a tear from his eye.

A father of three sons and a daughter, Dr Spiteri said that only his faith in God kept him going.

Dr Spiteri, who attended the Sliema Primary School and later St Albert's Central School, that was purposely set up to train teachers, was probably one of the oldest graduates, if not the oldest, to ever graduate from Malta's university, where he also used to lecture in the late 1960s.

"Some of my lecturers were my students when I used to lecture pure and applied economics," he said.

At 17, Dr Spiteri was employed as a teacher - the last teacher to be employed before the war started. But he was conscripted a year later.

He returned to teaching in 1943 but then decided to sit the civil service examination in order to join the executive and administrative class of the service. This, he recalled, was the most difficult examination he had ever sat for.

It consisted of 12 papers and for one to pass one had to obtain a minimum of 60 marks in each and an average of 65 or more overall. Moreover, passing the examination was no guarantee that one would make it to the civil service.

Dr Spiteri joined the civil service in 1947.

Being the sportsman he is, he celebrated his result by going to watch a football game. He got talking to a man who told him he was studying to become an architect because he had failed the civil service examination.

"People used to go to the university to study for some other profession if they failed the civil service examination," he said After some years in the service, Dr Spiteri asked to be sent to further his studies in economics.

He studied for "A" level in economics, teaching himself for six months.

When he passed his examination he proceeded to Hull University in the UK as a Commonwealth scholar. He obtained a BSc (Hons) in economics in 1966 after a three-year course.

When he was awarded his scholarship he was already married with four children and his family joined him in Hull where, luckily, they found a house close to university.

Back in Malta, he rejoined the civil service and lectured part-time at the university (both the old and the current one) for three to four years and at the College of Arts, Science and Technology.

He retired from the civil service for health reasons in 1977 when he was 55. He was then head of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department.

In 1987 he was asked to return to the service to sit on the Board of Special Commissioners of Income Tax. This board heard and decided income tax cases. He was chairman of the board until he left in 2000.

Dr Spiteri said that on retiring in 1977, he started studying for and obtained a diploma in sacred theology and then a degree in religious studies. He read for a BA in history and tutor Henry Frendo encouraged him to continue studying for his Master's, which he did.

Asked about his relationship with younger students during his studies, Dr Spiteri said that whenever he returned to university he returned to boyhood. Even his aches and pains disappeared.

His plans for the future are to pass on his knowledge to others - he would like to return to lecturing, preferably teaching economics to students preparing to become priests. He would also like to publish his third book based on his PhD thesis.

Dr Spiteri has already published Malta An Island In Transition 1954-1974 and Malta From Colonial Dependency to Economic Viability 1800-2000, both dealing with Malta's economic history.

He wants his third book to be a macro economic analysis of the Maltese economy between 1959 and 1988.

An Island In Transition is a descriptive and analytical account of the events it narrates. It is based on a deep insight into the official statistical data published since 1954 and various works and reports by established writers.

In his second book, Dr Spiteri analyses the economic performance of the development plans published under the different administrations based on vast historical evidence and extensive data.

But it has not been all study and no play for Dr Spiteri who in the 1950s was Malta's tennis champion. He holds 76 cups to his name and has his name carved on every Challenge Cup.

He is also a football enthusiast and played twice in the first division with Melita.

"I missed out on a career in football because of the war," he mused.