Joe Zahra writes:

I have known Joe Cauchi since the day he was posted with the academic staff at Mrieħel Technical School in 1958.

Joe loved teaching, and when his school was transferred to the Technical Institute, Naxxar, a room was allocated for his exclusive use as a classroom and he proceeded to adorn it profusely with teaching aids and demonstration material.

He used to take his classes fully armed with meticulously prepared lessons and schemes of work. He was a disciplined teacher and would stand no nonsense. Yet his attitude in the classroom was not without a humorous touch, which he had the knack for at the point when the pressure of work threatened to overwhelm his students.

Joe was a born teacher and developed his skills to perfection when he went on a teacher training course at Garnett Training College in London. He took classes for motor vehicle technology and for the theory and science related to motor vehicles. Even at a rather advanced age, he kept himself abreast of the technology of digital electronics, which have been increasingly in use in motor vehicles for the past 25 years.

Along with other colleagues at his school, he prepared students to sit for examinations set by the City & Guilds London Institute and they regularly achieved high passes which were indeed a credit to Joe.

Many young people in possession of City & Guilds certificates in motor vehicle engineering privately owe it to Joe’s hard work and enthusiasm.

He was an honest and pleasant colleague in the teaching profession and for many years we sat together on trade testing boards set up by the Employment and Training Corporation for apprentices on completion of their training schemes. It was indeed a pleasure to work with him.

Joe was a great family man and was blessed with a long married life. To Annie his wife, son, daughters and their families, I can only extend my deepest condolences. Indeed, they would all miss him surely and so would many colleagues and past students.

Thank you Joe and so long.