-Caveat Lector- An interesting guy, Om K -----
George Bull OBE, FRSL Order of the Sacred Treasure August 23rd 1929 - April 6th 2001 George Bull OBE 1929 - 2001 William Keegan The Financial Times Apr 9, 2001 George Bull: biographer and Renaissance Man George Bull, director of the Anglo-Japanese Economic Institute since 1986, has died, aged 71. Bull, with Nigel Lawson and William Rees-Mogg, was one of the journalists recruited straight from Oxford by the Financial Times in the 1950s, when by-lines were few, who went on to make their names elsewhere. Educated at Wimbledon College and Brasenose - with national service in the Royal Fusiliers in between - Bull joined the FT as a reporter in 1952, becoming foreign editor in 1956. He is remembered as a forceful figure on the paper who certainly held his own with his more famous contemporaries. Above all, he was a driving force behind the internationalisation of the paper. The FT had been a kind of parish magazine for the City in the early 1950s and Bull was influential, for instance, in the appointment of the FT's first US correspondent, Robert Heller, in 1958. After a brief stint as news editor of the London bureau of McGraw-Hill World News in 1959-60, Bull joined The Director, where he was successively deputy editor, editor and editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1984. During his years as director of the Anglo-Japanese Economic Institute, he made a significant contribution to good relations between the two countries, and played his part in the popularity of Britain as a location for Japanese investment. While at the FT, Bull wrote, with Anthony Vice, Bid for Power, a book that gave a popular explanation of the corporate takeover battles of the time. But it is probably for his life-long devotion to Italy and the Renaissance, and his stream of highly acclaimed biographries - especially Michelangelo in 1995 - and translations of Italian classics, including Machiavelli's The Prince that he will be most remembered. This translation has sold more than a million copies. Bull was indeed something of a Renaissance man. He was a great conversationalist, and the diversity and versatility of his activities were phenomenal. He had a heart attack in 1997 and was fitted with a pacemaker just before last Christmas. But in addition to supervising a clutch of regular publications on Japan, Europe, central banking and intellectual thought - International Minds - at the time of his death he was working on a biography of Dante and a play, and also had plans for a novel. A bon viveur and great Garrick club figure, Bull collapsed in full conversational flow, with a glass of wine in his hand, at home in Pimlico, London, on Friday at the beginning of one of his own dinner parties. He leaves his devoted wife Dido, two sons, two daughters, seven grandchildren and a host of very good friends. He went out in style and a friend commented: "He will be past the pearly gates and engaging Michelangelo and Machiavelli in conversation within minutes - and they will no doubt be joined by Dante." ==== George Bull OBE 1929 - 2001 The Times Monday April 9 2001 George Bull Reconciliation between cultures When the Japanese Ambassador commended George Bull as a Renaissance man at the ceremony in 1999 to bestow upon him the Emperor's highest honour, the epithet was unusually appropriate. For, as well as being immersed in the Italian Renaissance (he was, for instance, honorary treasurer of the Society for Renaissance Studies for 21 years) Bull was fascinated by business, diplomacy and politics. Not many directors of the Insititute of Public Enterprise Studies achieve such literary eminence as to be made Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature, but Bull served on its council and was for six years its honorary treasurer. But, as well as being the translator of Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Vasari, he was involved in an extraordinary number of business and trading publications and organisations, particularly promoting relations with Japan. He had a wider circle of acquaintances than most, and always showed interest in other people's thoughts and activities. He could switch in a flash from the latest City scandal and today's political nuances to the inner meaning of international reconciliation. Born into an Irish Catholic family living in London, George Anthony Bull was educated at Wimbledon College and Brasenose College, Oxford and after his national service in the Royal Fusiliers he went to work on the Financial Times in 1952, first as a reporter, then on Foreign News. Meanwhile, he was working on the translation of the Life of Cellini which was published by Penguin Classics in 1956, inaugurating a long association with that series. After a short spell as News Editor in the London bureau of McGraw-Hill World News, he spent 24 years with The Director, rising from Deputy Editor to Editor and then Editor-in-Chief. From 1986 he was Director of the Anglo Japanese Economic Institute and from 1989 he was Editor of International Minds . Having become president of Central Banking Publications in 1990 he was publisher of insight Japan from 1992 onwards, the Euro Japanese Journal from 1994 and innovation and insight Europe from 1999. Other commitments were more European in focus. He was a member of the UK committee of the European Cultural Foundation from 1987, and vice-president of the British\Italian Society from 1995 onwards. Part of the Japanese side of his life too involved him in cultural affairs, and he had a long friendship with the Catholic novelist Shusuko Endo. A lifelong Roman Catholic himself, Bull took on many commitments connected with the Church. For three yea rs he chaired the International Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. He was a director for 17 years of The Tablet, and a trustee from 1976, and for 16 years he was also a trustee of The Universe. In addition he was a governor of three Catholic schools. But all this went hand in hand with a literary and scholarly career which might on its own have kept a less industrious man busy. His intersecting interests made him peculiarly well qualified to write on the complexities of Vatican Politics (1966) and he returned to the subject with Inside the Vatican (1982), which was translated into several other languages. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory in 1999. In the meantime he had published a study; The renaissance (1968, with a new edition in 1973), and Venice: the Most Triumphant City, which was published by the Folio Society in 1980 and later in the United States. Between these Italian books, he was also writing business and social studies, including The Director, his Money and his Job (1970) and, with Peter Hobday and John Hamway, Industrial Relations: The Boardroom Viewpoint (1972). His next work for Penguin Classics was Machiavelli's The Prince, first published in 1961 and still in print, which was followed by Vasari's Lives of the Artists (Volume 1, 1965 volume 2, 1987) and Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier in 1967. Also for Penguin he compiled a selection of Aretino's letters (1976). For other publishers he translated Artists of the renaissance, The Life, Letters and Poetry of Michelangelo (with Peter Porter, 1987), and The Travels of Pietro della Valle (1989). Michelangelo: A Biography, his latest book, was well-received when it appeared in 1995, and at the time of his death he was well advanced with a biography of Dante. He lectured, broadcast and wrote articles and reviews on a wide range of subjects, among them the restoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, on which he became an expert, and was active in public events of all sorts. Last year, for example, on the 500th anniversary of the birth of Cellini, he organised a commemoration day at Goldsmith's Hall, with six lectures, one of which he gave himself. His work naturally involved a great deal of travel and the amassing of a fine library. He was also an active member of three London clubs, the Garrick, the Savile and the Beefsteak. He was appointed OBE in 1990. George Bull married Doreen Griffin in 1957, she survives him with their two sons and two daughters. George Bull OBE 1929 - 2001 Geoffrey Goodman CBE, The Guardian, Monday April 9 2001 A combination of expertise on Machiavelli, Michelangelo, the Renaissance, Japanese history and contemporary political life, and on Rome is not a commonplace feature among journalists even of the old school of scholarly craftsmen in our trade: yet all that was part of the near-unique range of polymathic qualities of George Bull, OBE, who has died aged 71. The word 'remarkable' has come to be used freely in obituaries, perhaps almost a cliché. In George Bull's case it is more than justified. He was an example of the exceptional journalist – never satisfied with the search for information and explanation in any one subject, constantly reaching out for fields as yet unconquered by his restless, inquiring mind; no doubt spreading his talents far too widely as he was forever irresistibly drawn in search of the Holy Grail. No doubt because of his Catholic upbringing he was early on attracted to Italian culture and art and developed a love of Renaissance Italy. He translated for Penguin books Vasari, Cellini, Castiglione, Aretino and Machiavelli. His book The Prince is a classic of its kind and remains in print having sold over a million copies. His biography of Michelangelo, first published in 1995, is a notable contribution to the volumes written about that extraordinary genius of the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet throughout all this he remained the working journalist, brilliant interviewer, excellent reporter and a distinctive editor. George Bull was born of working class parents in the East End of London and was very young when his father died. His mother, Bridget, came from an Irish immigrant family and was the principal support for the family. They were devout Catholics and George was educated by the Society of Jesus, and institution for which he retained a life-long regard since it was the Society that took him to Wimbledon College and from there to Brasenose College, Oxford. Even at Wimbledon he was already showing signs of the budding journalist when he started and edited a school magazine called The Distributist inspired by George's devotion to the ideas and writings of G K Chesterton. After Oxford he was recruited to the Financial Times by that paper's great talent-spotting editor Sir Gordon Newton – first as a reporter and then, in succession, Foreign News Editor between 1956 and 1959. He then switched to the London Bureau of McGraw-Hill World News as News Editor until 1960 when he joined The Director which under his and Eric Foster's control effectively became the British equivalent of Fortune Magazine albeit without the marketing thrust of its American counterpart. George Bull was successively Editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Director from 1960 till 1984. Two years after leaving The Director George took on a job with a completely different perspective – Director of the Anglo Japanese Economic Institute, an organisation whose title conceals more than it reveals since it is one of the principal Anglo-Japanese bodies in the UK, linking Tokyo with the widest range of British political, industrial and cultural activities. And, as the organiser-in-chief of this rather special, if largely unpublicised, institution George Bull became a kind of de facto Anglo-Japanese Ambassador at large in London. For which, in 1999, he was awarded by the Emperor of Japan the highly prestigious Order of the Sacred Treasure (Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon) of Japan. Just to add a typical element of Bull ecumenicalism to all this he was also awarded, in the same year, the Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory. There were no boundaries to George Bull's activities: he launched and ran a series of monthly and quarterly journals dealing with Japanese affairs: an independent journal on Central Banking and another journal to analyse the psychological aspects of international conflict, International Minds. He was a Director and Trustee of The Tablet and The Universe; Governor of Westminster Choir School and St Thomas More School and of St. Mary's College, Strawberry Hill 1976-87. Member of the UK Committee, European Cultural Foundation since 1987 and co-founder and Director of the Institute for Public Enterprise Studies started in 1996. He was appointed OBE in 1990. And, even as he struggled with uneasy health his astonishing energies were never at rest: he was in the process of writing a new study of Dante when he was struck down with heart failure. Like all his work it would have contained that essential essence of George – dedication, intellectual candour, enormous spiritual resource and a wonderful gentle humanity. George Bull leaves a widow, Doreen 'Dido' Bull, two sons and two daughers. George Bull, OBE; journalist, writer, translator, consultant; born London, August 23, 1929 – died London, April 6 2001. ===== http://www.saintjohnsabbey.org/lawrence/invitation2.html Awards, Orders and Decorations The Decorations of Japan There are five kinds of official decorations in Japan 1) The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum is the highest degree of honor. It is conferred only on the Imperial family, and, rarely, on heads of state such as President Dwight David Eisenhower. 2)The Order of the Rising Sun is bestowed on men. It was originally instituted as The Order of Merit on April 10, 1875, by Emperor Meiji as an award only to males for exceptional merit, civil or military. The Order comes in eight classes. "The badge consists of a multi-rayed white enamel star with a gold-rimmed, polished garnet in center. The badge is suspended from three green paulownia leaves and flowers. The ribbon is ivory moire edged with red. In the seventh class the Decoration consists of the green paulownia flowers alone. Eighth grade, silver paulownia flowers alone" (R. Werlich, Orders and Decorations of All Nations, 1965, 196). 3) The Order of the Precious Crown is for women. 4) The Order of the Sacred Treasure is awarded to both men and women. 5) The Order of Culture is given to those in the sciences and the arts. The first foreign recipients were the three astronauts of the U.S. Apollo space rocket in 1969. History The Order of the Rising Sun was established in 1875 and the Order of the Sacred Treasure in 1888. After the Second World War the giving of decorations, except for culture, was interrupted for eight years. The practice resumed in 1953. Bestowing honors on foreigners became a custom in 1981. These are conferred on April 29 and November 3 each year. They are awarded to foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to promote foreign relations with Japan. Between 1981 and 1988, 715 foreigners received decorations. "The Prime Minister's office, in surveying, researching and planning for the awards system, is responsible for administrative aspects of the judging and the conferring of awards in general" (Japan. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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