It began 70 years ago, when he arrived in Bathurst as a schoolboy.

“I came from Sydney, where I’d been to school at Marist Brothers Eastwood – I was the first boy enrolled there the year it opened in 1937, and I was there for six years,” he said.

“I had a cousin who was very close to me. He had lost his mother, so he came to Bathurst to boarding school. His father convinced my parents to send me off to boarding school too.”

Fr Jim was a student at the college from 1943-1945 and, notably, was its dux in 1945.

“I was interested in sport too,” he said. “I ended up breaking my arm pretty badly playing in the First XV [rugby team].

“I broke it in a final down at the Sportsground. You could hear the crack all over the ground.

“I played cricket too, and tennis.”

He recalled the three years he spent at the college, as war raged halfway around the world – and even closer to home.

“During the war, meals were not the greatest – you could count the grains of sugar on one hand as you got it,” he said.

“We used to have air-raid drills in Sydney, but by the time I came here, they’d stopped all that.

“I turned 17 a week before the war in the Pacific ended.”

From Stannies, Fr Jim enrolled in an arts degree at the University of Sydney.

“I was going to do law,” he said. “But I found the law cases I attended a bit boring.

“I only did one year of arts and then I entered the seminary at Eastwood, and spent seven years there. I was ordained a priest 60 years ago last Tuesday.”

In 1954, Fr Jim returned to Stannies.

“I liked teaching and I got to do my degree,” he said.

“Then I did an honours degree in Latin up in Armidale for a year; after that I taught at a seminary in Sydney while also doing Greek at Sydney University.”

Fr Jim was stationed in Adelaide from 1962-65, before rejoining the staff at Stannies. As well as teaching, he was heavily involved in coaching the First XV.

He was college president and headmaster from 1967-1973.

He then moved to the Southport parish in Queensland for three years, followed by another year at Stannies, and then seven years at Marsfield in Sydney.

In 1979, he spent a year in the United States studying applied theology. On his return to Australia, the Vincentian priest dedicated himself to the Marsfield and Ashfield parishes.

“I went from there to Queensland, and I was working with St Vincent de Paul for about 15 months,” he said.

“Then I was full-time in the parish of Southport for nine years.”

In 2002, Fr Jim was called back to Stannies. However a badly-damaged knee, coupled with the college’s many staircases, meant he had to pursue other opportunities.

So he undertook relief work in parishes in the Bathurst and Lismore dioceses.

“Then I came back here full-time about three or four years ago,” he said.

Having been involved in parishes and schools across the country, Fr Jim said it was the spirit at Stannies that set it apart.

“It’s always been present – from when I was a boy here, to when I first came back, and even now,” he said.

“When I started at the college, there were 12 or 13 Vincentians here – that’s how I got to know their work. The traditions have continued, even though there aren’t many priests now.

“I think a lot of the credit for that goes to those in charge: John Edwards – the previous headmaster for 20 years – and some of the senior staff, and the present head too.”

Fr Jim said the teaching staff had changed dramatically.

“It was mostly priests or brothers, with a few lay teachers. Now, we’ve got about 58 teachers, and there’s an even split of male and female,” he said.

“Similarly, in earlier days, it used to be mainly boarding, but that changed in the 1960s. Nowadays, we have about 160 boarders and about 470 day boys.”

Fr Jim has been involved in a number of causes through his work as college chaplain.

“One of the main ones has been the St Vincent de Paul groups,” he said.

“They’ve been pretty active over the last couple of years. They help older people with their gardens ... they visit some of the nursing homes, like St Catherine’s.

“They also raise quite a bit of money for needs in Australia, like the bushfires, or needs overseas, like the typhoon in the Philippines.

“I think it helps make the students more aware of others’ needs. Last year, I took four of them down to Villawood Detention Centre and we sat with some Sri Lankans there and talked with them for a while.”

On Tuesday, the college hosted a celebration which marked Fr Jim’s Diamond Jubilee of priesthood. It was a fitting farewell for the “friendly, down-to-earth” priest, who will retire to Marsfield at the end of the year.

“I was the parish priest there, and it’s also an area I know very well,” he said.

“One of the things I’d like to do is go out to Villawood every week or so.

“I’m not going to just sit behind a desk and look at myself, I’m going to pursue a few interests.”