When Lang Walker left school in year 10, his headmaster told him he wouldn’t amount to much. So it was with great satisfaction that, more than 30 years later, Mr Walker returned as a successful businessman to buy the school from the NSW government, knock it down and redevelop it.

The story was one that Mr Walker liked to tell, and was among several that amused the hundreds of mourners who gathered at Sydney Town Hall on Friday for the property developer and Rich Lister’s memorial service.