Scholarship tradition continuing

04/04/2007

In 1946, as Dux of Arthur Street School, Graeme Marsh was awarded the Chapman Memorial Scholarship which opened the way for him to attend Otago Boys’.

The Patron of the Otago Boys' High School Foundation Graeme Marsh with the first recipients of the Graeme Marsh Scholarship - Matthew Wright, Peter Adler and Callum Lambert

The scholarship was worth the princely sum of £10 per year for Graeme's 3rd and 4th form years and at the end of each term, armed with his school report, he would front Mr Brough from Brough, Calvert & Barrowclough. Mr Brough would peruse Graeme’s report, comment on his progress and then have his secretary write a cheque for £3 6/8d.

As Patron of the Otago Boys’ High School Foundation, Graeme has continued the tradition by establishing the Graeme Marsh Scholarship – to be awarded to three boys a year from Arthur Street School.

The first of the scholarships, worth $2,000 each over the course of each recipient’s time at Otago Boys’, were awarded in late-2006. Last week Graeme met the inaugural winners after they had settled into Year 9 life at the school and was able to tell them about the history of the scholarship.

He recalls the Chapman Memorial Scholarship allowed him to meet good folk who became friends and opened the way for opportunities later in life.

Graeme still has the certificate presented to him in 1946 and this will be replicated to a large degree for the Graeme Marsh Scholarship winners.