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The Otago Boys' High School Foundation
PO Box 11,
Dunedin, New Zealand
Tel +64 3 477 2546
Fax +64 3 477 5468
New Chief Executive appointed
* The Otago Boys’ High School Foundation has appointed Doug Kamo (39) as its new Chief Executive.
Doug comes from a strong background in production and event management, being responsible for organizing and hosting a multitude of high profile events both domestically and internationally.
Over a 20-year period he has amassed a diverse range of skills and experience that will hold him in good stead heading into his new role. Included in his CV are three years as creative director for Auckland corporate entertainment company CorporACT, a further three-year period where he worked with the marketing team at Sovereign Insurance managing incentive portfolios and international events in Russia, Denmark, Germany, Fiji and Australia.
Doug also spent 2½ years with the New Zealand Lotteries Commission as Lotto presenter on TV2, several years touring Australasia in many high profile musical theatre productions and, since the late 1990s, he has built a formidable reputation as one of New Zealand’s leading director/producers of musical theatre.
With almost two decades at the forefront of the event, entertainment and television industry, he has lent his skills to many community and charity events, fundraisers and commercial ventures on all levels ranging from procurement of funds, sponsorship and project management to administrative responsibilities and hosting and delivering each event.
Schooled in Nelson and now well settled in Dunedin with his wife and 10 month old daughter, Doug says he is looking forward to leading the Otago Boys’ High School Foundation.
He replaces Steve Davie as Chief Executive, Steve ending a five and a half year term on Christmas Eve.
Steve oversaw the development of the Foundation from its conceptual stage through to a vibrant, sustainable entity which has attracted $1.2 million in pledges and donations to date and which has re-connected more than 7,500 alumni with their alma mater.
Under Steve’s guidance, the Foundation has staged two notable reunions in the last 14 months, bringing Old Boys from the 1920s and 1930s back to Otago Boys’, it has hosted highly successful black tie dinners featuring Old Boy Russell Coutts and Australian raconteurs Peter Fitzsimons and Merv Hughes as guest speakers, it stages a popular annual golf tournament - and much of its attention is now focused on preparations for the school’s 150th celebrations in August 2013.
Sir Bruce Robertson
* When Judge Bruce Robertson (1957-61) received recognition in the New Year’s honours for services as a judge of the High Court and the Court of Appeal, he also became the second milk monitor from the 1954 standard 3 class at Wakari School and intake of Boys’ High intake of 1957 to be knighted.
His classmate and fellow milk monitor and judge, Sir John Hansen (1957-62), received a knighthood for services to the judiciary in 2008.
Sir Bruce, who lives in Wellington, said he felt humbled and honoured to receive a knighthood, and considered it was a way of the community acknowledging and affirming the importance of the rule of law in a free society.
In accepting the knighthood, he felt he was doing so on behalf of a team and that it was an acknowledgement of the role played by all court staff.
He described his 22-year career as a High Court judge as exciting, but while he had presided over high-profile cases including that concerning the death of Peter Plumley Walker, such cases were not the most important or the most satisfying.
‘‘I think the great challenge of law is that it doesn’t become an end in itself.
‘‘It is merely there to help people deal with problems they can’t deal with. It worries me when the law starts to get feet of its own and a life of its own.’’
He was known among his colleagues for insisting on reality checks when hearing cases, he said.
The highlights of his career as a judge had been those cases which were not terribly high profile.
In civil cases, they were the occasions when he had been able to help parties reach an outcome both could live with and, in criminal cases, those when at the end of a trial ‘‘everybody feels they got a fair crack of the whip’’.
Sir Bruce said the law was not easily accessible to people and ‘‘none of us should run away from the fact that the current system is too expensive, too slow and operates at a level people feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable with.’’
In his time as president of the Law Commission, between 2001 and 2005, he had spent much time looking at ways to improve access to justice, although he noted that many judges and lawyers were not ‘‘terribly keen’’ on changing.
There had been a revolution in the criminal area where, instead of crime being considered an offence against society, there was a focus on issues of victims’ rights.
Sir Bruce will retire from both the High Court of New Zealand and the Court of Appeal at the beginning of February, but he anticipates continuing judicial duties in the Pacific. He said he felt a real obligation to help the rule of law there, which was ‘‘pretty fragile’’.
He has served as president of the Court of Appeal of Vanuatu since 1996 and has also sat on the Court of Appeal of Samoa.
He would also be keen to be involved in any efforts to break the impasse in relations between New Zealand and Australia and Fiji-.His first Pacific involvement was teaching with Volunteer Service Abroad on a remote Samoan island at age 20.
In his ‘‘retirement’’, he also intended to return to some of his other interests, including education.
When he was 38, he became the youngest University of Otago pro-chancellor and he spent 20 years on the university council. It had been a long journey from milk monitor to knight, but he had been fortunate with lucky breaks and some wonderful mentors, including the late Very Rev Dr Jack Somerville (1925-28), Sir Bruce said.
He had come from an ‘‘unbelievably supportive’’ family, and had grown up in a similarly supportive and encouraging community.
After attending Otago Boys’ High School, Sir Bruce graduated from Otago University with both a BA and an LLB.
At 23, when he was the Otago University Students Association president, he came to the public’s attention by organising a sleep-in for 1500 at the student union building to protest about a fellow student being expelled for living in a mixed flat.
Sir Bruce furthered his studies in 1972-73, when a Harkness Fellowship took him to the University of Virginia, from where he graduated with a masterate in family law and was much influenced by the university’s founding president Thomas Jefferson’s commitment to principled freedom and liberalism.
Sir Bruce’s life since student days included a career with law firm Ross, Dowling Marquet and Griffin, part-time law lecturing, and serving as a session clerk at Knox Church.
He has strong views about people making the most of the opportunities offered them.
In a small country such as New Zealand ‘‘we have to be careful we aren’t so busy chopping down tall poppies that we become grey and dour and boggy’’.
New Zealanders had enormous potential which needed to be exploited and harnessed in all fields.
If people had the ability to do something they should always do it to their ‘‘absolute best’’, as this was the only way the country would survive, he said.
Sir Bruce is a Fellow of the Foundation.
Sir Bruce’s recognition completes a high profile year for Otago Boys’ Old Boys – at the late-August investiture at Government House in Wellington no fewer than four Old Boys became Knights – Sir Lloyd Gerring (1931-35), Sir David Mauger (1953-57), Sir John Hansen (1957-62) and Sir Russell Coutts (1975-79).
Lester Harvey QSM
* Lester Harvey (1946-47) has been awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to the community in the New Year’s Honours list.
Lester’s dedication and passion for his home town of Mosgiel has seen the town benefit from his community service for more than 45 years. During that time Lester has overseen the beautification of the rail corridor through the town and been a member of many boards and organisations.
He said he was ‘‘dumbfounded’’ when he learned about his award.
‘‘It came as a big, big surprise. Mosgiel has always been very good to me. ‘‘It is just a good town to live in,’’ he said.
Lester first came to Mosgiel at the age of six and has no intention of leaving.
One of his better known projects involved planting more than 6000 plants along the 5.5km railway corridor from Wingatui to Riccarton Road to beautify the formerly untidy rail entrance into the town.
For 12 years, from 1996 to 2008, Lester worked more than 25 hours a week, putting 18,000 hours of voluntary time into the project.
‘‘Without a lot of other people’s support, I could never have achieved what has been done.’’
The Mosgiel Rail Corridor Trust was established in 2000 and chaired by Lester, who was named Fonterra Environmentalist of the Year last year for his efforts in the project. He was a member of the Mosgiel Taieri Community Board for 15 years, where he was known for ‘‘always trying to call a spade a spade’’.
His time on the board included working to resolve tensions between some Mosgiel residents and organisations and the Dunedin City Council after the dissolution of the Mosgiel Borough Council in 1989. Lester was also a member of The Taieri High School (now Taieri College) board of governors, the Taieri Pipe Band and was the founding secretary and treasurer of the Taieri Highland Games.
Lester was the South Island vice-president of the New Zealand Horological Association and a member of the Mosgiel Retailers Association Executive while he owned a watchmaker’s and jewellery business in the town.
Registrations for 2013 sesquicentennial
Interest in the 2013 150th celebrations suggests the Otago Boys’ sesquicentennial will be the biggest Reunion Dunedin will have ever hosted with upwards of 3,000 people in attendance.
Already more than 250 Old Boys have registered for the four-day event (August 1st to 4th) with there being an interesting spread through the years.
As of this morning, there had been 256 registrations with the decades reading – 1920s 1, ‘30s 4, ‘40s 21, ‘50s 50, ‘60s 51, ‘70s 44, ‘80s 38, ‘90s 26 and 2000s 21.
The geographical range also makes for interesting observation. Of those to have signaled their intentions 67 live in Dunedin with a further 26 throughout Otago. Five reside in Southland, 26 in Canterbury and another five in other parts of the South Island.
Wellington is represented by 11 registrants, Auckland by 33 and a further 22 living in other regions of the North Island.
Forty living in Australia say they’ll be coming along with eight from the United Kingdom, seven from the United States, three living in Canada and one each currently based in Israel, Germany and Austria.
If you wish to note your interest, please do so through an email to the Foundation (info@obhsfoundation.co.nz).
Foundation members
* Since the December newsletter, the following Old Boys and connections with the school have made pledges or donations and have been registered as Members of the Foundation –
It’s a small word
* In reading the December newsletter. Foundation Trustee and 1971 Head Boy Gary Williams (1966-71) noted just how small a world it really is.
Gary was pleased to see former school colleague Dave Bond (1965-69) as the first recipient of the Foundation’s Staff Professional Development Scholarship, suggesting Dave had given his all for the school.
He was then delighted to read about Paul Dryden (1966-71) and his role with the Auckland branch of the Old Boys’ Society, Gary and Paul having been friends at Otago Boys’. Gary also fondly remembered Jim Mora (1967-71) who was mentioned in dispatches … “a bright lad” with whom there was a meeting of the minds through the production of the 1970 and ’71 school magazines … and reported John Judge (1967-71), who had addressed the Auckland Old Boys in November, had been a year behind him at school “but when I went to university he was my tutor!! And then I started my first real job in an accounting firm and he was one of managers. Another whizz kid.....good tennis player as well”.
Proving yet again the so-called ‘six degrees of separation’ is really only about two degrees when it comes to Dunedin, Otago and – probably – New Zealand.
School news
* Water polo is a sport with a growing profile at Otago Boys’ with the 2009 Junior A team dominating the Friday night competitions – taking the Term One Trophy and remaining unbeaten in Term Four.
On the back of that form, the team traveled to the South Island Secondary School championships in Invercargill and brought home the silver medal.
Team captain Thomas Wardhaugh was awarded the Most Promising Player trophy at the series.
During the year Thomas also filled the role of team coach and instructor in an effort of Daniel Vettori-like proportions. Another team member Jeremy Rei gained his referee ticket during the season.
The school’s Junior B team also enjoyed a good year, beating most opponents in the Otago competition.
Three boys gained their water polo blues in 2009 … Arthur Ibbotson, Thomas Wardhaugh and Rhys Woods.
With the talent coming through the ranks, the school’s senior team of 2010 will present a formidable challenge to all-comers in the Otago school competition.
* Two of Otago Boys’ brightest young sportsmen have been ranked in the Otago Daily Times’ Top 10 performers for the 2009 school year.
Golfer Duncan Croudis (2005-09) is seen as one of New Zealand’s most promising players.
As the ODT reports ‘Grant Waite, Craig Perks, Michael Long . . . and now Duncan Croudis. The Otago Boys’ High School pupil joined some elite company when he became the first Otago winner of the Cobham Cup at the New Zealand under-19 championships at the North Shore club in September. Croudis shot 70 in the last round to win the tournament. He went on to represent New Zealand at the Aaron Baddeley International Junior Championship in China, where he shot a 69 on the final day to finish second in the 17-year-old division. Croudis then scurried home to play for Otago in the men’s inter-provincial tournament, where he was unbeaten and helped his province finish fifth’.
Joining Duncan in the Top 10 is Kane Russell (Year 12 in 2009), who is adept in both hockey and athletics.
The ODT writes ‘whether it is a hockey stick, a javelin or a relay baton, Kane Russell knows how to handle it. The multitalented athlete had another fine year in his No 1 sport, hockey. He again earned national age grade selection, he was a key player in the Otago Boys’ team that played in the elite Rankin Cup in Dunedin in September, and he made the Southern Men national league side. Russell was also a South Island schools athletics champion in both the javelin and the 4x100m relay, and found time to play for the Otago under-17 cricket team’.
Also mentioned in the next level of performers were Joe Latta (rugby) and Toby Flett (athletics) while high achievers noted were Nick Elder (hockey) and Dominic Shogimen (ice skating).
Congratulations
* Stewart McKnight (1947-52) is in the race in the inaugural New Zealander of the Year Awards.
He and Sir Eion Edgar, father of Jonty (1988-92), Hamish (1990-94) and Adam Edgar (1994-98), are the only Otago personalities of 49 nationally, that number chosen from hundreds of nominations.
Both made the shortlist in the senior New Zealander of the year category with Stewart also nominated in the local heroes category.
Stewart, has been involved in sport his whole life and is a life member of Otago Cricket and Otago Rugby, as well as a New Zealand Curling Association ice master. He won a community service award at this year’s Central Otago Awards, organised and hosted by the Central Otago District Council, partly for his leadership and management during the development of the Maniototo International Curling Rink in Naseby.
Awards patron Jim Bolger heads the judging panel, which includes Dame Malvina Major, former All Black Michael Jones, and broadcaster Jim Mora (1967-71).
The winners will be announced and presented with their trophies by Prime Minister John Key in Auckland on February 3rd.
* Cameron Howieson (Year 11, 5th form in 2010) has secured a sought-after scholarship at the Asia Pacific Football Aacdemy.
Based in Christchurch, the academy operates in partnership with the world-famous Everton Football Club and provides a high calibre programme.
Campbell attended a camp at Lincoln University late last year where 40 young hopefuls from throughout the country were given the opportunity to showcase their talents. There they were exposed to the demands of the game at the top level with Tosh Ferrell from Everton in attendance.
“It was superb to have Tosh at the camp”, says Campbell.
“He was able to compare us all directly with the boys at Everton. We found it a bit of an eye-opener”.
Academy director Rob Sherman reported Cameron “really impressed and showed the potential to develop into a good player”.
Cameron says the camp was amazing and intense, suggesting it was very different to anything that he had previously encountered.
“It was a bit nerve wracking and but I settled in and tried to do my best. I can’t wait for February to come and get started”.
The players involved will move to Lincoln in February to begin a programme which will see them undertake a tailored education at Lincoln High School with this opening the way for a college scholarship in the United States. They will train daily in a comprehensive football programme which will include trips to Everton and to other clubs in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
* Prominent Otago businessman and philanthropist Trevor Scott (1954-58) has been awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of Otago.
University vice-chancellor Professor David Skegg said the university had ‘‘benefited greatly from Trevor Scott’s business, accounting and financial acumen over his many years of service to the institution’’.
Trevor was a member of the University Council (1991-2005), also making important contributions to committees and boards involving the university’s finances, commercial activities and residential colleges.
He chaired the board of Otago Innovation Ltd, its predecessor, the Commercial Activity Board, and companies emerging from Otago research, such as Blis Technologies and Pacific Edge Biotechnologies Ltd.
Professor Skegg noted Trevor had provided a generous endowment for a professorship in urology under the university’s Leading Thinkers initiative.
He had also driven efforts to promote Dunedin as a destination for international students, including through initiatives such as establishing Education Dunedin and the Otago Language Centre, both of which he chaired. His community work has included helping to establish the Otago Multiple Sclerosis Society. He was the inaugural president and first life member of its national body.
Since graduating with a BCom in accountancy from Otago in 1964, he has served in director and adviser roles for a wide variety of leading national companies.
He founded accountancy and consulting firm T.D. Scott and Co in 1988.
Trevor was made a distinguished fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors in 2006, and made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2008, recognising his services to business and the community.
Old Boys in the news
* Dr Chris Robertson (1965-69) may well have saved marriages the length and breadth of New Zealand.
Chris, a well known Dunedin orthodontist and an internationally recognised researcher in sleep medicine, has created the Aveo Tongue Stabiliser Device (aveoTSD), which is an anti-snoring aid and tackles the root cause of the problem.
About 60% of the adult population snores and given that humans spend one third of their lives asleep, the quality of that sleep has a major impact on the quality of our lives.
The aveoTSD fits over the tongue to prevent it falling back, keeping the airway open during sleep. A bulb at the end of the device is squeezed to create natural suction. One size fits all and having teeth is not necessary for the device to work.
About 20 years ago Chris designed a mandibular splint for people with sleep disorders which was attached to teeth to keep the jaw forward. In 2002, he invented the aveoTSD with a soft medical silicone skirt 2.2mm thick. Released in August this year, the latest model is just .4mm thick, making it much easier for users to be comfortable with.
After a decade of work and research to define the device the aveo TSD has been clinically approved and is the first quantified oral device able to be bought over the pharmacy counter.
* A newcomer to the Dunedin hotel scene - St Clair Beach Resort - was officially opened just before Christmas.
The brainchild of Dunedin property developer Stephen Chittock (1970-74), the 26-room boutique hotel was opened by Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin (1954-58) at a special ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Stephen said he announced the plan to build the $14 million project at his 50th birthday party three years ago, and was ‘‘pleased we succeeded in what we set out to do’’.
His brief to Baker Garden Architect was for the hotel to resemble a cruise ship, because of its proximity to St Clair beach.
“The Esplanade had undergone a major transformation by the Dunedin City Council in recent years and a vibrant cafe and bar scene had been established in the area, with the addition of the hotel adding 44 jobs to the local economy”, Stephen said.
The hotel also has a restaurant, Pier 24, and it was hoped a second-stage development would add another 50 rooms and a spa area.
* World champion rower Hamish Bond (1999-2003, Head Boy 2003) will represent Otago Boys’ High School at next month’s annual Halberg Awards dinner in Auckland.
Hamish, a gold medalist with the New Zealand coxless four at the 2007 World Championships, combined with Eric Murray to win the world coxless pairs title in Munich last year – and is a finalist in the Sports Team of the Year category.
The school was well profiled through the initial names put forward with world-class cyclist Greg Henderson (1990-94) among those nominated for the Sportsman of the Year. Greg hasn’t been listed among the finalists.
Shorts
* Gordon Tocher (1974-78) is a member of the Aramoana League committee which completed its 9th annual Exhibition of History in late-December. The exhibition began as a millennium project and covers aspects of Aramoana’s history from the building of the mole to the fight against the proposed aluminium smelter.
Recent deaths
* We extend our condolences to the families of the following Old Boys –
Don (Donald James) Crooks (1947), died in Blenheim on 30th October 2009, aged 75.
Steven Roger Steel (1986-90), died as the result of an accident at Murray Bridge, Australia on 13th December, aged 36. Steven was the brother of Richard Steel (1989-91).
Morris Hinkson Mee (1935), died in Mosgiel on 16th December 2009, aged 87. Morris was a retired farmer from the Maniototo and was the father of Graeme Mee (1966-68) and Tom Mee (1969-72). He was a Friend of the Foundation.
Orm (Ormiston Herbert) Walker (1931-38), died in Christchurch on 23rd December 2009, aged 92. Orm, who left school and then returned to complete his secondary education, was a retired Christchurch College of Education science lecturer who had spent time as an advisor for UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), assisting with teacher training in Iran and science education in India.
Ronald Alexander Orange (1927), died in Timaru on 25th December 2009, aged 96. Ronald was the brother-in-law of the late John Dryden (1922-23).
Jim (James Archibald) Valentine (1935), died in Dunedin on 30th December 2009, aged 87. Jim was a well-respected retired accountant who was the father of Iain Valentine (1961-65), Murray Valentine (1963-67), Ross Valentine (1966-71) and Derek Valentine (1968-72), the grandfather of Peter Valentine (1994-98), Andrew Valentine (1996-99) and Logan Valentine (1996-2000), and the brother-in-law of Neil Williamson (1942-46). Jim spent only his first year at Otago Boys’ before becoming a Foundation pupil at King’s High which was established in 1936.
John Anthony Jamieson (1961-64), died in Auckland on 5th January 2010, aged 61.
* We also extend our sympathies to –
Ryan Hanson (1997-2000) and Konrad Hanson (2000-04) whose grandfather Colin Barber died in Dunedin on 8th December 2009.
Matthew Foxton (1977-80) whose sister Michele Foxton died in Christchurch on 14th December 2009. Michele was the daughter of the late Ernest Foxton (1941-42).
James Burbery (1977-81), David Burbery (1983-85) and Aaron Burbery (1985-87) whose father Jim died in Dunedin on 16th December 2009.
Warren Murcott (1979-82) whose uncle Ian Murcott died in Dunedin on 21st December 2009.
Lewis Walker (1964-68) whose mother Irene died in Dunedin on 23rd December 2009.
David Bond (1965-69) and Murray Bond (1966-70) whose mother Edith died in Mosgiel on 25th December 2009.
Paul Bridgman (1979-83) and David Bridgman (1981-85) whose father Gavin died in Arrowtown on 27th December 2009.
Max Law (1967-70) whose daughter Jessica was killed in motor vehicle accident near Queenstown on 1st January 2010. Jessica was the sister of George Law (1998).
Ken Lindsay (1938) whose wife Lyn died in Invercargill on 1st January 2010. Mrs Lindsay was the mother of Bill Lindsay (1962-66), John Lindsay (1970-74) and the late James Lindsay (1970-74).
Peter Gilbert (1961-65) and David Gilbert (1965-68) whose father Lionel died in Dunedin on 2nd January 2010. Lionel was the grandfather of Campbell Gilbert (1988-92).
Dallas Bayly (1966-70) and Bruce Bayly (1969-72) whose father Graham died in Dunedin on 3rd January 2010. Graham was also the father of the late Ken Bayly (1968-70).
Alister McClintock (1966-68) whose father-in-law Duncan Calder died in Dunedin on 5th January 2010.
Newsletter researched and compiled by Steve Davie
