Newsletter - September 2006

20/09/2006

Foundation members

Since the August newsletter, the following Old Boys have made pledges or donations and have been registered as Members of the Foundation –

Otago High School Old Boys’ Society (Palmerston North Branch) – Friend

Ian Martin (1951-54) – Friend

Brian James (1949-53) – Old Boys’

Russell McStay (1944-47) – Friend

Andrew Moffat (1974-77) – Friend

Les Ewart (1957-61) – Old Boys’

Ross Liddell (1960-64) – Old Boys’

plus one donor who wishes to remain anonymous - Friend

Annual Dinner

As all will now be aware, the date of the Foundation’s Annual Dinner has changed to Wednesday, 18th October with recently retired Tall Blacks’ coach Tab Baldwin as the guest speaker.

Tab is a humble yet forceful speaker with very definite views – as most recently seen this week with his all-out attack on SPARC and its funding strategy. His address will be highly entertaining and thought-provoking.

The dinner will again be held at Larnach Castle and complimentary busies will run to and from the Castle.

Tickets can be purchased from the Foundation office – 03/4778977, 027/4370335, info@obhsfoundation.co.nz Tickets are limited to 200.

All those thinking of going are encouraged to make early contact with the office to prevent disappointment. On the other side of the equation, if bookings don’t reach a break-even point, the dinner will be cancelled. Our aim is to present a high-quality dinner on an annual basis but we can’t afford to compromise Foundation funds. As of this morning just 62 tickets had been sold.

Congratulations

The school's hockey stocks are on the rise with the inclusion of two players in the New Zealand Under 16 squad.

Nick Ross and Blair Tarrant have been named in the national side to contest a series against Queensland in late-September.

Their elevation comes on the back of the First XI playing in this year's Rankin Cup tournament, the top ecehlon of secondary school hockey in New Zealand.

Where are they now?

* Ross Grieve (1985-89) now lives in Pembrokeshire, Wales in, for a Dunedin fellow, a house appropriately named Carisbrook in Lawrenny Road.

Ross is a qualified member of the Master Photographers’ Association and he has won several British awards for his work, including Welsh Portrait Photographer of the Year in 2002 and again in 2005, and the Master Photographers’ Association Chairman’s Trophy.

Part of his portfolio now includes seminars and already this year Ross has hosted these in Scotland and Morocco. Among his clients are Mercedes Benz, Fuji Film and S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru, which is Welsh for television’s Channel Four), and his lifestyle photography expertise sees him commissioned for many high-end weddings. Check his website – www.rossgrieve.com In his spare time, Ross plays hockey for the Pembrokeshire Club (he won his school hockey blues in 1987 and ’88) and, when time permits, he also turns out for the Cresselly Cricket Club.

* Lindsay Matheson (1958-60) is now Rector of Madras College in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

Born in Edinburgh in 1944 and initially educated at Blackhall Primary school, Lindsay has memories of standing in queues for rations due to the short supply of food after the Second World War. When Lindsay was six, his father was asked to emigrate to New Zealand and his family travelled by boat to Dunedin. After time at George Street Normal School, he came to Otago Boys’ for his first three years of secondary education.

After 10 years in Dunedin, Lindsay’s father decided the family was to go back to Edinburgh and he finished his schooling at George Watson's College. His ambition was to become an engineer and go to sea but he also enjoyed history and it was the latter he studied at St. Andrews University. After he gained his degree, he decided to take up some opportunities to study in England and Italy where he learned the local language. It was there he realised how much he enjoyed working with children and that he was more suited to teaching than professional study.

Lindsay took his first job as a teacher in Banff in 1970 and then moved to Milnes High School, where he was head teacher for 12 years. He started as Rector of Madras College in 1997.

Madras College was founded in 1833 by the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell, who has been a chaplain to the regiments of the East India Company in Madras with much of his time spent tutoring the soldiers’ children. His teaching methods became known as the ‘Madras system’, hence the name of the school he founded.

Lindsay enjoys the outdoors, walking and cycling with an occasional round of golf. He also spends time angling in the lochs of northern Scotland. He plans to retire in the not too distant future and visit New Zealand.

* Fans of Lutha, the Dunedin band of the early-1970s, may yet again see the quintet live on stage.

More than 30 years after releasing their two LPs Earth and Lutha, the band will get together to celebrate the re-release of their music to a new generation of fans.

Graham Wardrop (1965-69) has been in Dunedin recently with the reunion tentatively planned for October 16. Whether they perform at that time has still to be decided but Graham says it is ‘a possibility’.

Graham was the only Otago Boys’ Old Boy in the band. The others were King’s boys Peter Fraser and Garry McAlpine, Kevin Foster (St Pauls) and Peter Edmonds (about whose educational history Graham wasn’t sure).

Lutha was one of Dunedin’s leading bands in the early to mid-70s, recording several hits including Stop! The Music is Over, Then I Saw Her Face, Here and Now and My Turn to Cry. The group last played together at the Aranui Motor Lodge in Christchurch in April 1974 before disbanding amicably.

The 24-track CD on sale in October will be entitled Stop! The Music is Over and will be released by EMI Music New Zealand. A copy of the band’s album Lutha recently sold on eBay for $NZ1,270.

Graham, who lives in Christchurch and is now the only full-time musician of the five, has his own website – www.grahamwardrop.com

(Photos associated with all of the above ‘where are they now?’ stories can be viewed on the website).

Class lists

Class lists are now available for viewing on the Foundation’s website.

Please check your year and others. The majority of Old Boys still remain unaccounted for and your assistance with the tracking process would be gratefully received.

Do you know where these people are?

We’ve lost contact recently with –

Craig Robert Anderson (1990-94) – last known address was in Sweden but has since moved to Portland, Oregon, USA.
Hamish Barclay, who started at high school in 1987. His dot.com email address is no longer functioning.
Stuart Brown (1979-83). Stu’s last known email – stubrown@yahoo.co.nz

Recent deaths

Wilson (James Wilson Stirling) Smaill (1939-43), died in Auckland on 4th August 2006, aged 81. Wilson was a retired radiographer who spent much of his working life at Auckland Hospital. He was a former President of the New Zealand Society of Radiographers.

Tom (Thomas John) McCutcheon (1954-55), died at Ross Home in Dunedin on 15th August, 2006, aged 66. Tom had been ill since suffering a massive stroke in 2004 and also battling Alzheimer’s disease. He worked at the Otago Hunt Club and then farmed for 22 years at Berwick before moving to a property in the Matakanui Valley.

Archibald Arthur Heenan (1925), died at the Rowena Jackson Retirement Home in Invercargill on 23rd August 2006, aged 94. Formerly of Woodlands.

Raymond (Ray) Trevor Newall (1964-67), died in the Otago Community Hospice in Dunedin on 24th August 2006, aged 55. Brother of Paul (1967-70) and Murray (1969-73).

Charles Noel Bannerman French (1925-28), died in the Peacehaven Retirement Village in Invercargill on 26th August 2006, aged 93. Served with the 5th and 6th Field Regiment, 2NZEF, during the Second World War, rising to the rank of Captain.

Leslie Oxley (Bill) Beck (1933-35), died at St Andrews Home and Hospital in Dunedin on 28th August 2006, aged 86.

Steve Davie

Chief Executive