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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
If the folk of Oamaru look good when they smile, it may have something to do with Ken Scott (1950-53).
For the past 50 years, Ken, a dental technician, has been making and fitting dentures since arriving in Oamaru as a 22-year-old, fresh from the Otago University Dental School, and buying a dental laboratory.
Ken Scott - master craftsman |
In that time, patients’ views on dentures had changed dramatically.
When Ken first started practising, people had at least one denture by the age of 27 on average.
‘‘Now, that is a lot, lot older,’’ he said, ‘‘because of major improvements in dental care and the aesthetic value of keeping teeth for longer.’’
When he first started as a dental technician, people came for ‘‘false teeth’’. Patients did not see their dentures until they were given them by the dentist. Then, it took quite a few weeks to make and fit dentures. Now, it can take just a day or two.
People did not want just ‘‘false teeth’’; they also wanted them to be atheistically pleasing and appear natural. That had been achieved with major improvements in techniques and materials over the past half century allowing technicians to create dentures that looked like the teeth that had been removed.
The cost had also fallen. When Ken first started, a set of dentures cost the equivalent of two and a-half weeks’ wages. Now, it was about one and a-half weeks’ wages.
Part of his role is replacing dentures because of wear and changes in people’s mouths or when dentures are lost.
He recalled one Christmas when he had three patients wanting replacements — one set lost at sea during a fishing trip and two sets lost while swimming. There was also sometimes a demand for replacements after Christmas celebrations, he said.
Ken was born in Ranfurly and completed five years’ training at the dental school before starting practice in Oamaru on July 1, 1959. He plans to continue his practice, along with taking the same active role in the community he has in the past.
Asked about retirement, he said he hadn’t really thought about it.
‘‘I’m fit and healthy and plan to keep going as long as I can,’’ he said.
In the occupation line of his Foundation profile Doug Eckhoff (1954-55) lists himself as ‘retired’.
That is far from the truth.
As well as being the co-vice chairman of the New Zealand Council of Victim Support Groups, Doug is also the Lower Hutt group’s chairman and has been closely involved with the organisation for the past 16 years. He also serves on the national Board’s Finance and Audit Committee.
Doug Eckhoff |
As a member of the national Board, Doug is a strong advocate for the recognition of the community partnership function of lower group committees and their role as the key stakeholders of Victim Support.
Doug is a member of the Hutt Council for Social Services and works on a voluntary basis with the Refugee and Migrant Service, assisting in the re-settlement of refugees in the Lower Hutt region.
He is a Paul Harris Fellow and a Past President of the Rotary Club of Eastern Hutt, as well as being one of the founders of the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington. He has been a member of its Board of Trustees since its inception in 1981. He is also on the committee of the National Press Club.
Doug has worked in all facets of the media as a journalist, editor and film producer – both in New Zealand overseas.
After being part of the library and drama committees while at school, Doug worked for the Otago Daily Times in 1956, the Clutha Leader in 1957 and for Kensley Newspapers Ltd in England from 1958 to 1962. That was just the beginning.
Prior to ‘retiring’ in 2003, Doug had been the Head of Communications for both the Department of Justice and the Electoral Commission (1990-2003), he was a former Chief Executive of the New Zealand National Film Unit (1980-90), and the Head of News and Current Affairs for the Television One network (1974-80).
He is the author of a number of publications, including ‘Reflections of Campbell House’, and was the Executive Producer of the New Zealand feature film ‘The Scarecrow’.
Doug also spends part of each week working as a voluntary tutor in reading with children at a primary school in Lower Hutt.
Over the last couple of years, the Foundation's website has outlined the life and times of Kelvin Board (1975-79).
To recap – in 2006 Kelvin was the Assistant Professor for Curriculum, Teaching and Learning in the Graduate Division of the University of Calgary. Having graduated with a PhD, MA, BEd and Dip Teaching, it wasn’t surprising Kelvin looks for outdoor pursuits to balance his day. A former member of the New Zealand mountain running team, Kelvin has not long taken up a new interest – that of sheep dog trialing.
At the 2006 Alberta trials, Kelvin and his border collie Blade took out the Alberta Novice Championship.
Part 2 of the story was that not long afterwards, while still involved with distance learning at two universities, Kelvin and his wife Angie shifted to the south west of Scotland where they spend a large part of their day training sheep dogs and being involved in trialing.
We can now report Part 3, thanks to Kelvin’s father Michael Broad (1943-47).
The New Zealand sheep dog trial team at last month's world championships in Llandeilo, Wales. Kelvin Broad and Blade are seen at left |
Kelvin and Angie are now in Wales where they wanted to make a contribution to an event they refer to as the Olympics of the sheepdog world – the World Sheepdog Trial. This event was staged In mid September where 22 countries were represented by 242 handlers. Kelvin and Blade were members of the New Zealand team.
Angie's job was looking after the World Trial website and helping to ensure the world knew about the event. Her PhD in Marketing came in handy. She and Kelvin designed the World Trial Souvenir Programme and Kelvin also helped out in organising the layout of the trade stands.
All of this was squeezed in around Kelvin’s teaching commitments for Universities in the United States and Canada. Kelvin, with a PhD in Education, now teaches Language Arts Education to students around the globe through the internet.
A man busier than most in so-called ‘retirement’ is retired Air Vice-Marshal Robin Klitscher CBE, DFC, AFC, BSc (1950-54).
Robin is the national President of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association (RSA) and is the first airman to lead the organization.
National RSA President Air Vice-Marshall (Rtd) Robin Klitscher CBE, DFC, AFC, BSc |
Robin joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a pilot in 1958. After converting to helicopters in mid-career, he spent twelve months (1970-71) on active service with No 9 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, flying Iroquois choppers based in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Viet Nam. During that year he flew 3,248 sorties clocking up 963 flying hours on operations.
In 1989, after many other operational and administrative postings Robin was appointed Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, in the rank of Air Vice-Marshal. Upon retiring from active duty in 1993 he was contracted to the post of Military Policy Adviser to the Chief of Defence Force until, in 1995, he moved to the Department of Internal Affairs as National Coordinator for commemorative activities marking the 50 years on from the end of World War II.
Robin is National President of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association, and past Chairman of the National War Memorial Advisory Council. He has served on the National Executive Committee of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association since 1997, and chairs its Defence Committee, Ceremonial, Protocol and Medallic Committee and RNZRSA Affiliates Forum. He is also a member of the official Joint Working Group (now the Joint Implementation Group) on the Concerns of Viet Nam Veterans and their Families and is regarded as a leader in the fight for compensation for Viet Nam veterans affected by the use of Agent Orange.
As well as attending functions the length and breadth of the country, much of Robin’s time is now taken up with administrative work, including the overhaul and re-write of the War Pensions Act 1954 where veterans are given an unequivocal benefit of the doubt.
During his flying years Robin was a founding member of the famous Red Checkers aerobatic team, flying at Number 3 in the first ever display at the Wigram Air Show on November 5th 1967, which marked the 50th anniversary of flying training at Wigram.
That tradition is now in the hands of Squadron Leader Stephen Hunt (1978-82).
Robin is a Friend of the Foundation.
After kicking truck tyres and sandbags to harden his shins, Erik Nosa (1995-98) is ready for the fight of his life.
The 29-year-old professional kickboxer will fight Felise Leniu for the vacant Australian heavyweight title in Sydney next month.
Erik Nosa |
Erik has contested 27 fights for a record of 18 wins, seven losses and two draws. Ten of his wins came by way of knockout and he is the seventh-ranked heavyweight in Australia.
The fight with Leniu is the biggest of his career.
The Auckland-born Niuean will enter the bout as a firm underdog and is giving away a significant weight advantage.
Both fighters are 180cm tall but Nosa is lighter than at any time in his career, weighing in at 97kg. That is relatively slight compared with Leniu’s 115kg.
Leniu has been in the ring with some quality fighters, including Australia’s No 1-ranked kickboxer, Peter Graham, and is known for his power.
‘‘Hopefully it will be a good fight,’’ Nosa said.
‘‘He’s a good fighter with heavy hands, and he is a big bloke, too.
‘‘I think it is a fight that a lot of people will be wanting to see.’’
The pair are mates but will be putting aside their friendship when they step in the ring.
‘‘He’s a really nice bloke but we both agree that it is a sport and it will be all business once we put on the gloves.
‘‘It’s like any sport. We still respect each other, and at the end of the day, after we’ve beaten each other up, we’ll have a beer together and a bit of a laugh.’’
Kickboxers use their shins to strike opponents when kicking and Nosa has been hardening his by sparring with truck tyres and the odd sandbag, and even ropes wrapped around a column serve the purpose quite well. His lower legs bare the scars of those encounters but are nice and ‘‘numb’’ now.
Before Nosa took up kickboxing he played nearly 100 senior rugby games for Alhambra-Union and Zingari Richmond. He was also part of a talented Otago Boys High School 1st XV which shared the national secondary schools title with Rotorua Boys High School in 1998.
Nosa played No 8 in a loose forward trio which featured former Highlanders lock Filipo Levi at blindside and All Black captain Richie McCaw on the openside. Current Otago captain Craig Newby scored a try for Rotorua Boys’ in the 5-all draw.
Nosa joined the ‘‘brawn drain’’ three years ago after being approached by Bulldog Gym in Manly to join them and fight professionally.
It had long been a dream of the articulate but softly spoken athlete. But after three years of fighting professionally in Australia, Nosa is keen to return to Dunedin next year and work towards another dream — setting up a gym for disadvantaged Maori and Polynesian youths.
Nosa says sport has been a big influence on his life.
It has taught him focus and given him discipline and self-respect.
Those are lessons he is keen to pass on.
A recent visitor to the school was Christopher Norton (1965-69), the internationally acclaimed composer of the popular Microjazz books, who gave a presentation and hosted a workshop for senior music students and music teachers from many of Otago’s schools.
Christopher had piano lessons from Johannes Giesen, head of music at Otago Boys at the time and was confident enough as a composer by the age of 16 to play a piece he had written for piano and orchestra at the school's concert in the Dunedin Town Hall. The piece was subsequently arranged by Jack Speirs for the Dunedin Civic Orchestra and broadcast on the Concert Programme.
Christopher Norton |
After leaving school, where he had been the pianist alongside his future best man John Jamieson, Christopher gained a first-class honors degree in music from Otago University in 1974. He then taught music in Wellington high schools, worked as a Composer-in-Schools for a year and free-lanced as a composer, arranger and pianist.
He traveled to the United Kingdom in 1977 on a New Zealand Government Scholarship and in 1980, embarked on a free-lance career. Within a short time Christopher’s work was published - first by Universal Edition, then by Boosey & Hawkes, with whom he has had a long and fruitful association. His Microjazz series has become the most popular way world-wide for students to learn how to play contemporary popular styles with it being on every major music examination syllabus as well as featuring on festival and competition programmes in many countries.
Christopher also works as a record producer for a variety of labels, most recently for EMI and Virgin in North America. He also works extensively as a writer of music for television, has made many production music albums and is also a publisher in his own right, most recently as a founding partner in Novus Via Music Group, the publisher of American Popular Piano, his latest venture.
American Popular Piano, co-written with Scott McBride Smith, focuses his talent for composing authentic, appealing, yet educationally sound pieces in popular styles at all levels of piano study, including early years.
Christopher is in high demand for his unique and creative presentations. He has offered sessions ranging from improvisation coaching for grade-school band teachers to adjudicating non-competitive piano festivals with literally thousands of student entries; from offering personal, intensive Masterclass sessions at all levels to lectures in advanced composition. Everywhere he goes, his fresh and uplifting approach to music never fails to inspire and enlighten all who attend. He has presented in literally dozens of countries around the world, with recent touring taking him from Indonesia to Ireland, Singapore to Serbia, Italy to Interlochen, and Ontario to Oslo.
As well as his presentation at Otago Boys’ earlier this month, Chris was able to hear his latest composition, Octagon Overture, played in the Dunedin Town Hall as part of a 40th anniversary event for the Saturday Morning Music Classes.
Links:
www.christophernortonconnections.com
Old Boys continue to be honoured as part of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants centennial year celebrations.
George Malcolm (right) receiving his 60 year membership certificate from Graham Crombie, national President NZICA |
National President, Dunedin’s Graham Crombie, a partner at Polson Higgs, has been traveling the country presented milestone membership certificates.
While in Wanganui recently, he presented George Malcolm (1934-37) with his 60 year membership certificate.
After serving with the RNZAF in the Pacific in WWII, George worked in the New Zealand Post Office and then with the Wellington and Wanganui Education Boards before becoming national secretary of the PPTA. He had 10 years with the Tourist Hotel Corporation and then worked as the bursar/registrar for Scots College in Wellington.
While in the capital he was actively involved with the Wellington branch of the Otago High School Old Boys' Society, including a period as branch secretary, before moving to Wanganui in 1979.
George is a Friend of the Foundation.
When Pat Finnegan (1941-43) headed into the Auckland Star racing department several decades ago to settle a bet over a piece of racing history, little was he to know that his life would change.
Pat won the bet and was hooked on researching racing statistics.
Pat Finnegan (left) and John Costello - co-authors of 'Tapestry of Turf, The History of New Zealand Racing'. |
Years later he can look back on a writing career which includes co-authoring the magnificent ‘Tapestry of Turf’ which traces the history of New Zealand horse racing from its earliest days through to 1988, the writing of ‘Racing with Radio Pacific’ and ‘100 Years at Wingatui’.
As well as currently completing a sequel to ‘Tapestry of Turf’ with John Costello, Pat is also working on the compilation of a statistical record covering more than a century of winning horses, jockeys, trainers, and sires.
In his earlier years, Pat was a sportsman of considerable talent – making the 1st cricket XI in his first year at Otago Boys’, representing Hawkes Bay as a 16 year old and going on to play for many years for the champion North Shore senior cricket side in Auckland through the 1950s.
He was also a more than useful rugby player and played golf off a five handicap before work on ‘Tapestry of Turf’ took all of his spare time. Pat worked for more than 20 years with Wiseman’s Sports Stores and played a large part in the organisation of New Zealand’s earliest professional golf tournaments.
His interest in racing dates back to his childhood when his publican father, Daniel Joseph Finnegan (1919) raced a number of – mainly slow – gallopers. Pat himself had success with a faster mare Royal Bourbon in the late 1970s.
‘Tapestry of Turf’, a tome of more than half a million words and 250 illustrations, covers the period from the arrival of the first thoroughbred in 1840 through to the mighty deeds of Bonecrusher in the 1980s. All the great gallopers are included – Lurline and Carbine, Desert Gold, Gloaming, Phar lap, Kindergarten, Mainbrace, Rising Fast, Balmerino, Showgate, McGinty and Bonecrusher.
The most successful sires, greatest horsemen and influential and visionary administrators are all given their dues as the book unravels the evolution of the sport in New Zealand – from an amateur day out to a billion dollar industry. The sequel promises to be equally spectacular.
Pat’s uncle Francis Winton Finnegan also attended Otago Boys’ from 1915 to 1917.
Pat lives in semi-retirement in Fairlie.
Nick Bishop (1996-2000) finds himself in perhaps the construction capital of the world – Dubai – and is thoroughly enjoying the experience.
Nick has taken the time to pen a short letter to the Foundation, which we are delighted to reproduce here:
Nick Bishop standing in Down Town Burj Dubai - at the Burj Residences with the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, behind him. |
After completing my Bachelor of Architecture degree at Victoria University of Wellington (2005) and spending two and a half years back working in the homeland, it was time to look abroad. After doing some research as to my options overseas and with my field of interest it was not hard to decide on where to go. Dubai.
Before leaving I was introduced to a company called Weber Consulting based out of Queenstown. Weber is a New Zealand firm and had plans to set an office in Dubai. Weber does work for a development company called Slant.
You can see more through –
www.slant.co.nz, www.weberconsulting.co.nz, www.jaggededge.co.nz
Weber and Slant have an impressive portfolio of work and an exciting vision, so this was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.
I’ve been in Dubai now and it’s certainly been an adventure.
Dubai is a very interesting place and it’s mind-boggling to see the extent of construction here. The two main differences I've noticed between Dubai and Dunedin has been the heat and the pace of life – over 40 degree heat during the day and with eight lane highways grid locked with traffic, they are the total extremes. It has taken a bit to get used to the different culture here and you really need exercise good patience.
So far it definitely has been a move worthwhile. The Weber Dubai office is well and truly kicking and things are going well. It's an exciting place to be, there is always something interesting happening which makes for an experience every day. Feel free in get in contact if you are thinking about heading this way or are interested in hearing more. I will be more than happy to help.
Contact details: email nick@weberconsulting.co.nz, cell +971557665400
In August 2007, Barry Don (1956-58) realised a long-held desire to hunt with bow and arrow in Africa.
Barry Don and his trophy impala |
An avid bowhunter since his teens in Dunedin, and currently with three United States hunts for elk and whitetail deer under his belt, this latest 'adventure of a lifetime' had Barry being hosted and guided by hugely accomplished outfitters 'Greater Kuduland Safaris' in South Africa's Northern Transvaal.
Enjoying fantastic weather, Barry and partner Adele spent two magical weeks absorbing the sights, sounds and smells of the Dark Continent.
Most of the hunting was done from blinds at waterholes, where an ability to be super quiet, ever alert and extremely patient for hours on end is essential.
Barry admits that these attributes were possibly not always too evident during his time at Otago Boys’ High School.
Barry with his warthog, complete with a highly impressive set of tusks |
As well as his bow, Barry's digital video camera was always close at hand, the resultant six hours of memorable footage nicely complementing and recording the tangible experience.
Two trophy size impala antelope and an impressively tusked warthog fell to Barry's 63lb pull longbow with the mounted specimens shortly due to be shipped to Barry’s home in Nelson from the South African taxidermist.
Interestingly, Barry views any hunting success pretty much as a bonus.
"It's just being 'out there', attempting to meet all of the challenges associated with the physical and mental aspects of bow hunting that's the thing.
“With this particular trip, simply experiencing Africa and its incredible game animals up close and personal was exciting and rewarding enough in itself."
So where to next? "Alaska is beckoning", says Barry.
Professor Bill Cullen (1946-51) is an internationally recognised expert on the chemistry, biogeochemistry, and microbiology of arsenic.
Professor Bill Cullen - his book may well be a best seller |
He has been Professor of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia for the past 50 years working with arsenic compounds and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Bill is also a Friend of the Foundation and he has recently published a book which has the hallmark of a best seller.
How’s this for the blurb?
‘Sex, drugs, rocks, gold, murder, war, mass poisonings, the deaths of Napoleon, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and others are all linked by one element - arsenic! Arsenic has been around since the beginning of time and the word has become a metaphor for poison with associated shock value. The general public is fearful of any possible exposure to it and yet it holds a certain dark and eerie fascination! The average person has only one idea about arsenic - it is poison - and this reputation has a sound base. Some arsenic compounds are very toxic and have been used with criminal intent from the time of the ancient Romans to the present day.
‘Up until now, there has been no book that covers arsenic with such breadth. This book is a general appreciation of how much the element, arsenic, has become part of our lives in an entertaining style covering the years 1,000 BC to the present day. The coverage of the chemistry, toxicology, and medicinal aspects is deliberately kept at a level for the general reader to understand. It covers the way in which this ubiquitous element and its compounds have influenced the lives of the people of the world. The author's objective in writing this book was not to elaborate on the vast chemistry of the element, but to try to reveal to the general reader how the element and its compounds have become embedded in our social fabric, for good and for ill. No other element comes close in this regard and he uses the word socio-chemistry to describe this interface between society and chemistry.
‘The book covers a broad range of topics including the use of arsenic in human medicine in many cultures from Chinese medicine to the beginning of chemotherapy. This peaked in the western world in the early 20th century, with Ehrlich's discovery of salvarsan, an arsenic-based cure for syphilis that gave rise to the field of chemotherapy. Salvarsan and related compounds were eventually displaced by antibiotics such as penicillin. Arsenic trioxide has staged a comeback, however, and is being used as a successful treatment for a form of leukemia.
‘Other chapters cover arsenic compounds which were widely used in agriculture and wood preservation during the 20th century and their associated myths as well as arsenic compounds as chemical warfare agents and the resulting stockpile. The topic of arsenic in the environment is discussed in depth - arsenic is all around us - in our soil, our water, and our food, and our bodies have adapted to its presence and it does not usually pose a problem. However, the natural presence of high concentrations of arsenic in drinking water currently threatens the lives of millions of people in India, Bangladesh, Mexico and elsewhere. It also covers mining and pesticide manufacturing which can lead to high local arsenic concentrations in soils, slag heaps and mine tailings which, when located close to human activities, can produce human health risks.
‘Other topics covered in Bill’s book include -
Compulsory reading for those with a specific leaning towards the topic but also enough there to be picked up of the bookshelf by the general public.
Former bowls international Mike Kernaghan (1969-73) has recently been appointed general manager of Badminton New Zealand.
Mike Kernaghan |
Mike replaces Peter Dunne, who has resigned after five years in the role.
He was formerly the deputy chief executive for New Zealand Football, where he had responsibility for all domestic soccer. He has also worked in varying roles for Triathlon New Zealand, Sport Otago and Bowls New Zealand.
Mike won a bowls bronze medal at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, and is the holder of numerous national titles.
He also played national league soccer from 1976 to 1987.
George Claridge (1921-23), an astute businessman and a talented sportsman who possessed an inquiring mind, and the inventor of a number of devices which remain in production today, died recently in Tauranga, aged 101.
George’s legacy can be seen around Dunedin, with houses in Ravensbourne, Mosgiel and Kew, all coming about thanks to his entrepreneurial skills.
George Claridge |
George Henry Claridge was born on December 4, 1906, in Auckland, the third child of George and Benita Claridge. When he was young, the family moved to Hastings, then settled in Dunedin in 1918. He attended Musselburgh School and then Otago Boys’ High School, where he was an accomplished sportsman.
When George left school he joined the law offices of Smith and Loosley, intending to become a lawyer. But after a few years he abandoned his legal career, as he could not ignore his drive to become involved in business along with enjoying life, on and off the sports field.
George formed two dance bands in the early days, one of which featured in the Vedic Tea Rooms, which was a Dunedin institution in its day. He was also involved in the Dunedin Little Theatre and Repertory Society.
In the 1930s, he was chosen as the male lead in Down on the Farm, which was New Zealand’s first talking movie, filmed mostly at Outram.
George married Billie Robinson in 1936, at Knox Church and the couple lived in Norfolk St, St Clair, before purchasing the Lethbridge Estate in Middleton Road in Kew. He subdivided the house into flats, and also subdivided the land. Later he bought Middleton Lodge in Middleton Road and subdivided the surrounding property and then opened subdivisions in Ravensbourne, Mosgiel, and Kew.
One of George’s business interests was the English Import Company, which imported such luxuries as canteens of cutlery and grandfather clocks.
An inquisitive mind led to many long nights working on inventions. Though he had no formal engineering training, he had an eye for details and patience to improve everyday implements and machines. One of his major inventions was the design and manufacture of one of the early spin-dry washing machines, when only wringer-washers were available. He also designed several toilet systems, which saved water and were relatively quiet compared to others. The latest of these is still in production in Brazil.
George bought the old Brown Ewings building in the Exchange when a department store closed, and converted it to shops and a reception lounge.
He had a partnership in the Criterion Hotel in Moray Place, in the 1970s. Also in the 1970s, he helped build the Mornington Tavern and in this period, he purchased the old Waipiata Sanatorium near Ranfurly, selling it about 10 years later.
George enjoyed a successful sporting career, taking part in boxing, cricket, table tennis, and hockey in his early days. As he got older, he turned to lawn bowls, where he achieved major success. He was a long-standing member of the St Kilda Bowling Club, and was the driving force behind the club’s development of an indoor green. He achieved gold star status at bowls and became an Otago coach.
Never one to be idle, he wrote a book How to play Lawn Bowls, and wrote a weekly column in the Evening Star on technique. He was later awarded life membership of the Mt Maunganui Bowling Club.
With a lifelong interest in politics, George was a staunch admirer of John A. Lee, after Mr Lee’s expulsion from the Labour Party. At that time he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament. He later became aligned with the National party, when Sir Keith Holyoake was its leader, and was on the national executive for some years.
Despite being 80 when he moved from Dunedin to Mt Manganui to retire, within a couple of years George formed a syndicate to develop a 40 hectare farm, into 330 sections, which occupied him for the next decade.
George is survived by his wife Billie, two daughters and a son.
Dr Jim Salinger (1961-65) is the recipient of an extremely rare if not unique honour for alumni of Otago Boys’.
Dr Jim Salinger |
Jim, principal scientist on climate at NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) and a world-renowned authority in climate change and variability in New Zealand and the southwest Pacific, was one of a handful of New Zealanders on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
The IPCC, which works closely with the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme, combined the expertise of 500 weather and climate specialists from around the globe with the work completed forming a blueprint for the ways needed to slash gas emissions in the years ahead to prevent disastrous consequences.
Jim notes the signs are that, without change, temperatures will increase up to 4 degrees during the 21st century. That warming, he says, will result in dire and potentially irreversible changes for the planet.
His certificate, which denotes Jim’s contribution to the IPCC receiving the peace prize and which is signed by the IPCC chairman Dr Rajendra Pachauri and secretary Renate Christ will soon be framed and hung proudly in his NIWA office in Auckland.
Dr Stanley Paris (1952-55) is a man who likes a challenge.
On July 26, the 70-year old former Dunedin physiotherapist hopes to become the oldest person to swim the English Channel. If he fails, he will try again during the first week in September, but if he succeeds at the second attempt, he plans to attempt a double crossing, by which time he’ll be 71.
Dr Stanley Paris puts in time for his attempt on the English Channel at Moana Pool this week. |
An Otago representative swimmer in his youth, he is no stranger to the channel swim. But he had to pull out of his first attempt in 1983 after 29 kilometres because he was “not mentally prepared”.
In 1986, aged 49, he tried again but an organisational glitch found him being advised he had made it when he was still about 300m from shore. He could have appealed the decision to disallow the swim but decided, instead, to have another go three weeks later.
A tussle with a jellyfish had caused paralysis in the neck, rendering him speechless and in hospital, which meant he was only allowed one swim before the successful attempt, which he completed in 12 hours and 59 minutes. He felt so good after that swim that he wishes he had attempted the return leg then.
The oldest person to swim the 37 kilometre channel was aged 70 years and eight days while Stanley will be close to 71 if he succeeds on his first attempt.
His desire to swim the channel was inspired by former Governor General Lord Freyberg, whom a 12-year-old Stanley had heard speak of his failures during an address to Otago Boys’ High School pupils in 1952. Although Lord Freyberg had accomplished plenty in his life time, he spoke of his two failed attempts to swim the English Channel telling the boys that ‘failure is important. How you handle it is what matters.’
Stanley is in Dunedin this weekend to address the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists Conference suggests there is too much emphasis on winning and succeeding the first time.
His love of a challenge exhibited itself early. He remembers cycling from Dunedin to Christchurch to visit a girlfriend when he was 17 in 21 hours, 15 minutes on a three-speed bike. That trip was prompted by her father commenting that the youth of the day were not up to the youth of his time.
‘‘I couldn’t stand up for 24 hours,’’ he said.
He can’t remember if the father was impressed by his endeavour, but the girlfriend, a fellow swimmer, certainly was.
Other challenges have included setting a point-to-point speed record across the Indian subcontinent in a Volkswagen Beetle, sailing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in yachts, and undertaking the Ironman championships in Hawaii.
Stanley followed his father, Stanley Paris senior, into physiotherapy, graduating from the University of Otago in 1958. He left New Zealand in 1966 to further his studies into the spine and has a world reputation in orthopaedic physical therapy. During the early part of his career, he also served as physiotherapist to New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams.
He founded his own university, in Florida, the University of St Augustine, which specialises in physiotherapy.
Ross and Lois Willcocks - on the move to Dunedin |
Ross Willcocks (1971-74) says there is too much political interference in education.
The retiring principal at Oamaru North School fired some parting shots on the last day of his job this week. He said ‘‘bureaucracy’’ had driven him out of the job.
He and his wife, Lois, who has been perceptual motor programme co-ordinator at the school, are moving to Dunedin where he will enter a business management role and Lois will return to nursing.
Ross said he wasn’t angry at leaving — but sad.
‘‘It’s not the school that’s the problem. It’s not the kids or the teachers or the school,’’ he said.
‘‘The Ministry [of Education], in its entirety . . . has just knocked me around too many times.’’
Ross has spent the last 31 years working as either a teacher or principal with his career including stints teaching at Macandrew Intermediate in Dunedin, Oamaru Intermediate, two years teaching in England and then Collingwood Intermediate in Invercargill.
His first principalship was in Pukerau, followed by Mossburn and then Casa Nova in Oamaru, followed by the last 11 years at Oamaru North.
David Pine (1957-61) recently attended the reunion of the 1957 intake along with his wife Margaret - and thoroughly enjoyed the companionship of school mates, many of whom he hadn’t seen for almost half a century.
David Pine |
In fact, David was so enthused by the re-assembly, he wrote an article in the New Zealand Insurance Journal.
He has given us permission to reproduce that contribution here:
Most of us are happy when our college days are over, so that we can get on with the business of life. We tend not to give our college much thought after we have left.
Last weekend Margaret and I attended a reunion of my college, Otago Boys’ High School (OBHS) in Dunedin. The format of the reunion was interesting in that only those who started at the school in 1957, 50 years ago, were invited. The result was that everyone at the reunion was the same age. My college days weren’t the happiest of my life and so I had made the decision to attend with some trepidation. I needn’t have worried.
Of the 200 boys who started at OBHS that year, about 30 of us turned up to the reunion. I’d kept in touch with only a handful of them over the years so it was the first time I’d seen most of them for about 46 years. Back then, we were only just getting started with our lives, and now here we all were approaching retirement. Some of the guys I recalled as being quite brilliant young men at school, and these ones had indeed gone on to great things. For example, among our number we had two surgeons, two judges and three dentists. The rest of us were spread among a wide array of occupations, from retail to property development, and from IT to insurance.
There were two things that struck me about this gathering.
Firstly, no one cared what others had done for a living. We were all just glad to be there, to find out what everyone had been up to, and to remember the good things that had happened to us at college. Secondly, with the benefit of hindsight, we were all extremely grateful for what we had learned at OBHS and how we had grown.
One of the guys mentioned that a teacher who was retiring had said to him “Work hard, be humble’. At the time he thought “Oh yeah, yeah, so what?” Much later, he realised the significance of this simple piece of advice.
While at the reunion we were encouraged to make donations to the school – via the Otago Boys’ High School Foundation – to ensure its ongoing development. Government funding goes only so far, and even a public school like OBHS needs a lot of additional support to stay ahead of the game. Many of us have decided to help out as best we can. When you think about it, high quality education is the best insurance for the future of New Zealand.
Perhaps it’s time for you to think about giving something back to your old school. They will be glad of your help.
David (BBS, CLU) was with AMP for 28 years until 2001, when he chose to become independent. At that time, he set up the Pine Financial Group which he operates with Margaret. He is a past president of the NZ AMP Agents Association and of the NZ Insurance and Investment Advisers Association, and is a life member of the Million Dollar Round Table.
Tim Gibson (1972-75) is the Chief Executive of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, based out of Wellington.
After initiallycontemplating following his father into law, Tim worked briefly in industrial relations and then returned to Dunedin then Donaghys managing director Nat Craig and later worked under Graeme Marsh (1947-51), the Foundation’s Patron.
Tim Gibson (Photo couresty Otago Daily Times) |
In 1990, he began a career with the Dairy Board’s mergers and acquisitions division, rising to Chief Executive of North Asia, based in Tokyo, before returning home to a key role overseeing the dairy industry’s interests in the deregulation of producer boards. He later oversaw restructuring of the Anchor business in the United Kingdom, before having what he called a gap year, to run Kapiti Cheese in the North Island.
It was his varied business experience which prompted an approach in 2003 to oversee the merger of Trade New Zealand, Industry New Zealand and Invest New Zealand into what is now New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Tim says his private enterprise experience gave him ideas of what NZTE clients wanted. His latest position is a mix of excitement and an appreciation at what New Zealand businesses are achieving, but tempered by some concern at the lack of acknowledgement by the wider population of the importance of exporting.
He believes New Zealand needs to be better at celebrating industry and companies that are prepared to invest capital and take the risk of going into the international market place. He is also an advocate of the view the manufacturing sector was healthy and far from a spent force, as some believed.
Looking to the future, Mr Gibson said the core of New Zealand’s economy would remain pastoral based, but there would be a significant industry built on technology associated with sustainability, climate change, traceability and production yields. He says a key to the future was to get a greater appreciation of the need to export and to encourage more people in to science and technology careers.
One of Kelvin Broad's border collies |
If you scroll down you'll see the story about Kelvin Broad (1975-79).
There have been developments!
While still involved with distance learning at two universities, Kelvin and his wife Angie have recently shifted to the south west of Scotland where they spend a large part of their day training sheep dogs and being involved in trialling.
Further details are available on their website - http://www.kinlochsheepdogs.com
Mike Barrio |
Mike Barrio (1975-76) moved to Spain with his parents soon after leaving Otago Boys’ where he picked up the language so quickly he was soon passing as a Spaniard.
Mike taught English as a foreign language for a number of years in Leon where he met his wife. The couple moved to Scotland where Mike worked in the motor trade for 16 years as a parts manager.
However, there was always the love of the outdoors and he has spent the last six years establishing a trout fishing business in Aberdeenshire along with researching and developing a range of fly fishing rods and fly lines.
You can check in on Mike through his website - http://www.fishingthefly.co.uk
Jock (Russell) Anderson (1961-64) has been a reporter all of his working life.
Jock Anderson |
Jock joined the Otago Daily Times on February 11, 1965 and since then has had 18 years with the NZ Truth, 10 years operating community newspapers in Canterbury, spent time as a part-time journalism tutor at Timaru Polytechnic, nearly eight years with the National Business Review, has produced the television programme Eye to Eye and was voted the Qantas Newspaper Journalist of the Year in 1999.
Now, after almost a year with the Waiheke Week community newspaper, Jock – proudly looking forward to his 60th birthday in April – has re-invented himself as chief reporter of a re-born NZ Truth, which was brought back into New Zealand hands from the Australian-controlled Fairfax conglomerate in February.
Watch this space, says Jock.
Jock can be contacted at jock@nztruth.co.nz
Ron Dohig (1943-46), now lives in semi-retirement in Timaru.
After leaving school, Ron decided to become an architect, working for John D. Allingham in Dunedin before continuing his studies at the School of Architecture at the University of Auckland. After graduating in 1953, he worked for the Otago Education Board, being involved in the design of many of the schools around the province. A shift to Southland saw Ron working for A.G.A. Milne with the Kelvin Hotel one of his projects.
Ron Dohig |
In late-1960 Ron moved to Timaru with his wife Wendy and established his own practice, Dohig Design. Among the many notable buildings he has designed in Timaru are the South Canterbury Museum, Aigantighe Art Gallery (for which he received a national award), the Timaru Bridge Club, South Canterbury Farming House, Strathallan County Council Chambers and Salvation Army Fortress.
His mark is also seen on numerous educational, religious, commercial and residential buildings throughout the South Island. Ron worked for a spell in Townsville, North Queensland, in 1991 where he was involved in the design of several large projects including a $AUS130 million resort on Magnetic Island.
Away from the drawing board, Ron has served in Rotary and enjoyed time in the visual arts, photography and with the theatre where his voice has been heard in numerous music hall productions. His sporting interests have included soccer and squash.
But it’s fair to say Ron’s greatest passion has been Italian cars. From the time his father gave him a Fiat Topolino to drive to Auckland to begin his university studies in 1951 to the present day, Ron has built a collection of Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia vehicles the envy of many enthusiasts around the globe.
He is a member of the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of New Zealand and Lancia clubs in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. A recent highlight for Ron and Wendy was the invitation to represent New Zealand at Lancia’s centennial celebrations in Turin last year.
Roger Pitchforth (1955-56) - MNZM, BA, LLB, MBA (Hons) FAMINZ (Arb/Med) FCIArb Arbitrator, Adjudicator and Mediator – spent just two years at Otago Boys’ High School, leaving at the end of his fourth form to finish his secondary education at Christchurch Boys High.
Roger Pitchforth |
Roger completed a law degree at Victoria University and was practising in the Wairarapa (Carterton) during the 1970s.
In 1979, he began a university career at Massey University, starting as a senior lecturer in Business Law before establishing the Dispute Resolution Centre in the early 1990s. During his time as the Director, the Centre provided an internationally recognised programme for the training of arbitrators, mediators and latterly adjudicators.
Roger has written articles, books and provided conference papers on dispute resolution in America, Europe and Asia.
For the last 15 years he has been practising as an arbitrator and mediator, and over the last few years, an adjudicator. He is a Fellow of the Arbitrators' and Mediators' Institute of New Zealand and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK). He is a past President of the Institute.
In 2006 he was awarded an MNZM for services to dispute resolution. Roger retired from the university in 2006 as an Associate Professor and is now in practice as an arbitrator and mediator.
He can be contacted at arbmed ltd, P.O. Box 1536, Paraparaumu Beach 5252. Email: roger@arbmed.co.nz, ‘phone 0274 491 272.
Wallace Woodley (1950-1954) - QSO, MusB(Hons), BMus(London), FTCL, ARCM, LRAM, ARCO, LRSM, FIRMT - lives in Christchurch where he is in demand as a teacher of Piano Performance and Theory of Music.
During the latter years of his attendance at Otago Boys’ High School he was the school pianist. Four years of music study at Otago University followed, in the course of which he won the Charles Begg Scholarship in Music and the Jennie Macandrew Prize, before he graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree (with Honours) and was appointed for a short time to the staff of the Music Department as a Part-time Assistant Lecturer.
Wallace Woodley |
In 1959 Wallace was awarded a three-year overseas scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London, the Robert Parker Memorial Bursary (from the New Zealand Music Teachers’ Registration Board) and a two-year New Zealand Government Music Bursary. During his time at the RCM he studied piano performance, teaching and accompaniment, organ, harpsichord, conducting and composition, and gained a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of London. He served as Piano Accompanist for the RCM Choral Class, and was President of the RCM Christian Union. In 1961 he was awarded the Robert Ffennell Prize for musical excellence and was appointed a member of the Teaching Staff of the Junior College. In that year also, Novello & Co published one of his compositions, a four-part anthem for women’s voices.
During the years 1955-1962, Wallace was awarded eight separate professional music diplomas: in Piano Teaching, Piano Performance, Piano Accompaniment, Organ and Composition.
In 1962 he was awarded the Philip Neil Memorial Grant from Otago University and undertook some part-time classroom teaching of music at Cray Valley Boys’ Technical College in Sidcup, Kent.
He returned to New Zealand at the end of that year and took a position on the staff of Riccarton High School, Christchurch, as a specialist in music, remaining there for two years. From 1963-66 he was a member of the teaching staff of the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music and Organist/Choirmaster at Upper Riccarton Methodist Church. That same year he began a period of nine years as Piano Accompanist for the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, and in succeeding years provided the harpsichord continuo part in 23 annual performances given by the RCMS of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (most broadcast nationwide).
He became a Registered Music Teacher in piano, organ and theory and began a career in full-time private music teaching in 1965. Since then he has taught over 750 pupils at all levels with 285 successfully completing various diplomas and 77 becoming registered music teachers. His students have won many national and local awards and prizes.
In the mid-1960’s he was accorded the status of National Accompanist for the NZBC, and in 1971 the status of National Artist.
The Durham Street Methodist Church, in May 1967, appointed him Organist/Choir Director, a position he has held now for 40 years. Under his direction, the choir has made a number of commercial recordings and the church services have held a national profile on radio and television.
Throughout the past four decades, he has served the interests of music teachers and music in the community as a member of local and national committees. From 1968 to 1978 he was President of the Christchurch Society of Registered Music Teachers and was elected a Life Member of the Society in 1980. During the years 1986 to 1994 he was President of the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand; in 1986 he was elected a Fellow of the Institute; in 1995 he was elected a Life Member of the Institute. When the Examinations Board of the Institute was constituted in 1993, he was appointed Principal Examiner and oversaw the introduction and early history of the Institute’s Diploma (DipIRMT). He retired from that responsibility in 1997, but has continued to examine for the IRMT Examinations Board from time to time.
For twenty-one years from 1970, Wallace was a member of the Executive of the Christchurch Civic Music Council, serving as Chairman from 1981 until 1989 and being elected a Life Member of the Council in 1990. For many years he was active as convenor of the committees organising the National Concerto Competition and the early fund-raising for the Christchurch Town Hall’s Rieger Pipe Organ (opened in 1997).
As an examiner of practical performance for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music from 1991 until 2005, he visited more than 70 venues around New Zealand and undertook a tour in the United Kingdom in 1996.
In addition to teaching, being an organist, a choir director, and an examiner, he has been regularly employed as a recitalist and accompanist on piano, organ and harpsichord, a conductor, a lecturer, an adjudicator, and a composer.
In June 2003 he was appointed a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order (QSO) for Community Service.
He married Beverley (née Chirnside, also from Dunedin) in 1964 and the couple have three children and seven grandchildren.
Adding a little colour ... |
Jonathan Hyslop (2003-04) has taken a different pathway to most of his fellow leavers and it’s just as well he enjoys a crowd.
At the start of last year Jonathan began studies at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Perth, Western Australia where he successfully completed a Discipleship Training Course.
This comprised a three-month lecture phase with an international speaker lecturing on a new topic each week.
After the three months in the classroom, Jonathan was then posted on a four-month outreach phase where he was dispatched to downtown Cairo, Egypt’s biggest and busiest city which has a population of more than 11 million.
Cairo is actually the most populated city on the African continent.
making a difference ... |
His team was involved in helping out with community development, in local churches, teaching English and assisting at an orphanage, where a large colourful mural was painted to liven up the children's dull playing area.
After a four-month stint working back in New Zealand, Jonathan is now back in Perth on the YWAM staff involved with a Discipleship Training Course of 107 students from all around the world.
He is also involved in a two-year Basic Leadership School which will see him leading teams on mission trips to various countries, India being the first port of call later this year. Jonathan will be based in Hyderabad (population of more than seven million) and heading out on various ventures from there. He leaves Perth for India at the end of March with the posting for three months.
and enjoying the sights as well |
Additional information on Jonathan's pathway can be found on the Perth YWAM website on -
www.ywamperth.org.au/ypdts/ and old school mates can contact Jonathan on his email address - Pablo.blue@gmail.com
Old Boys John Sanders (1968-72, Associate Fellow of the Foundation) and Richard Morgan (1969-73) are hard at work training for next month’s senior World Curling Championships in Canada.
Richard Morgan and John Sanders - two of the five-strong New Zealand senior men's curling team |
John, who farms at Matangi Station near Alexandra, was part of the 2005 senior team (50 and over) which was the first senior selection from these shores to win a match at world championship level. That team, in fact, took four games at the champs in Scotland and was extremely close to playing for a medal. The match against England, dropped by a solitary shot, ended those chances.
For Richard, who farms near Omakau, the trip will be his first in the senior ranks.
The 2006 event will be contested at the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton, Alberta with New Zealand up against Canada, Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland and Finland. Two matches are scheduled each day scheduled with the first against Switzerland on 26th March.
While much of the funding required for the trip has been raised by the players, Merino New Zealand has assisted by way of supplying the players with dress jackets and pure merino wool Icebreaker playing gear.
The team leaves mid-March and will have a week’s training in Vernon, British Columbia.
Peter Verboeket |
Peter Verboeket (1977-81) has featured in the National Business Review's People in Business section.
Peter has joined forces with two other intellectual property law specialists to form a new firm.
A patent attorney, Peter has joined in partnership with John Terry and Jonty Ellis to establish Ellis Verboeket Terry with the firm based in Wellington.
Ian Billcliff (1986-90) will play in next month’s Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, representing Canada.
Born in Canada in October 1972, the first son of Old Boy John Billcliff (1959-60, also a former Master at Otago Boys’) and his wife, Glenda, another former staff member, Ian has played for Canada since 2001. He was a vital cog in Canada’s qualification for the 2003 World Cup with its third placing at the 2001 ICC Champions’ Trophy with standout innings of 42 against Bangladesh and 71 against Kenya at the latter tournament.
Ian Billcliff in his Canadian colours |
At the 2005 World Cup qualifying series, Ian was Canada’s leading run scorer with a tournament average of 79.1 with his innings including 104 against Papua New Guinea and 92 against Namibia.
He continued that form into last year’s games with his scores including a knock of 126 against Bermuda in the ICC Intercontinental Cup.
In Ian’s last year at Otago Boys’, where he captained the First XI, his team mates included future New Zealand representative Robert Kennedy and future Otago representatives Rob Lawson, Chris Finch and Rhiane Smith. It was no surprise that Otago Boys’ finished runner-up in that season’s national Secondary School Gillette Cup competition.
Ian went on to represent Otago (1990-91 to 1994-95), Wellington (1995-96) and Auckland (1997-99). He has now played 45 first-class matches and eight ODIs.
He’ll take on the New Zealand bowlers in the West Indies with Canada in the same pool as the Black Caps, England and Kenya. Also playing for Canada will be Central Districts’ batsman Geoff Barnett.
Ian’s youngest brother Mark (1990-94) played two first-class matches for Otago in 1998-99 while middle brother Grant (1989-93) was also a more than useful cricketer.
Parents John and Glenda have now retired to Stoke, Nelson.
Dr Kelvin Broad and Blade - a champion pair |
Kelvin Broad (1975-79) is currently the Assistant Professor for Curriculum, Teaching and Learning in the Graduate Division of the University of Calgary.
It's a busy life.
Having graduated with a PhD, MA, BEd and Dip Teaching, it's not surprising Kelvin looks for outdoor pursuits to balance his day.
A member of the New Zealand mountain running team (1994 - 96), he's taken up a new interest.
At the recent Alberta sheep dog trials, Kelvin entered his border collie Blade - and the pair is now the Alberta Novice Champions!
Great work.
It's not clear what the next challenge will be but there is no doubt it will involve the outdoors.
Arch Jelley (1936-40) has been inducted into the New Zealand Athletic Coaches’ Hall of Fame.
Arch, the senior gymnastic champion and feather weight boxing champion in 1939, is best known as the coach of one of the world’s greatest middle distance runners, John Walker, whom he mentored to the world mile record in 1975 (becoming the first man to run the distance in under 3 minutes 50 seconds) and the Olympic 1,500 metre gold medal in Montreal a year later. Walker was also the first man to run 100 sub-four minute miles (he eventually ran the distance 135 times in under four minutes), set a world 2,000 metre record which lasted a decade, won three Commonwealth Games’ medals, was twice named the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year and was voted the New Zealand Sportsman of the 1970s. (Arch is seen below tracking Walker's progress as he prepares for the 1976 Olympic Games).
Now living in retirement in Titirangi, Auckland, Arch is a retired Normal school principal and graduated with a BA (Hons) Degree in 1971 from the Victoria University of Wellington. Nearing his mid-80s, he still coaches a few athletes, but he has taken up lawn bowls with some success. He is also a keen bridge player and has taught bridge at the local club for more than a decade. He is also interested in genealogy – being a recorder for the McColl clan and the Jelley family.
Arch served in the Second World War, first in New Zealand in the Scottish Regiment and then in the navy when he was posted to England for his preliminary naval training. After being on Arctic convoy duty he was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant RNZNVR and was posted as a Gunnery Officer on coastal submarines. His final naval posting was as 3rd Hand and Navigator on HM Submarine “Vagabond”.
He was a keen runner himself – in both cross country events and the track, where he won a number of three and six mile races at centre level and over country where his best performance was in finishing 4th in the New Zealand Cross Country Championships. As well as coaching Walker to international success, Arch was coach of the New Zealand track team to two World Championships, two Olympic Games and one Commonwealth Games. He was also Coach or Chief Coach to three Oceania Teams competing in the World Cup and was appointed Manager of the New Zealand Athletic team to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, this team then withdrawn on political grounds.
Arch held many administrative positions in track and field at provincial and national level with these including a New Zealand cross country selector (1975-93), the national middle & long distance event Coach (1978-83), New Zealand national middle and long distance advisory coach (1983-87), President of Athletics New Zealand (1996-97) and Ombudsman for Athletics New Zealand (1997-2006). He was awarded the OBE for Services to Sport in 1981.
His fellow inaugural inductees were Arthur Lydiard, coach of champion middle distance athletes Peter Snell and Murray Halberg; Arthur Eustace, a 1950 Empire Games representative and long-standing advisory coach, lecturer and director of the National Coaches School; and fellow Dunedin man Jim Bellwood, who coached Yvette Williams to the 1952 Olympic Games women’s long jump goal medal, a world long jump record in 1954 and a host of Commonwealth Games’ successes.
Vince Ashworth (1948-50) proudly sports a CV which reads like of Who’s Who of global contact in the agricultural sector.
Vince Ashworth |
Vince, now a retired agricultural and rural development consultant living in Morrinsville, has expertise in agricultural extension, livestock, development and production, small holder farm system analysis, and institutional development and agricultural reform. He also has significant experience in team management, agricultural and rural investment analysis, project preparation, appraisal, supervision and evaluation, rural land valuation, and land tenure and reform issues.
His travels, since graduating from the Canterbury Agricultural College (Lincoln) in 1955 with a Diploma in Valuation and Farm Management, took him throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific, where he worked with scores of governments and major international banks. His services and experience saw him traveling across the globe for 50 years and his firm Ashworth and Clark was the first farm management consultation firm established in New Zealand.
(Please also see the story about Vince’s brother, Flying Officer Corran Ashworth, who was shot down and killed over France in August 1944. This is featured in the From the ODT link, dated 20th August 2006).
Trevor Scott (1954-58) and John Gilks (1955-59) have been made Distinguished Fellows of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
Distinguished Fellow awards are given annually to members who have sustained a prominent and distinguished career as a director, or who have given outstanding participation and services to the institute, the community or business. Messrs Scott and Gilks were among 11 businessmen who have been honoured.
Trevor Scott |
Mr Scott is a professional company director and founder of Dunedin accountancy firm T.D. Scott & Co. He has served on numerous boards since 1986 involving the publishing, manufacturing and hospitality industries. He has been chairman of Blis Technologies, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science Ltd and Steele Bros, and has been a director of Countrywide Banking Corp Ltd, Donaghys, Radioworks, Dunedin International Airport, Shotover Jets and Scenic Circle. He has also been a financial adviser to NZPA and number of regional newspapers. He is currently chairman of Arthur Barnett Ltd, Harraway and Sons, Mercy Hospital Dunedin, Pacific Edge Biotechnology and Tamahine Holdings, and is a director of Argent Group, Hirequip ING Property Trust Management, Neuren Pharmaceuticals, New Zealand Seed Fund, Scott Technology, Tasman Farms and Whitestone Cheese.
John Gilks |
Mr Gilks is a professional director whose earlier life was spent as a public chartered accountant in Dunedin. He founded Motor Trade Finances Ltd and was its managing director for 22 years. He has also been president of the Otago Chamber of Commerce and the Dunedin Rhododendron Trust. He has been a director of Arthur Barnett Ltd, the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand and the National Bank of New Zealand. He is currently chairman of Port Otago Ltd and Receivables Management (NZ) Ltd, and deputy chairman of Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Ltd. He is a director of Fisher & Paykel Finance Ltd, Dunedin City Holdings Ltd, and its subsidiaries, Business Mentors Ltd, Botry-Zen Ltd and a number of other smaller companies.
Richard Dryden |
Richard Dryden (1971-75) recently ended a long and successful stint as New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games weightlifting coach.
During his time in the role, New Zealand lifters secured two gold, one silver and two bronze Commonwealth Games’ medals (1998 and 2002), three top 10 placings at World Championships from 1997 to 2005, more than 300 New Zealand, Oceania and Commonwealth records, and more than 75 New Zealand, Oceania and Commonwealth titles. Richard has also spent time as a strength coach with various rugby teams, both in New Zealand and offshore including the All Blacks, and has been involved with many other sports as a strength and conditioning trainer – the likes of the Warriors, Team New Zealand Yachting, New Zealand boxing, athletics, cycling, softball, kayaking, basketball and Paralympics all benefiting from his expertise. He is a former New Zealand shot put and discus representative, has national weightlifting titles and records to his credit, and has played basketball, rugby and volleyball to representative level.
Allan Evans (1936-37) now lives in retirement in Timaru.
Married for 56 years to Jeanette, Allan – a retired engineer – has spent a lifetime involved in the protection of the environment and has been recognised for those services.
The engineering and planning officer with the South Canterbury Catchment board (1947-87), Allan shaped the face of the region’s drainage and river control schemes, and was also involved with the protection of river beds, flood and coastal hazard processes, catchment stream design and implementation, and riverbed tree planting.
Allan and his wife Jeanette, with daughters Judy and Mandy, at Government House in 2003 on the day Allan received the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Conservation |
He presented papers around the country over many years on these topics, was a keynote speaker at a number of national conferences and traveled overseas for the National Water and Soil Conservation Authority. Allan also served on the Department of Conservation’s Task Force on coastal, marine, rivers and lakes law reform (1988) and was contracted to the department in relation to its responsibilities to navigable rivers and lakes, land status and deficiencies in legislation and common law.
In 1996, he was a speaker at the Fourth Asia and Pacific Parliamentarians conference on environment and development.
Among the awards honouring Allan’s work have been the Winston Churchill Fellowship in the late-70s and an additional Fellowship grant in the early-80s, allowing him to study land use, land tenure, and poplar research and utilisation trends throughout Europe and the United States; and the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003 for Services to Conservation.
Outside of his work, Allan has been active in the scout movement, with local tennis, badminton and deer stalking clubs, and has been involved on various forestry development bodies in New Zealand and Australia as well as making a significant contribution to the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand and the New Zealand Deerstalkers’ Association, of which he is a Life Member.
Allan’s health hasn’t been all that good in recent years, having suffered a stroke and then a fall, which resulted in serious injury. But his mind is sharp and his daughters Mandy and Judy report he is learning to walk again. Allan is still able to visit Jeanette, who is in a nearby rest home, several times a week and we wish them both well.
The Hon Robert Smellie (1945-48) officially retired from the bench in 1998 but continues to preside in the Cook Islands, Fiji and in various arbitration courts in New Zealand.
Hon Robert Smellie with his wife Lyndsay the day he was sworn in as a High Court Judge |
After graduating from Otago University with his LL.B in 1958, Robert practised until 1976, being awarded the Bruce Elliott Memorial prize, for service to the law and the community, in 1972. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979, became a Member of the New Zealand Law Society's Disciplinary Tribunal and was appointed Chairman of the Equal Opportunities Tribunal in 1982.
A Judge of the High Court in Auckland from 1985 to 1998, Robert continued in the role after compulsory retirement, taking the reins as Acting Judge for a further five years.
His work didn't stop there. He was the Chancellor or Vice Chancellor to the Archbishop of Melanesia from 1975 to 2004, was appointed the Complaints Review Officer to the Auckland City Council in 1999, was made a Life Member of the LAWASIA, a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association and a member of the New Zealand Bar Association.
Since 2000 he has been the Judge of the Court of Appeal in Fiji and has filled the same role for the Cook Islands since 2001.
Robert was awarded the New Zealand Commemoration medal in 1990 and made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in June 2000.
The Class of 1956 lines up for a photo at last weekend's reunion |
Almost 100 boys from the 1956 intake met at the school during the first weekend of September to talk about old times and reflect on their lives over the last 50 years.
Rector Clive Rennie (1958-61) spoke of a time when families had two biological parents, and psychiatrists, psychologists and pharmacists had little impact on school life.
The rector in those days was “God”, he said.
A market model of schooling was introduced after 1989, and older staff members sometimes struggled after corporal punishment was banned.
Neal Ibbotson (Blenheim), John Fleming (Invercargill) and John Robertson (Alexandra) share a moment last weekend (Photos courtesy Otago Daily Times) |
From having only European and Chinese pupils 50 years ago, the school now hosted boys of 26 nationalities, Mr Rennie told the assembled guests.
One of the reunion's organisers Matt Henderson, a former Waimate High School principal and now Waimate District councillor, said a committee was formed last September to organise the event.
Members advertised, and combed electoral rolls, phone books and the Internet to find old boys.
Matt noted the school had changed “immensely”, but the education received in the 1950s had provided a good foundation for what pupils wanted to do when they left.
30 years on - Graham Wardrop (left) with fellow Lutha band member Peter Fraser. |
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,
Lutha - from left, Graham Wardrop, Garry McAlpine, Peter Fraser, Peter Edmonds and Kevin Foster (Photos courtesy Otago Daily Times) |
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 set for 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
Lindsay Matheson at his desk at Madras College |
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.
Madras College founder - the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell |
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.
Ross Grieve (1985-89) now lives in Pembrokeshire, Wales in, for a Dunedin fellow, a house which carries the name of Carisbrook.
Ross Grieve |
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, on occasion, he also turns out for the Cresselly Cricket Club.
The name Magnus Sinclair has been synonymous with Otago Boys' for much of the last 50 years.
Magnus Sinclair and his kiwi sculpture, which is on display in the Careys Bay Hotel (Photo courtesy of The Star, Dunedin) |
Magnus attended the school from 1955 to '59 and returned as a part-time teacher in 1963. After three years in the part-time role, he took up a full-time position and was a permanent member of staff until he retired in 2000.
His passion now is sculpting, with a series of steel and glass works spread around the country a source of great pride for him. Magnus says his interest was sparked 25 years ago as he was building a steel yacht while he admits his days as a biology teacher have helped when creating sculptures of animals and birds.
A terrific example of his work - a kiwi, which took 10 weeks to complete - is on display at the Careys Bay Hotel.
Magnus graduated from Otago University with a BSc and now has a Diploma in Wildlife Management. He taught at a time when an awareness of DNA, ecology and conservation was beginning to emerge.
Bill Manhire |
Bill Manhire (1960-63) has just won a Montana Award for his book Lifted.
Believing it’s the best book he’s written, Bill is delighted to think the award judges are of the same opinion.
A professor of writing at Victoria University in Wellington, Bill has enjoyed a prolific career during which he has received four New Zealand Book Awards. He has written several volumes of fiction, edited several bestselling anthologies of New Zealand poetry and short stories, and had a collection of his essays and interviews published.
Last year, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and he was named as one of the five Arts' Foundation of New Zealand Laureates. It is reported he wrote his first poem at the age of seven.
David Hamilton (1976-80) is back in New Zealand after spending 12 years lecturing at the University of Western Australia in Perth.
Profesor David Hamilton on the shores of Lake Wanaka late last week (Photo courtesy of the Otago Daily Times) |
Graduating from Otago University with a BSc and PhD, both in zoology, David is now a Professor in Biological Studies at the University of Wakato in Hamilton where he is also chairman of the university’s lake restoration programme. He was in Wanaka late last week for a series of seminars on challenges for lake management and to offer advice on the type of monitoring required to ensure the retention of the best water quality possible in the great lakes of the south.
David is a former first-class rugby player, representing Otago in 25 games between 1983 and ’87, and a more than useful track athlete as well. He played for Western Australia from 1993 to ’96, having the distinction of scoring the first try against the post-apartheid Springboks as they started their 1993 tour in Perth, Western Australia eventually losing 56-13.
Married to Debbie (nee Edwards, ex Bayfield High School in Dunedin) and with three children aged 13, 11 and nine, David confines his fitness work to less vigorous pursuits these days – when time permits. David’s father Iain (1952) and brother Greg (1979-83) are also Old Boys.
Wilfred Simenauer (1943, 1945-46), now lives in retirement in Wellington.
Having fled from Nazi Germany to New Zealand, school days weren’t always the happiest for Wilf and his brother Frank (1941-42) with many boys of the era more than a little insensitive. However, he says his own classmates eventually came to understand the difference between a Nazi and a refugee.
Wilf made the First XV and was also a very fine musician, which led to his father withdrawing him from the team to ‘protect his hands’. And it was music which became Wilf’s greatest love.
Wilf Simenauer, as pictured in 1966, preparing for a performance with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (Photo taken by Greg Royle) |
Having traveled to Britiain, Wilf joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra where he was sub-Principal cellist from 1950 to 1953. He played as Principal cellist for Sadler’s Wells Opera & Ballet Orchestra from 1953 to ’55, while also deputising for the BBC’s Symphony Orchestra, the BBC’s Concert Orchestra and with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Wilf then went on to play for the Philharmonia Orchestra (1955-57); the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1957-60); the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Ensemble, where he was a Founder member and co-Principal cellist in 1959; and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Principal cellist) from 1960 to ’64. Upon returning to New Zealand, he was the Principal cellist for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to ’70; and the co-Principal cellist (1971-93). He also played as Principal cellist for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1970.
He has also been a regular soloist with the BBC, ABC and Radio NZ, and the New Zealand Chamber Music Federation, along with playing concertos in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Wilf was the solo cellist on the NZSO’s tour of Australia in 1974 with Kiri te Kanawa and Michael Houston.
The Princess Royal visiting Geoffrey Davies at McConnel Ltd's 70th anniversary celebrations. The Princess Royal owns no less than three McConnel Hedge Cutters |
Geoffrey Davies (1961-63) left New Zealand for the United Kingdom with many happy memories of Otago Boys’, representing Otago in age group rugby at halfback and playing cricket with Glenn Turner particularly enjoyable.
After training in Britain as a naval navigation officer, Geoffrey entered industry in 1973 and has made an enormous impact, receiving an OBE from the Queen in 2004 for services to British agriculture.
Geoffrey’s curriculum vitae makes for impressive reading - a BSc(Hons) and MSc from Manchester University, and a Post Graduate Diploma from Keele University; Vice President of an American NYSE listed company (worth $NZ750 million) and Managing Director of a group of 10 agricultural and commercial mowing equipment manufacturing companies spread through Britain, France, the Netherlands and Russia.
He is also the recipient of a swag of machinery and Business of the Year awards.
Geoffrey’s energy is also spent as a Director of the British Chamber of Commerce; Director and Council member of the Agricultural Engineers Association; and Chairman of the Farm Equipment Council.
He also serves as a member of the Regional Strategy
Geoffrey receiving his OBE for Services to British Agriculture from the Queen at Buckingham Palace |
Group for Trade and Investment for the West Midlands region of England; is a guest lecturer at the Harper Adams Agricultural University College; is Chairman of the Higher Heath Football Club, which he founded for eight to 15 year olds; and is involved with a good number of charities.
Geoffrey hopes to be in New Zealand early next year and plans a visit to Dunedin.
Harold Nelson with his Empire Games gold and silver medals - after being inducted into Sport Tasman's Legends of Sport Gallery last month (Photograph supplied by The Nelson Mail) |
Harold Nelson (1936-39), best remembered for his brilliant form at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland, was recently inducted into Nelson’s Legends of Sport Gallery.
Harold captivated the home crowd on the opening day of the 1950 Games, speeding to the six mile gold medal. Later in the meeting, he took the three mile silver medal. The races are the equivalent of today’s 10,000 and 5,000 metre contests with his feat in the longer event emulated 24 years later by Dick Tayler at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
A standing ovation at the Nelson Sports Person of the Year awards greeted the announcement Harold had been given the honour of being the first member of the Legends of Sport Gallery.
His three mile finish was screened as he made his way to the stage with Harold able to tell the crowd the six mile race hadn’t been filmed, with a race official telling the cameraman to go away ‘because none of the New Zealanders in the race were any good’.
Captivating a nation - Harold Nelson winning the six mile gold medal at the 1950 Empire Games in Auckland |
Prior to the 1950 Games, Harold had captained the New Zealand team at the 1948 London Olympics where he carried the flag into a packed Wembley Stadium, and he is this country’s oldest living Olympic flag bearer.
A retired secondary school teacher and polytechnic lecturer, Harold moved from Dunedin to Nelson in 1951, the year he finished his competitive athletics career, and has lived there ever since. He has continued a strong involvement with the sport through coaching and administration and has an MBE for services to the sport.
Humble to the extreme, Harold noted the honour of being inducted into the Legends Gallery was the 'icing on the cake' while Sport Tasman's Tony Thomas said he was an obvious choice for the award.
"It's all about recognising someone who epitomises all that is good about sport - success, dedication and grit. Harold has given so much over the years."
Hear! Hear!
Aaron Fitchett - graduation day in May this year. Great attitude, terrific employer - wonderful outcome |
Does hard work and encouragement pay off? You bet it does.
Aaron Fitchett (1993-95) is the perfect example
After finishing school at the end of Year 11 (5th form) and with a short course in Introduction to Business Studies at the Otago Polytechnic under his belt, Aaron left New Zealand for Australia.
At the age of sixteen, he started work in Brisbane as an Office Junior with an accountancy firm, Chancellors Pty Ltd. His computer skills and his aggressive learning ability very quickly earned him advancement within the company, with his employer soon recommending that Aaron need to earn his degree.
Being accepted into the university of his choice presented something of a problem with Aaron hot having completed his Higher School Certificate, nor matriculated. But perseverance eventually won through and Aaron earned a Bachelor of Taxation degree from the Law Department of the University of New South Wales, graduating with Distinction in 2004.
He then went on to complete his Master of Taxation from the same faculty, graduating in May of this year having completed an impressive eight years of study while holding down a full time job.
In 2005 Aaron became a partner and director with Chancellors Pty Ltd, the firm which consistently provided support and mentoring as he pursued his goals.
Aaron has maintained a keen interest in sport since leaving Otago Boys' and currently plays water polo and pursues his love of speed by racing motor bikes.
Garth Gilmour - prolific writer and chronicler of the feats, thoughts and foresight of New Zealand sporting legends |
Garth Gilmour (1939-41) – in his own words vaguely remembers being at Otago Boys’ at that time, departing with no academic qualification but the hearty approval of the Rector, Mr H.P. Kidson. In the intervening years, he has been a journalist, advertising copywriter, public relations wheel-greaser, journalistic tutor, magazine editor and author, marathon runner, and track and road racing cyclist.
Book writing began in 1960, when he teamed with the redoubtable coach Arthur Lydiard to teach athletes in all spheres of activity how to training properly. The Lydiard-Gilmour team’s 10 books, which began with Run to the Top and Run for Your Life, have remained in publication in several languages for the past 46 years.
Garth also wrote the biographies of Lydiard’s greatest runners, Murray Halberg and Peter Snell, the multi-medal-winning paraplegic Eve Rimmer, the ultra-marathoner Sandra Barwick and, in 2004, the story of Lydiard himself, published not long before he died, at 87, on his farewell lecture tour of the United States.
The 19th of his books, Use It or Lose It, to be published in August by Penguin, is co-authored with Snell and is a no-nonsense examination of the world’s health problems along with the simple cures that are available to everyone, of all ages, without recourse to health clinics, diets or taxing exercise regimes.
The 20th, now being written for publication next year, is an update of the 1965 Snell biography, No Bugles No Drums, to explain the remarkable transformation of how the world’s greatest middle-distance runner, at the age of 34, turned himself into an internationally recognised scientist in the fields of human performance, wellness and ageing.
Garth’s mission has been to ensure the contributions of Lydiard and his athletes to revolutionary training techniques and the invention of jogging, which captured the attention of millions world-wide, will never be forgotten. To him, Lydiard was, and still is, the New Zealander who has had the greatest influence on world health and athletic achievement.
Now in his 81st year, Garth is contemplating retirement.
Dave Henry - on his way up Pacific Street in Roslyn on a fine, clear but frosty Dunedin morning (Photograph - Otago Daily Times) |
Then Dave Henry (1951-54) would be the man to act as your tour guide.
Dave has just completed - for the sixth time - walking every street in the city, from Careys Bay to the Taieri.
Battling asthma and emphysema, such an undertaking is a struggle for Dave but he acknowledges he would feel worse if he didn't stick to a strict exercise regime. He completed his first walk 14 years ago with the Dunedin Round the Harbour marathon following almost immediately afterwards.
Working suburb by suburb, Dave walks for a couple fo hours a day with his sixth expedition taking a little longer than a year to complete. He reckons he's walked close to 6,000 kilometres over the six treks with Mosgiel, due to its lack of hills, and Andersons Bay because of its views, the nicest areas in which to walk. Conversely he's not fond of North East Valley or St Leonards with some of the streets in those suburbs too steep for comfort.
It is also quite possible that Dave is the only person to have walked the full Dunedin marathon. in 1992 the journey took 6 hours 17 minutes and 1994 it took 6 hours 37 minutes.
Well known in his earlier working life for his time at the old Otago Savings Bank which became Trust Bank Otago, Dave was the executive officer for Age Concern Otago before his retirement.
Donald Munro - the founder of the New Zealand Opera Company |
Donald Munro (1927) – was born in 1913, the son of British immigrants who met on the ship coming out. He grew up on the family farm near Mosgiel and spent his out of school hours milking 19 cows morning and evening – an inauspicious beginning to the man known as the 'founding father' of opera in New Zealand and the New Zealand Opera Company. Battling through the depression years, Donald found himself in a variety of jobs - office boy, waiting, labouring, gold mining, driving taxis and trucks – while, as fine boy soprano, taking lessons from his mother.
After winning prizes in local competitions as a baritone, Donald was encouraged by a visiting examiner from London’s Trinity College to further his training in England.
He sailed in 1939 and arrived with £10 in his pocket. Enrolled at the Royal College of Music, he took on a variety of musical roles to support himself in war-torn London.
After 12 years Sadler's Wells Opera combined with study in Paris, Donald returned to Dunedin in 1951 before moving to Wellington.
He began his own opera company in 1953 and the rest, as is said, is history.
More than 50 years later, Donald received the prestigious Icon Award from the New Zealand Arts Foundation for his services to New Zealand cultural life.
Donald is now 93, in rude good health and lives in Sydney, visiting New Zealand from time to time. He is a Friend of the Foundation.
For a full description of Donald’s fascinating career, its triumphs and disappointments, and his contribution to New Zealand, please log on to a special website created by one of his former pupils - Martin Cooke:
www.operafolkscom/Cooke/Munro_Munro_page.html
Those at school in the 1980s reveled in the fame the Netherworld Dancing Toys were generating. With a couple of the school’s Old Boys in the group – Brent Alexander (1977-81) on drums and Graham Cockcroft (1976-80, Head Boy in 1980) playing bass guitar – and two others – David Houston (1977-80) involved in the sound and Ged Taylor (1976-80) in charge of the lighting – Otago Boys’ alumni were at the forefront of the music industry.
A seven-strong group, which featured a three-piece brass section, the Netherworld Dancing Toys were, for a time, the most popular band in the country. The Toys had a huge live following and with a series of catchy singles, they raced from being an Otago University-based band to the top-selling group in New Zealand after just a couple of releases.
Debuting in February 1982, the band achieved Gold record status and, in 1986, cleaned up the New Zealand music awards, winning six categories – including best band, best album ‘Painted Years’, best single ‘For Today’ (by public vote and which still receives air time) and best producer. The Toys last official public performance was in June 1990.
And there is another link with the band and the Foundation. Matthew Trbuhovic, from Third Eye Design & Graphics in Dunedin, who played saxophone in the lineup, is the man behind the Foundation’s website design.
And where are the Old Boys now? Brent Alexander has thedesignstudio in Dunedin, Graham Cockcroft works for British Gas in Rio de Janeiro, David Houston has recently returned to the city and Ged Taylor is living in Wellington.
Brian Merrilees (1952-56) – graduated in French from Otago University in 1960 and a year later left for Paris to further his studies. After completing a Doctorat de l’Universite in 1964 Brian took up a position at the University of Toronto where he remained until retirement in 2004. He held several administrative positions at the university, including chairmanship of the Department of French and as academic Vice-Provost. Over the years Brian has published a large number of books and articles on medieval French and he continues to undertake research on the French language along with directing graduate students. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2002. Away from the university he retains a life-long interest in track and field and still occasionally competes in Masters pole vault competitions. He and his wife Pat avoid much of the Canadian winter now by spending the early months of each year back in New Zealand. Brian is a Friend of the Foundation.
Ben Naylor (1937-41) is set to step down as a Board member of Naylor Love Construction. After war service and study at the New Zealand Mining School Pre and post-war), Ben joined his father Hugh in the family firm of W.H. Naylor in the early-1950s. Before heading to active duty in Egypt and Italy in 1943 he remembers spending time at the old Otago Daily Times building (corner of Burlington Street and the Queens Gardens) putting up blinds for use at night to ensure the building wasn’t targeted by enemy air force raids. Ben merged the building companies Naylor and Love in 1969 and will step down from the Naylor Love board later this month after more than 50 years as a director. Ben's son Christopher will take his place on the Naylor Love Board. Ben is a Friend of the Foundation.
Fred Henderson (1944-47) is set to retire as President of New Zealand Golf after six years in the role, the presidency capping a marvelous contribution to the game in New Zealand and globally. After almost two decades as a senior rugby referee in Auckland, Fred took up golf and decided a better understanding of the rules would assist his game. Chief handicapping duties at the Remuera Club led to a similar position with the Auckland Golf Association and a role with a trial of modified course rating and handicap systems which were implemented nationally in 1984. Six years ago Fred piloted into general use the New Zealand version of the American Slope course rating and handicapping. But it’s perhaps hands-on where Fred has gained his greatest enjoyment. He has refereed at one World Cup, one World Matchplay, 10 British Opens, five Irish Opens, several European professional tournaments and two Eisenhower Trophy world amateur events. At the 1996 British Open at Royal Lytham, Fred was assigned to the group comprising Tiger Woods, Darren Clark and Retief Goosen and a couple of years later walked Royal Birkdale with Jack Nicklaus and Payne Stewart. Fred remains an advisory member of the rules of golf and amateur status committees of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and intends to play a little more once his presidency ends.
Matthew Heal (1992-96) is now involved in one of the most strenuous but exciting roles imaginable – working with the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) in London as that city looks to stage the 2012 Olympic Games. After completing a BA in Geography and BSc in Land Planning at Otago University, Matthew was then accepted into the Masters of Urban Design programme at Oxford Brookes University. Near the end of this study, he won an internship with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, a government organising driving higher standards in the quality of development throughout Britain. Matthew was then appointed to the project management team to work on the Olympic Park master plan. Now with the ODA, Matthew is playing a part in the development – from scratch – of a 700 acre park in an area of major deprivation and with a chequered industrial history and laden with tube lines, overhead high voltage cables, train routes, highways and rivers! Matthew reports the project is progressing with an immoveable deadline. If you’re thinking of going to the 2012 Games, then Matthew would be a useful contact.
Charles Matthews (1992-96, Head of House ’96, Best All Round Boy ’96) now flies Tornadoes for the Royal Air Force in Britain. Charles began his flying career with the Royal New Zealand Air Force before moving to London almost five years ago.
John Blaikie (1987-91) has followed in the footsteps of younger brother Duncan (1989-93) in being elected captain of the Cambridge University rugby team. Duncan led the Light Blues in 2002 and John has played a pivotal role in the continued success of Cambridge over the last two years, scoring a try in the most recent match against arch-rival Oxford in the 124th clash between the two at Twickenham.
And spotted in the gossip columns of the Otago Daily Times on 29th June 2006 was news of John's marriage to former Otago netballer Tara Pate - the wedding ceremony planned for Friday 30th June in Christchurch.
Among the wedding party would be Taine Randell and Anton Oliver while a good number of the 1998 NPC winning side were said to be on the guest list.
Jeffery Vanderwerf, an American exchange student at Otago Boys' from August 1995 to August 1996, is coming back to Dunedin in July 2006 to study at the University of Otago.
Jeffery is a biologist at the Washington Department of Natural Resources, having graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington . He has changed his last name to Vanderpham, that being a combination of his and his wife's surnames.
Jeffery says he enjoyed his time at school and is looking forward to catching up with his mates when he returns.
Percy Wellington (1925 – 1928), the oldest graduate of Otago University’s School of Business, now 95 and living at the Frances Hodgkins Retirement Village in Dunedin.
Geoff Stevenson (1956-60) emigrated to Canada in 1968 and now lives in retirement in Victoria, British Columbia. After working for the Otago Daily Times, Geoff went on to become managing editor of two of Canada’s largest daily newspapers. He is married to the former Anita Watson and they have one son, Brad, who is a manager with Microsoft in Seattle. Geoff is keen to organize a 50th reunion of his 1960 First XV, although he now thinks that may be easier during the World Cup of 2011. Geoff can be contacted through his email address – geoff-stevenson@shaw.ca Geoff is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation.
