St Johns Ravenscourt School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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ANOTHER CHANGE . . . MR. L.D. McMURRAY, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS, 1965-1968, HANDS POSITION TO MR. S.A. SEARLE JR. LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING.

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sherry with my wife. 1959-60. If there was a year in which it can be said that the School assumed its present shape this is the year. The Lower School now had its own administrative head, Hamber Hall had been finished and opened by Eric Hamber (in memory of his father). During his opening remarks he became so choked with emotion that he never really finished his speech. He was a fine old man and was friendly and cordial with the boys. It is startling tor me to realize that the staff was only half its present size but the enrolment was too large for an annual photograph of everybody grouped on the lawn by Thompson House. This was the year we started the Junior Prefect scheme for boys in Grade 11. Grade 12 standing had now become a compulsory requirement for entrance to University and so all prefects were chosen from that Grade. Prior to this a fair number of boys left after 11 and prefects were chosen from both years. The most important event of this year was perhaps the January Meetings which brought to the School Davidson Dunton (President ofCarleton University), Francis Parkman (then Executive Secretary of the National Council of Independent Schools), Lawrence Terry (then Headmaster of Middlesex School), Moffat Woodside (then Principal of U. of T.’s University College), Ted Davidson (then Chairman of Toronto School Board and a former colleague of my V.C.C. days), Hum Bonnycastle (Headmaster of Rothesay) and some local people including the Chairman of the Winnipeg School Board. The out-of-town visitors lived in dormitories in Hamber Hall. (The boys got up early to clear the washroom.) They met with the boys, with the staff, with the Board on Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday morning discussing various aspects of the question: what makes a good school? I don’t know that anyone came up with any startling answers but the fact of having all these people here and seeing their friendly interest in our affairs was an encouragement to us all and gave us I think a sort of new belief in our efforts. It was as good for morale as the visit of Vincent Massey had been when he opened the Memorial Wing. The events of the succeeding years are well known to so many members of the present staff and Board that they do not need to be set down in detail here. Of this last half of my time here I should however say a word about one of the most important decisions we made — the decision to double classes from Grades 7 to 12. The decision was a right one I think but a very difficult one. When we made it we knew that it meant more building, more staff, the necessity of finding more boys. It was made partly because it was believed that such increase in numbers would enable the school to break even financially. This belief was unfounded. This decision inevitably made the School a little more impersonal. I began to feel that I knew fewer boys really well, that I was confined to my office for longer each day and that I could no longer have or fcxpect to have quite the same relationship to the life of the School as had been the case when we were smaller. Too many of the dayboys I know only by name and sight. It was however the right decision. It was this decision that enabled us to attract the broad public support we have enjoyed in raising money for buildings. It has given us size and confidence, better teams, a stronger staff and a larger importance than would ever have been possible otherwise. I should like to end these rambling notes with two anecdotes that stick in my mind. Procter Girard, aged 11, had found an old bugle around the School which he asked me if he could have. 1 gave it to him. An hour later he came to my office with a bloody mouth and torn between tears and laughter. His front tooth had been pushed backward. “What happened to you? ” “Well it was like this, sir. I was in command and we were about to attack. I shouted ‘follow me men’ put the bugle to my lips and ran into the side of the gym.” We tried to raise chickens at the school in one of the early years. I had visions of feeding the boys fried chicken every Sunday night. Mary and I were at a formal dance at Balmoral Hall wh ;rc we met a farm wife. We asked her about raising chickens and discovered we weren’t feeding our birds nearly enough. We arrived back at the school and in evening dress, white tie and all went and fed the starving creatures. Later, when it got cold and wet we moved them into the basement of the gym where they smelled the place up to high heaven. This was all during the summer. We went away and left them in charge of Sheila Maurer, Russ Gowing, Walter Hartwig and Tom Bredin. I was in Penticton when I got a letter from Sheila who told me that they had decided to sell the ones that had not already perished to Dunn-Rite broilers. We almost recovered our outlay. There was no talk of raising chickens again. 5

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NEW HEADMASTER H.J.P. SCHAFFTER On Tuesday, October 1st Air. Stewart A. Searle Jr., Chairman of the Board of Governors, St John’s-Ravenscourt School, announced to the School at chapel the appointment of H. John P. Schaffter as Headmaster of the School with effect from April 1st, 1969. Born in Iran of British parents Mr. Schaffter was educated in England, received his M.A. degree from King’s College, Cambridge in 1955 and at the time of his appointment was assistant to the Headmaster of the Preparatory School, Upper Canada College, Toronto. Mr. Schaffter succeeds Richard L. Gordon, Headmaster of the school from 1951 who has resigned to become Executive Director of the Glenbow-Alberta Institute in January 1969. Mr. Searle also announced that effective January 1st, 1969 and until Mr. Schaffter takes up his post, Thomas F. Bredin, Assistant Headmaster would assume responsibility for the School as acting Headmaster.