Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

Page 18 text:

MR. F. T. JONES It was lunch-time. One of the new masters fa quiet and unobtrusive gentleman from Walesj was on duty for the first time. The boys were in their places, and there was the usual slight shuffling and muttering which always precedes the silence for grace. Suddenly the air was shattered by two deafening staccato bellows: HSHUDDUP! STANDSTILLV' Fred Jones had arrived - in every sense of the word! The effect was electrifying and there can't have been a boy who wasn't wondering what had hit him. But this formidable voice was the voice of experience. How many teachers still make the fatal mistake of trying to be palsie-walsiei' fto quote one of Mr. Marland's favourite phrases!j from the start, and then wonder why they can't maintain any sort of discipline? Mr. Jones was too old a hand to fall into that particular trap. He left nobody in any doubt as to who was going to be the boss, having established that, he was able to relax gradually and methodically, and soon to become one of the most kindly and popular masters Ashbury can ever have known. This popularity was exemplified by some writing on a wallg under the name F. JONES on his parking space, somebody added H. . . is a nice guy. Rather different from most of the statements expressed in mural adomments at Ashbury - or any other school, for that matter! The writer of those words summed up the general view. However rebel- lious the present-day student may seem, he still respects fand prefers, a master who will keep him in order and demand high standards from him. Fred Jones did just that - but he did it with a warm humanity and a glorious sense of humour. He was also a steadying influence on the Masters' Common Room, where tempers occasionally Hy as high as thev do anywhere else in the school. The first time Mr. Jones was witness to sn. it, he stared at the offender in blank disbelief and then, with withering -n, uttered the immortal phrase OH, PICKY PICKY! -- which may look meaningless on paper but which had a devastating effect at the time! He came to us from St. George's School in Vancouver, where he now returns - partly to escape the Ottawa winter, but principally to accept vastly increased responsibility as Administrative Assistant to the Headmaster. One can only hope that a teacher of his calibre will not be totally lost to the classroom - but whatever he does will be characterized by zeal, efficiency and almost overpowering enthusiasm. And if, in a few months' time, we learn of a beer famine in B.C., we shall know that Fred still maintains an unchallengeable supremacy in yet another of his many and varied talents! He leaves Ashbury a better place for his two-year sojoum among us, and he will be greatly missed by stall' and boys alike. We thank him for what he has done fand, far more, for what he has beenl, and we wish him, Carol, Simon and Martyn a safe trip to the Far West fcharacteristically they're going via the Maritimes -- how did he ever become a geography teacher! Q, and a full, happy and successful life when they get there. - c.W.'r. 16 PHOTO av M. L. w. BARNES

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MR. V. J. BURCZAK Mr. Vic Burczak joined the Staff in September 1970 to teach Physical Education and Geography. but his activities have ranged far beyond the gymnasium and the classroom. He has been assistant coach of lst Football. coach of 2nd Hockey and of Track and Field: in addition he founded and ran the Archery Club and took on the task of advertising manager for the Ashburian. To Mr. Burczak belongs the distinction of having devised an equitable form of roster for day duty masters whereby no one member of the Staff was stuck with a fixed and possibly distasteful day of the week. We thank Mr. Burczak for his contribution to the life of Ashbury and we give him and Mrs. Burczak our best wishes for the future. .l. A. C. MR. W. W. BYFORD It is not often on these pages that we can record the happy conclusion of a lifelong teaching career. This year. such an occurrence has taken place in the case of Mr. W. W. Byford, affectionately known to his colleagues as Bill . Q Bill Byford taught his first class in London. England, in 1929. From that day to this he has practised his profession all over the world and can speak with equal ease of classrooms in Singapore, Africa. The United Kingdom or America. He raised his teaching skills to the highest level and those students passing through his Chemistry and Mathematics classes will remember his lessons as they remember few others. Indeed. they have been most privilegedg there are few of us today that can match Bill's ability to combine the strictest of class discipline with an acceptable learning situation. Behind Bill's some- times fierce countenance there was always a heart-felt willingness to help a student achieve his fullest potential. Very few boys did not discover this. as the numbers of boys who beat a path to the Byford door at any hour of the night or day bear witness. Happily the Byford family are not moving too far away. We hope that we shall continue to see them on social and other occasions of the School. It will be hard for us to think of the teaching profession without Bill being part of itg somewhere, somehow. Perhaps if we hope hard enough we won't have to! W.A.J. n Q 5 -' N' Y S I Qi? 7' 'H ' . larry ' ' ' ' .. V, 1 PHOTO BY JANE EMBER 15

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MR. G. W. THOMSON Mr. Geoffrey Thomson came to Ashbury in 1967 after considerable ex- perience in England as a director of school music. also finding time to make appearances as pianist, organist, solo bass singer and actor. Mr. Thomson found further scope for his versatility in Canada. As the first Housemaster of New House, later renamed Connaught House, he brought firmness and understanding to his dealings with the boys under his care. His teaching activities have by no means been limited to his position as Director of Music: at various times he has been active in the classroom as a teacher of Public Speaking, English and French. For his last year he exchanged Music at Ashbury for Music and Drama at Elmwood. mounting a highly successful production by the Drama Class of Ladies in Retirement by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham, he himself giving a most convincing performance in the one male role. A noteworthy feature of Mr. Thomson's musical and stage activity has been the annual Ashbury-Elmwood Gilbert and Sullivan production: over the years his roles in this event have included musical director, stage director, and leading soloist - at least one of these per production. Perhaps his tour de force in this respect was achieved in the recent production of The Mikado , when a figure robed as a Japanese nobleman was seen and heard at the pianog this figure then rose and walked up on to the stage - a move to be repeated frequently during the evening - to reveal himself as a resonant Pooh-Bah. Gradually Geoffrey Thomson became a notable figure on the musical scene of Ottawa. His ljterate and knowledgeable writing as a music critic for the Ottawa Ioumal commended him to a wide circle of readers. He has been organist and choirmaster of St. Alban's Church and subsequently of Trinity Anglican Church, and he has appeared as guest conductor of both the Canadian Centennial Choir and the Ottawa Civic Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Thomson now goes to Lakefield College School as Director of Music. He takes with him our best wishes for his future career and we hope that he and Mrs. Thomson will enjoy life in their new surroundings. J.A.G. PHOTO COURYESY OF U.P.l. I 17