High-resolution, full color images available online
Search, browse, read, and print yearbook pages
View college, high school, and military yearbooks
Browse our digital annual library spanning centuries
Support the schools in our program by subscribing
Privacy, as we do not track users or sell information
Page 10 text:
“
Introduction to the Speaker and the Speaker ' s Address, June, 1981 At this moment each year, our Headmaster customarily asks me to f ultill the task of introducing our distinguished guest. This is usually done by a simple and painless method. One simply picks up the telephone and rings the office of whatever dignitary is about to be dignified, gets the secretary on the line, usually a lady with a voice strongly reminiscent of Lily Tomlin, she gives me the biographical details of the said gentleman, and I am able to stand here in perfect anonymity and introduce him. However, today is a considerably different matter, for I have a duty to perform in which I am unequipped with any anonymity whatsoever. Rather, I am afraid it is one that I must handle in the most personal terms, for I have been asked to introduce a gentleman who is, and has been for several years, one of my dearest friends. I remember that I met David Mackenzie under the most inauspicious circumstances. David himself likes to think that it was at some glamorous cocktail party on board H.M.C.S. Ontario. I assure you it was not. My memory tells me that I first met David Mackenzie at the most ghastly tea party I have ever attended. Come to think of it, I have attended very few tea parties. However, this one was given by a lady who had a duck farm and was a great believer in Scottish Country Dancing. Come to think of it, that was probably the reason why David was there in the first place. She was a very entertaining lady — I remember that she swore that she had a duck that could quack Land of Hope and Glory if you pinched a certain vulnerable part of it. Frankly, I didn ' t try. I do recall that I spoke momentarily, and I do mean momentarily, (with your Oxford dictionary definition) with David, and I remember David raising a very quizzical and critical eyebrow (of course I learned very shortly afterwards that my ' a ' s ' were too long and my ' o ' s ' a trifle too round). However, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Possibly, even more Scotch. Without question, the greatest dif- ficulty that I surely must face today is the fact that he was the real founder of this school. The gentleman who, supported by one or two well wishers, had a dream in the words of Martin Luther King. And here we all are today. That dream. The fact that I became a part of that dream has been to my endless benefit and publicly, that is what I would like to recognize today, the fact that once again I am in the presence of that gentleman who, if anybody possibly could, taught me the meaning of professionalism. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with a sense of great personal warmth and enormous debt that I in- troduce you to my friend and my erstwhile colleague, Mr. David Mackenzie. Mr. Ross, Sir Michael Butler, Honoured Guests, Members of the Graduation Class of 1981: I suppose alter that introduction I can hardly wait to hear what I have to say. How wonderful it was to hear an introduction delivered with the grace and pomp of Shakespeare, the true majesty of the Queen ' s Literature. How like a teacher of English; I couldn ' t understand a word. The comments were rendered with an almost spiritual power which leaves o inevitably thinking of the stor j of tho psychiatrist who du ! and went to heaven one day and knocked at the pearly gates and St. Peter carne and answered them and said Yes? I would like tocome in, please . Well, what were you? I was a doctor. Well, you know these are the pearly gates — we don ' t allow doctors in here . So, the fellow was very abashed. Then St. Peter said, Well, what kind of doctor were you? I was a psychiatrist . Oh, well in that case we might be able to let you in if you do us a favour . The doctor said, What ' s the problem? Well said St. Peter, looking round, it ' s actually — I don ' t want to say it loud — It ' s actually the Old Man — God . What ' s the trouble? said the psychiatrist. Well, you see, he had delusions of grandeur. He thinks he ' s Mr. Bunch. Both of these stories are very old, and I do apologize for starting on them. I was recently in Japan and I was very conscious about my lack of knowledge of Japanese and I wanted when I spoke to them at least to address them accurately. We were standing in the foyer of the hotel a nd I saw a door through which Japanese gentlemen were going in and out, and there was a notice on the door, so I said to the interpreter, What ' s that sign, how do you say that word? and he gave me the Japanese pronunciation of it and I thought, That ' s it. I will start my speech with ' Gentlemen ' . That ' s exactly the word . So that night I came on stage and started my speech with that word. And absolute pandemonium broke out. And I said to the in- terpreter What did I say? What did I say? It ' s the first time anybody has introduced us as ' Water closets ' . I come from a country inhabited, or perhaps even inhibited, by four different races. The Welsh, who pray on their knees and their neighbours, the Irish, who do not know what the devil they want but who are prepared to fight anybody to get it, the English, who consider them- selves a race of self-made men, thus relieving the Almighty of a huge responsibility, and the Scots, who keep the Sabbath — and anything else they can lay their hands on! I am one of the latter, and I remember this well during the first summer before the School started. I remember even better the first day when we were faced with 90 parents. All the mothers were crying, I remember, all the boys were very, very uncertain, and all the fathers were running around thrusting money in my hand (If I had had the good sense at that time to run away — I would have been made for life). It never occurred to me unfortunately and Mr. Bunch took charge of everybody. He decided that the windows needed cleaning so they took a gasp, but he had them almost up on the roof clea ningoutside windows with paper towels. And I remember also the first summer when I went taking people around the school, pleading with them to look at the view since that is all there was. I remember that first summer we were trying to get hold of people who had some money, because money was the most important item in our lives at that time. And the name Mrs. Unkenford kept cropping up all the time. Mrs. Unkenford was reputed to be a lady who had lived next to the old School at the bottom of the inlet here, and it was said that she had agreed to give the Governors enough money to buy the land to retain it, so that they could start the School again. When the time was right the Governors had turned her down. Mrs. Unkenford no longer lives in Brentwood. She was rumoured to be a former Chicago policewoman and she had inherited great sums of money and had ultimately moved to California. Our scouts were out, but nobody could lay their hands on Mrs. Unkenford.
”
Page 11 text:
“
However in the days before School opened an old Chevrolet drew up. Three elderly ladies and one elderly gentleman all dressed in jeans and T-shirts got out and they came in and said to me that they would like to look around the School. So I introduced myself and asked them their names and they possibly didn ' t hear me again as they didn ' t say anything, and I took them around the School, And I gave my name again and they still didn ' t say anything. Finally I said, You must tell me who you are, just for the record . And the lady in the forefront spoke up and said my name is Mrs. Unkenford. Immediately the dollar signs started flashing and I thought this is great . Particularly when she said and I ' ve got something for you. I expected her to produce a basket absolutely crammed with $100 bills. Well, she went to her car and she certainly brought something in. But the something was two old photographs and a firescreen which had been woven by the boys in the old school. She climbed in the car, said goodbye, and I have never seen nor heard from her again. Sir Michael Butler referred to fees. You know, it ' s happened since the School started. The Headmaster has always objected and the Governors have always said yes they ' ve got to go up. Well, one year this happened to me and the usual notice went out. Unfortunately, this year the secretary typed a little bit of an error. She spelt annum — the fees were going up to$2,500 perannum, only she spelt it a-n-u-s. One of our doctor parents un- derstood what it meant and why it ha d to be, but he wasn ' t going to pay that way. He was going to pay as he always had done: through the nose. I remember the first day we took girls. This was surely, in my view, at least the greatest day that the school had . We campaigned vigorously and even visciously on behalf of these young ladies and ultimately we were successful in getting permission to have girls. The first year we took 17 of them and now there are 80. It ' s incredible. But it ' s absolutely beautiful and ladies, you have made so much difference to this School that it ' s just incapable of being aescnoed. I think it ' s absolutely magnificent and academically you have done the boys a great deal of good but more than that, socially you have supplied something — I ' m being very serious now — you supply something which is very much missed and I think the School now has the perfect emotional status for its students. Also for its staff. There were three groups of people who made this School work. Four really, if one includes the students. The first group of people are the Governors and we started this School with the most immense group of Governors that you have ever seen and although the individuals have changed they are still the most remendous group of people you will ever meet. The Governors are the people who run the School you know, and they don ' t pay much attention to the public relations aspect, but financially they run the School, they make it possible, they provide support for this School to operate, and the Governors when wft started, were the most unbelievable Deople. as indeed they are now. And ihe other people to whom reference has already been made — I won ' t mention anything more about them, are the staff. And thirdly, of course, the parents. Your graduation day is one of the most important days of your life and you are certainly not about to sit there and listen to any great sermon from me. But I just want to tell you the things upon which we established this School, the things upon which the Governors agreed and the staff agreed when it first started and the things upon which the Governors and the staff agree now. First, we think that discipline is very important, but not just discipline. Not just the Army, Navy, Air Force type of discipline, not the unthinking, unyielding type of discipline, the type of discipline which goes along with hair, and attention to people and their needs, but disciplined discipline. Discipline has always been the number one priority in this School. And the next thing, we want you to be concerned with and to work in co-operation with other people. We want you to get along with other people. And the friend- ships that you make at this School, the friendships you make at this School, the friendships that may split up today, temporarily, will remain with you forever more. The people I went to school with many many years ago I am still the greatest of friends with, because I went to this kind of school. And you will find the same thing. The associations that you have had in this situation are magnificent. And this is the second most important point with which we all agree. And the third thing is this: the desire to participate in activities. Not only academics. I agree that academics are the most important activity of all in school. But you shouldn ' t stop there. The participation in all aspects of life is just as important as academics or anythingelse. So just don ' t imagine that you come to school here for the sake of academics. I know very well that you don ' t imagine this as you ' ve been through all this for many years. But that ' s an important point to pass on to the people who are coming up. And the third and last point is the desire to contribute to something for the sake of the contribution and not for the sake of money. The Governors of this School have always given of their time and of their efforts and of their money. They don ' t get any reward at all, except the satisfaction of seeing the thing work. And that ' s the kind of contribution which we have been trying to point out to all of you. Remember the motto of the School: De Manu in Manum — From Hand to Hand. Now you have been the receiving hand up to today. From now on you go out and be the hand which gives all these things to young people, your sons and daughters, in due course, and all the others. I hope that some of you will become Governors one day but of all I would say that the most important thing is to give what you have learned to people with whom you are associating — young people with whom you are associating in the years to come. I want to wish you all the very, very best of luck in the future. You will remember today, of course. But remember all your school days. Remember all your school friends and remember to pass on what you have learned from hand to hand. David Mackenzie June, 1981 Now I don ' t want on this occasion to give a long lesson.
Are you trying to find old school friends, old classmates, fellow servicemen or shipmates? Do you want to see past girlfriends or boyfriends? Relive homecoming, prom, graduation, and other moments on campus captured in yearbook pictures. Revisit your fraternity or sorority and see familiar places. See members of old school clubs and relive old times. Start your search today!
Looking for old family members and relatives? Do you want to find pictures of parents or grandparents when they were in school? Want to find out what hairstyle was popular in the 1920s? E-Yearbook.com has a wealth of genealogy information spanning over a century for many schools with full text search. Use our online Genealogy Resource to uncover history quickly!
Are you planning a reunion and need assistance? E-Yearbook.com can help you with scanning and providing access to yearbook images for promotional materials and activities. We can provide you with an electronic version of your yearbook that can assist you with reunion planning. E-Yearbook.com will also publish the yearbook images online for people to share and enjoy.
