Brentwood College School - Brentonian Yearbook (Mill Bay, British Columbia Canada)

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runner up for this award is someone who has already won another, but we name her again, the runner up for the Appleton Trophy, Cori Ghitter. The winner covers ever attribute called for by this award, he carries his Academic Colours, he is a representative of the school in two major areas of sport, namely rugby in his Grade 1 1 year and rowing in Grade 12, his loyalty to his house and to the members of it has been an outstanding feature of his approach, he is a fine musician, and his overall programme commitment this year may have at times exceeded 60 hours a week before study could begin. A good organiser, a man of fantastic energy, please congratulate from Vancouver, to Harvard next year, the Head Prefect Doug MacLaren. Headmaster ' s Special Awards. Representing exceptional talent such as that possessed by Rachael Jones, Shauna Hardy, Joanna McKenzie, a Headmaster ' s Special Award goes to Jill Bodie. To a near winner in several other categories, a house captain, prefect, person greatly admired by us all, Samantha Gray. An exceptionally energetic person, extremely fine athlete, captain of our Field Hockey team, one who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the school, Eryn Paterson. Representing quiet confidence, unsurpassable loyalty and citizenship, Miss Stacey Reynhoudt. Representing scholastic excellence, an almost fierce level of determination couched within an attractive personality, Andrea Wilson. Representing the maturity necessary to always maintain a balanced view, the possession of individuality and uniqueness without seeking it, the quietly conducted search for all round personal development, the application of reason when others might allow emotion to spoil a decision, Ian Bullen. For personalizing the qualities of humility, modesty, generosity of spirit whilst possessing rare levels of talent in athletics, fine arts and academics, the young man who perhaps to the fullest extent has taken advantage of our programme. Hew Crooks. Representing all those in the school who must work extremely hard for their academic rewards, whose personal growth pattern is somewhat irregular but always upward in trend, who in a Grade 12 year provided us with surprising leadership strength, Patrick Melvin. Representing five years at Brentwood, who formed the understanding inner core of the school, we think of several such as Chris Robertson, Michael McLernon, Guy Thorburn, Sean Croft, a diverse group. To represent it. Headmaster ' s Special Awards to two people, Clayton Davis and Bill Groh. For the Yarrow Shield we seek a student in the graduating class who displays in addition to scholastic and athletic excellence stability and strength of character together with a willingness to serve. The Yarrow Shield had more worthy applicants this year than in any other one that I can remember. From the foregoing awards you would have detected amongst them candidates who would truly qualify for consideration for the Yarrow. Since I have already spoken about them I will not do so again but given very strong consideration were Hew Crooks, Mark Hunter, Cori Ghitter, Doug MacLaren, the name of Paul Whidden surfaces here as does that of Andrea Wilson. However the staff after a great deal of deliberation has made a decision to award the Yarrow this year to a student who has represented the school in three areas of sport and gained her Colours in each, they are rowing, field hockey and basketball. This person carries academic colours, has been a prefect this past year, a gold medalist in the Canadian Rowing Championships, an honours graduate and scholarship candidate accepted at both Queens and McGill University, from Kamloops, B.C., Miss Susan Gillespie. Grad 1986, an education of this kind has true meaning if it causes you to realise how little you know, it has true value if it causes you to help those less fortunate than yourselves. Many of you have already demonstrated an understanding of these truths — on the basis of them I hope that each and every one of you enjoy fulfilling futures. Parents, in us you place great trust and confidence. We, the staff, have tried hard to justify it. Thank you for offering us the opportunity to carry out our work. Standing — to r: D. MacLa ren M. Hunter, C. Thrall, G. Risk, H. Cheung. Seated: H. Mitchell, S. Smillie, W. Pitts, S. Gillespie, C. Ghitter, C. Bannon.

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The Peyton Trophy is awarded to an outstanding citizen in recognition of a strong contribution in both Athletics and Fine Arts. A lengthy list of seniors qualified strongly for this award. Given very serious consideration, for example, were the immediate runners up. As runners up we had a singer, an actor, a very fine athlete, member of our provincial championship field hockey team and strong player on our tennis team. In the runners up position Kerry Hsu. A second runner up, a good athlete, but more an extremely exceptional dancer, one whose performances we will greatly miss, Jill Bodie. The winner has done some absolutely superb work in Applied Design and Dance. The athletic side includes Soccer, and when not injured, Rugby and Golf. Full of integrity, a fine citizen, a prefect, from Lethbridge, please congratulate Chris Thrall. Our next award is the Mary Brooks Law Trophy, given to a student from any grade in the school who shows promise and strength of character and personality. For this award, particularly in Grade 11 and Grade 12 there were candidates far too numerous to mention. In the immediate runners up position there were three. In each case these candidates carry 75% or better averages. They a re mannerly, generous in their spirit towards the needs of others and strong minded in the defence of their own standards and their views. They have exceptional promise because they combine fine personality traits with a great deal of determination and intelligence. The runners up were Samantha Gray, Gerald Risk and Hew Crooks. The winner of this award is also a scholarship candidate, she holds her Academic Colours, she has been a member of two of our representative athletic teams, namely Tennis and Basketball, she has been the assistant head prefect of the School. Please congratulate the captain of Alexandra House from Calgary, Cori Ghitter. At this point, before getting to the final three awards, may I say something about the Nancy Green Scholarship. The Nancy Green Scholarship is an award given by the Province of British Columbia to a student who intends to pursue his or her education in British Columbia and who has excelled not only in academics, but also in athletics. The athletic achievement must at least be at a provincial if not at an international standard of excellence. In this year ' s Grade Twelve class there were several who would have qualified. A number of these, however, have chosen not to attend a British Columbia university and therefore did not apply. In this group of candidates, however, one has chosen to apply and we have just learned is in the final selection group. He is vying for a place on the Canadian Coxed Four which will represent this country in Yugoslavia at the World Youth Games. He carries a strong academic average, has been a member of this school for five years. We do not know how he will do, but since he has gained the final selection category we place our spirit behind him by offering him our congratulations. He need not come to the platform but may we recognise Greg Carlos. Earlier I spoke of citizenship. We have a senior award in this category called the Powell Cup. For this we seek a student in Grade 11 or Grade 12 who has demonstrated an outstanding degree of selflessness indicated by a strong desire to serve the community and the school as a whole. Pure high quality citizenship is consistently required from every member of our school community. When we don ' t have it we suffer greatly and we have had instances of that this year. When consideration for others, when generosity of spirit, when highly principled conduct characterises a person ' s attitude and their behaviour they immediately to an organization such as this, and indeed to any other, make an outstanding contribution. There are several in the Grade 11 class and several in the Grade 12 class who qualify highly for this award. The immediate runner up is a person who has been on our Student Activities Council for three years, she has served her house extremely well, she is a member of our provincial Field Hockey Championship team and an extremely hard working academician. The runner up for this award was Samantha Gray. The winner is a member of the prefectorial group, has been with us for five years, during which time his record of citizenship has been absolutely free of any criticism, he is selfless to an outstanding degree, a fine athlete as a member of our First XV, and our senior Lightweight crew. We congratulate the captain of the Lightweight crew, the president of the Grad class, five year man from Vancouver, to Queens, Mark Hunter. The next award is the Appleton Trophy. This trophy is awarded for senior leadership, recognising outstanding strength in leadership and ability to organize intelligently, together with a personal charisma which attracts others to follow his or her example. In this category I must speak of each of the house captains. Nick Willcox of Ellis, Clayton Davis of Whittall, Nick Spicer of Privett, Samantha Gray of Mackenzie. The

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THE AWARDS DAY CEREMONIES Awards Day this year followed its by now traditional pattern with but one exception — there was no poem from Mr. Ford, a fact much lamented in the Dining Room over tea. Otherwise, things were as usual, following Mr Lironi ' s morning decision that the awards ceremony itself would take place out of doors and that the weather would, therefore, improve. It did. The first event of this final day of the school year was the Graduates luncheon in the cafeteria. As always, Mrs. Hallett and her staff had prepared the room attractively. After luncheon, the assembled graduates, together with their guests and the staff of the school, looked forward with eager anticipation to two speeches — that of the Guest Speaker and of the Class Valedictorian. They were disappointed in neither Mr Bunch, the Assistant Headmaster, a happy choice as Guest Speaker, rose to a warmly appreciative welcome following an introduction from the Head Prefect, Douglas MacLaren who said: Friends, and fellow Students, Honoured Guets: I ' ve been asked to introduce the Guest Speaker, who, in fact, is not one person, but to me, many people. The first time I saw him was in Grade Eight. I felt for sure that Moses had descended upon us. And, funnily enough, over the years, I found out that he could part many Red Seas for me. Others, however, may remember him for his theatrical productions of such grandeur and fame that he is known as the Cecil B. DeMille of Brentwood. Perhaps the Guest Speaker will best be remembered, however, as an electrifying teacher who has brought alive the English language. Actually, he is straight out of Pygmalion — sort of a cross between George Bernard Shaw and Rex Harrison. And above all, he leaves an indelible impression on our lives. You can love him, or you can hate him, but you cannot be indifferent to him. We may never come across another educator of this calibre. It is my honour to give you Mr Gil Bunch. Having risen and treated his audience to a benign smile, Mr. Bunch said: Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, my colleagues and my friends in the graduating class. I know that you were all relieved a moment ago to notice that I did not conceal beneath my handkerchief as I pulled it out a large stack of white postcards which carried merely the outline of my very long and boring speech of advice. In point of fact there is to be no advice; there has to be a speech. There shall be no advice for the first simple reason that it ' s all been said before. What is more, it ' s all been said so much more wittily and elegantly than I can say it. 1 think of one instance only, and that is the English Seventeenth century poet, Robert Herrick, who said it all so charmingly in his lyric Advice to Young Virgins to Make Much of Their Time. The second reason that I should not dare to give advice is because 1 genuinely believe that anything that I have learned about this business of living in the last half century or so couldn ' t be of the remotest interest, let alone the remotest use, to anybody else at all. Perhaps I should start by saying how much I am still enjoying the irony of this moment, just as I did when Mr Ross originally asked me to speak and the class members graciously concurred. We are so accustomed at this moment to having our guest speaker begin by saying what an honour it is to visit Brentwood at last, and how proud he is to be with us today, etc., etc. and I really can ' t say those things — that is simply not a possible beginning for me — because well, after all, I don ' t have any choice in the matter of being here, do I? You see, if I weren ' t here today there is no doubt that I would not be here on Monday. And if I were not here Monday I would be undoubtedly selling shirts in the Hudson ' s Bay on Tuesday. So that means of introduction must be abandoned. I must admit that even from the outset I was very confused about what I should say. Then, in a blinding flash, it suddenly was given to me, it was presented to me, 1 knew what 1 had to say. Beginning, middle and end, the whole logos was there almost in a Greek sense. I knew that the only way I could approach this moment of celebration, and it is a celebration of hindsight for me and foresight for you, that the only possible manner I could celebrate it, would be by telling you a story, and that is what I intend to do. It is not difficult because I am a part of this story; it is semi- autobiographical, therefore all I have to worry about is my skill as a storyteller, and although the story is very simple in its outline and in its content, it is nonetheless a very significant story for me and I trust for you at this moment. The tale begins in the spring of 1970 when I was, as usual, teaching English Literature to senior students, no more and no less talented than many in this room today, and as is still my wont I begin teaching poetry by reading the poem aloud. I still believe this is the only way to read poetry to give it sound and choreography and rhythm, to move it from the page, to bring it alive in the room. Seated in my classroom in the spring of 1970 was a young gentleman whose name is on that board down there because he was the Head Boy of the school in that year. His name is Wade Davis, and the poem 1 was reading was a poem by Coleridge. I read it, looked up from my book and was just about to commence an approach to some evaluation when I noticed that Wade had raised his hand at the back of the room. I said Yes, Wade. He said May I leave please? I was confused but I have learned over the years not to question these moments of students ' departures from classrooms, so I nodded acquiescence and away he went. I completed the lesson, moved up to my office, having forgotten Wade, but there he was at the end of the corridor and I said to him, Wade, are you all right?, and he said, Yes. He said I had to go, I had to go, that is what I have been waiting for That is the moment I have been waiting for I