Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

Page 10 text:

Robert E.K. Rourke '28 Teacher and Scholar Par Excellence lt is sad to have to report the death of Robert E.K. Rourke. Headmaster of Pickering College from 1947 to 1953, in his home in Avon. Connecticut on July 18th, 1981, in his 76th year. His talent and his vitality brought much to our Hilltop during his association with our school from 1928 to 1953. ln those years his students and his colleagues saw him as a man of many strong interests: mathematics. music, stamps. paintings. photography. camping and his enthusiasm for these pursuits overflowed. to the benefit of all concerned, into the classroom, the Glee Club. his collection of Canadian Art. the Root of Minus One Club and Camps Ahmek and Mazinaw. Bob Rourke pursued all these ac- tivities with great zeal. but there was no doubt that his true love was to be found in the art of teaching. lt was his talent to be able to take a mathematical concept, a confused blur to us his students. and clarify it as an ordered and logical process. One student described Bob Rourke's ability to teach as a kindling of a series of lights in the darkness of his head so that the path from proposition to the solution 6 became crystal clear. Understandably, then, his classes were an exciting experience as he led his students to a perception, hitherto concealed. Bob Rourke's love of music led him to found and direct the Pickering College Glee Club which brought fame to our school and delight to our audiences in presenting Gilbert and Sullivan operettas for over a quarter of a century. ln this endeavour he was greatly aided by the beautiful soprano voice of his wife. Alice Strong Rourke. Bob Rourke himself, as well as being a brilliant director. shone with great humour in leading roles. ln addition to the classroom and the Glee Club, R.E.K. Rourke also took delight in the Root of Minus One Club, a study group devoted to mathematics and science which he founded and inspired for many years. Bob Rourke was a scholar of distinction. He graduated from Queen's University in Honour Mathematics in 1927g joined Joseph McCulley and the Pickering team in 1928 and took two years leave of absence from 1930 to 1932 to earn his M.A. at Harvard. ln 1939 he became Assistant Headmaster and in 1941, Associate Headmaster and member of the Board of Management. When Joseph McCulley departed in 1947. Bob Rourke became Headmaster and remained in that position for six years until 1953. ln that year he became Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Kent School, Kent, Connecticut. Following several years at Kent School Bob Rourke with Donald Stewart, formerly Assistant Headmaster at Pickering, founded St. Stephen's School in Rome. where he remained until his retirement. Throughout all his years as a teacher, at Pickering, at Kent, at St. Stephen's, R.E.K. Rourke markedly advanced the teaching of mathematics by writing and by collaborating in writing many mathematical textbooks. Bob Rourke was a great educator. He made strong demands on the minds of his students and thus brought them to realize their potential. By awakening their intellects and by teaching them the discipline of study, he helped them grow closer to maturity. As one of R.E.K. Rourke's former students and colleagues I also associate his view of the teacher's role with this thought expressed by Sir Richard Livingston: A fundamental principal of education should be to make the pupil realize the meaning of excellence. We thank him for expecting the best of us. Harry M. Beer '31 Headmaster Emeritus

Page 9 text:

it .5 . A Message from ,Q A the Editor , .args It has been a year of disaster, a year of achievement. lt has been a year of destruction, a year of growth. It has been a year unlike any other, a year that shall not soon be forgotten. It will be remembered as the year of the fire. ,,,-, Will any of us forget that day in November? There are a million X U stories from every point of view. There are poignant moments that .f ffl? stand out clearly. Moments before the alarm, Jack Bahl turned to his classmate in the soon to be destroyed Room J and said 'fDon't you think its getting hot in here? Yemi Ajayi came flying down the stairs yelling f'It's for real, it's for real. As we all rushed out the back door and looked up at the Red House, we realized that indeed the fire was for real. Slowly the realization and finality of the awful destruction sunk in as we stood in the Dining Hall, names being sounded out like an epitaph to the survivors. Slowly people faded away to their houses. Darkness fell on the school as firemen continued to battle the blaze outside. A few students and teachers in the hollow emptiness of the main corridor clustered around a few flashlights as the sound of water cascaded all around. A few last minute decisions. Then all was quiet. That one day decided the course of the rest of the year. It changed all our lives. Many times in the months that followed I wondered what school life would have been like if the fire had never happened. We returned in a few days: slowly moving back, circling in small groups, feeling horribly insignificant. Morale was low. The future of the school itself was unclear. There was talk of moving to Bowmanville and of rebuilding in Newmarket. The Christmas Banquet however was, in my view, the psychological turning point. lt was symbolic that at the time when we were celebrating the Nativity, our school was, at best in our minds, being reborn. lt would rise from the ashes. Life would go on. From then on all the sacrifices we had to make land there would be manyl were made without complaint. People were shuffled around endlessly: from Rogers House to Firth House to the Trailer City Yacht Club and back to Rogers House again. People studied for the belated Christmas exams in the Dining Hall and in the Meeting Room. Classes were held in trailers, the basement of Firth House and in the Mezzanine overlooking the dining room. Where there was space. we used it! The Faculty proved their worth over and over. The new teachers especially faced the biggest challenge. Lacking experience of some of the older teachers, they suddenly found themselves in a situation for which they were un- prepared, for which they could not possibly have been prepared. They of all people are to to be recognized. lt was a shock. The physical unity of the School had disintegrated into a number of scattered havens about the campus. People, however, pulled together. In the disunity, a new unity crystallized. We realized that those ideals, the sacred things of our school, the faith, the fellowship, the freedom, the fun were not things that a fire could destroy. They are immortal. Hope is the fire that burns within and it is within that it will always remain, untouchable, inextinguishable. This Yearbook is a manifestation of that hope, that upward nobility that causes us all to strive unceasingly for better in the face of all discouragement. It is a tribute to those people who made this year, this school not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. Steven Schmidt 5

Page 11 text:

Eric M. Veale '31 A Devoted Friend of Dur College for Fifty Years 4 ,ik 5. 'fd -. ? , Q. We were all deeply grieved to learn of the death of Eric Veale on December 19, 1980. He had always given our school so much loving care and active support land he did so right up to the endi that it was hard to realize we would not see his warm and friendly smile again. His life had been closely attuned to Pickering for over fifty years, serving our school in so many capacities from 1930 to 1980. He first came to the Hilltop as a student in 1930 and after graduating filled many roles: as an active Old Boy, a teacher of mathematics and business subjects, a member of the Pickering College Corporation and Board of Management H941-1980l, Business Manager H958-19701, Acting Headmaster C1969-19701, close friend and neighbour. Of Eric's many great qualities the most outstanding was his integrity which he instilled in all his activities and relation- ships. This particular strength in his character gave him an unselfish and objective judgment which was invaluable, not only in his rapport with his family and friends, but also in his business dealings, Between the two periods of his life on the staff at Pickering he spent several years in the business world becoming personnel manager of the Sunshine Waterloo Co., followed by a very responsible position with General Motors. Then in 1956, he came to see me to express a very old longing, common to many of our Old Boys: he wanted to come back to Pickering to be part, once again, of a team dedicated to establishing the beloved community. What a lucky day that was for Pickering! To his teaching and counselling he brought a realistic idealism: to his respon- sibilities as Business Manager and Board Member, he gave a sense of practical stewardship in the running of our school. As Business Manager he supervised the building of the two additions to Firth House, the erection of the Dining Hall and, after retiring in 1970, he spent the next two years raising the money and making the arrangements to build our ice rink. The basic source of strength behind Eric's dedicated life was found in his family. He met Ruth when they were both students at the University of Wisconsin. Their full and happy life together was in its fortieth year at the time of his death. In the quiet of his heart his great pride was in his three sons. all graduates of Pickering like their father. Roger is vice- principal of Westview Centennial Secondary School, Ronald is practising law in Whitehorse in the Yukon, and David is in business in Toronto. A Memorial Service for Eric Veale, to which Old Boys and friends were invited was held on Sunday, May 3, 1981 at Pickering College. On that occasion tribute was paid to the spirit of our friend and we expressed our thanks for the quality of his life. He gave much to his family, to his friends and to Pickering. Harry M. Beer '31 Headmaster Emeritus 7