Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE ilitiiiiElRT A. SPEIRS, M.A., LL.D. .-'xtt-.-i' Ll long and distinguished career. Dr. Robert A. Speirs is retiring from the position of Headmaster of Selwyn House School. Born in Melrose. Scotland. Dr, Speirs was educated at a neighbouring academy and at Edinburgh University. where he earned his MA. in classics. After a period of post-graduate study there, he gained a fellowship at Col- umbia University. New York. where he received another Masters degree. He taught in Scotland for four years. and then returned to Canada as head of the English department at Lower Canada Collegez he later became assistant headmaster there. In I9-15. after the unexpected death of Mr. Wanstall, the newly formed Board of Gov- crnors of Selwyn House School offered him the position of headmaster, which he has filled with great success for the past twenty-six years. His contribution to education in the city earned for him an honorary doctorate at Sir George Williams University in l968. and his career reached a climax in 1970. when he presided over the annual conference of the Headmasters' Association of Canada in the school last November. During his twenty-six years at the school. Dr. Speirs has been the moving spirit in many and varied changes. It has been a time of steady expansion in every way. from a school of 99 boys to one almost five times the size. from the comfortably compact quarters in Redpath Street to the present commodious building. from a school whose chief concern was academic excellence to one whose interests are more widly diversified. That progress may be seen in the development of what Dr. Speirs sometimes referred to as the plant : in the creation of locker-rooms. the addition of a gymnasium. followed by the laboratory and then the elegant library with the new wing of class- rooms above. which transformed the Redpath site. When, in 1961. the school outgrew even these extended premises and moved to its present site in Westmount. the steady growth continued. until in 1968 the expansion fund. gen- erously raised by friends. Old Boys and parents. enabled the new gymnasium. laboratories. library. locker-rooms and class-rooms to be added. These material achievements are the outward evidence of the corporate development of the school. Under Dr. Speirs' guidance. the limited athletic side of the school has expanded enormously. with teams participating in the Montreal leagues and meets. as well as maintaining the ancient and traditional rivalries. and the number of dif- ferent sports and games available to the boys has greatly increased. Intra-mural activities introduced by Dr. Speirs have become accepted features of school life which. though often overshadowed by class-work and games, are still real. In its primary function. the work of the school has extended itself in many directions. until now the number of boys writing at least a part of their matric- ulation examinations is fast approaching the total number in the school when Dr. Speirs assumed command, and the results in public examinations at all levels maintain the high standard which was a tradition at that time. Be- hind all this is an Old Boys' Association. founded in 1953. whose strength and interest in the school are, in them- selves. a testimonial to the headmaster's work: and Dr. Speirs has seen some of his former students return in the role of parents. Dr. Speirs has always considered community work an important part of his life. He has been president of the Notre Dame de Grace Community Council: for many years he was active as a governor of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. and of the Fraser-Hickson Institute: he is still a senior elder at the Knox Crescent Kensington Presby- terian Church. For long he was widely sought as a speaker. addressing societies throughout Montreal and elsewhere in Canada. For the next year at least. Dr. Speirs plans to take a sabbatical year to continue his advanced studies in French. Whether he will be persuaded to return to teach- ing remains to be determined. Whatever field his future endeavours lead him into. Selwyn House wishes him every success. We assure him of our gratitude for his achieve- ments in the past. and of our hope that our ties with him are not broken. but merely relaxed. ill i '+af'fe'Us'A ' 'fi-' ' n 'g . ff

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE Q GRADUATINO CLASS l97O - 71