Mr A. R. Blank

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30130, 14 May 1963, Page 12

Mr A. R. Blank

Though the special quality that lifts him above others is hard to define, a great teacher is easily recognisable. No-one could question that Mr A. R. Blank, who died yesterday, was a great teacher. In his unusually long term of 28 years as headmaster of the Fendalton School he achieved a rare eminence in the primary service. Fendalton attracted pupils from all over Christchurch and assistant teachers of great ability because it was a notably good school, with high standards of scholarship, sportsmanship, and

firm discipline enforced not by fear but by the force of the head’s personality. If Mr Blank had been head of a secondary school he would have become a legendary character like Milner or Firth; but in his own field he influenced greater numbers, and girls as well as boys. When he left Fendalton he did not stop teaching, and hundreds of young people learned more than golf from him. Perhaps his secret was that, in spite of his idiosyncrasies, he really loved boys and girls. He had confidence in them—and he had confidence in himself.