RECTOR'S RETIREMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22136, 14 December 1933, Page 2

RECTOR'S RETIREMENT

MR W. J. MORRELL’S SERVICES BOARD’S APPRECIATION At the monthly meeting of the Otago High Schools Board of Governors yesterday, the following minute of appreciation of the services of the rector of the Boys’ High School (Mr W. J. Morrell), was adopted:— “ On the occasion of the retirement of Mr W. J. Morrell, M.A., (Oxon.) from the rectorship of the Otago Boys’ High School—a position he has held with distinction for the long period of 27 years—the Board of Governors hereby places on its official record its high appreciation of the services he has rendered not only to the school itself, but to secondary education in the Dominion of New Zealand.

“As rector, Mr Morrell has been a worthy successor to the distinguished men who have held the position before him, and who have left on the school the impress £>f their great personalities. Like them he has brought to the school and to the Dominion a high level of academic distinction from the great universities of the Home Land. His name will join theirs in the minds and hearts of all old boys, and will be honoured wherever they arc gathered together to commemorate the work of them and him.

“By the reputation of his scholarship Mr Morrell has brought prestige and honour to the Otago Boys’ High School, and high ideals of academic attainment. He has imposed on the educational work of the school.a notably high standard. Witness is borne to this by the number of boys who, having passed through the formative years of their secondary school life at the Otago Boys’ High School, have achieved high distinction and have won high positions in the higher academic world both here and in Britain.

“He has freely placed these gifts at the disposal of the community in which he has lived. In university affairs he occupies an outstanding position as senator of the University of New Zealand and chancellor of the University of Otago. From his place on secondary school bodies throughout the Dominion he has, by his high ideals and his power of presentation of them, wielded great influence on the evolution of New Zeadand educational institutions.

“ A period of 27 years occupies a large space of time both in the history of a school and in the life of an individual. Mr Morrell has devoted to the interests of the school the major portion of his mature life. Hie rectorship has therefore been his life-work. He has been unsparing in his attention to the, details of school organisation and to the individual interests of the boys under his charge. He has brought to bear on his professional duties a wide outlook ou educational needs and methods, and a high conception of what a great secondary school should be. For this he will be long remembered. The Board of Governors expresses the hope that Mr Morrell will be long spared for the enjoyment of his years of retirement, and for the opportunity, in greater leisure, of continuing his extra-mural educational work in this community and in this Dominion.”