A Tribute to the Students and Staff of Woodroffe High School on the occasion of its 25th Anniversary

1960-1985

From the front window you can see the after work Whitehaven joggers already heading for parkway country... in the spring warmth even the most reluctant buds are bursting on the overhanging branches near the hissing gas valve...a lone student leaves the grounds...and thoughts of bygone days wash up on memory’s shore.

 

Where have all the students gone? .. Scattered around the world, reaching out for success and peace amid daily trials ...Occasionally you meet a few: some you remember; some you don’t. Cautiously you ask how they are, where they’ve been, what they are doing. “Hey, are you still there?” they say. “That’s a long time to stay in one school!”... Some chat more than others – about the kids, the divorce, other schools they attended and jobs they’ve had. Most still have that ready smile of youth... A few stray, gray hairs betray their years but the exuberance is still there...

 

You have strong memories of some...You remember their personalities, their academic abilities, their struggles at home and other bits of themselves they shared in privacy: you let on you don’t remember too well... Some know that you know, but you keep talking, saying how well they look and how happy you are to see them...You wonder how you failed them and what more you could have done...To the ones you helped, their tone of greeting is your thanks and you quietly say “Bienvenue”! To the ones you never knew or failed, “Mea Culpa”!...Mystically we are part of one another: in us, they see their past; in them, we see ourselves...

 

The late afternoon sun streams throughout the silent south wing...faintly, if you listen, you can hear laughter from Jack Livesley’s English class in 126...in 110, Jim Prebble strums his mandolin between classes, while John Tokaryk barks out his mathematical signals in 124..In Room 108, art students under the helpful instruction of the ever congenial Ann Lazear, continue their quest for excellence... in 232, Miss Muirhead conducts a shorthand class and farther down the hall Mike Cyze guards the water fountains around 210...You feel a warmth coming from it all, for they were good teachers and good students and good times...

 

...From the sterility of the nurse’s office you gaze out upon the clean, green slopes of the front lawns...twenty-five years...a lot has happened! Our children born and grown up - nieces and nephews married - the loss of parents and other loved ones... great political leaders gone, Viet Nam... You remember the days you struggled because you were tired or sick or worried or all three... You remember the different stages of academic and biological burn out and the daily give and take with your peers... Each day you tried to do your best as a gentleman... You can see them coming now across the fields and up the roads, over twelve thousand spirits, unique to eternity... over three hundred and sixty staff standing strong to meet them...we have left our marks on one another... And then you note the Canadian flag and you remember the day it all began... when you were still young and green...

 

Peter Manley with a borrowed Laurentian band had been there at the beginning, outside the main doors beneath the Red Ensign when that humble warrior, Governor General Vanier, laid the cornerstone and spoke the appropriate words to the new principal, Jack Merkley, and his motley group of guests.

 

It was June 21, 1960, and the almost completed school sat majestically isolated atop the old Honeywell farm. The area was unimpeded by parkways or housing. A bumpy path over creek and meadow ran up to the cafeteria door. Groundhogs often hid beneath the thick planks that bridged the construction mud. Some even tried to attend class.

 

Jack Merkley was the youngest high school principal ever appointed by the Ottawa Board. In his charge were some six hundred fifty students, three hundred fifty of whom were spirited Grade 9's. The remainder of the student body were Grade 10's and one class of Grade 11's.

 

Jack had a military air about him probably cultivated by his training in the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Indeed, Jack’s collection of his first twenty-five staff members looked a bit like the Home Defence League: McGillivray, V.P. - Army; Manley, Music Director - Army; Thomas, Director of History and English - Army; Burrows - Army; Dervin - Army; Tanner, Building Superintendent - Army; Eagle, Shop Director - Army. And there were others.

 

With such a corps, is it any wonder that Jack ran “a tight ship with someone tall at the rudder”? As Jack faced his “baby boomers” in assemblies, his Rockne shoulders and Churchillian jaw commanded the full attention of all. In pre-auditorium days, he stood centrepointe in the main gym and his young troops looked down from the gymnasium balcony and heard his crusty voice and saw his wry smile and felt his fairness.

 

Before he left in 1965, Jack had added the south wing and an auditorium. Being a graduate of Guelph Agricultural University, he had planted trees, shrubs and rose bushes about the school with a certain degree of professionalism. By the time he moved on to build his next school, he had given this one a good start. In some ways, Woodie is still the “house that Jack built”.

 

Woodroffe began as a composite school and it still is one. Ii has never pretended to be anything but a good old fashioned institution. It has tried to be of service to all the students in the Ottawa area. Never has it sacrificed this cosmopolitan nature - it has never magnetized the academic elite - it has kept its doors open to every student no matter his or her academic weaknesses or strengths.

 

Yet, the staff was quietly innovative, too. Woodroffe was the second school in Ottawa to enter the credit system and the first in the Metro-Carleton area to try semestering. Many courses taught here were ones developed and written by Woodroffe teachers: programmes such as East Asian History, Family Studies, American Literature, Music Appreciation, Canadian Literature and American History to name only a few. Recently our teachers spearheaded the study of data processing and computer studies among the Ottawa Board schools. Our Commercial and Technical departments have remained strongly competitive. Along with all our specialities, we have always offered a great variety of selection. A student often has had as many as a hundred fifty courses from which to choose a one year programme.

 

The spirit of these early days was fully embodied in the early musicals written and produced by Peter Manley. The auditorium stage was alive far many years with the youthful freshness and vitality of these home brew productions - each play a colourful swelling of pageantry that shall be forever etched in our memory destined never to be surpassed.

 

Pound for pound Manley probably was the best teacher to “man the trenches” at Woody. A product of the mines in Wales he came to his job of Music Director via the army and orchestral jobs. For over fifteen years our bands brought home trophies from distant competitions. Indeed, Woodroffe’s name in these early years was made known in Canada and the British Isles and the U.S. largely by Peter Manley and his fine musicians. Peter had the flair to bring out the best in all his students while at the same time always giving his best! The school motto “the person who works shall succeed” finds a perfect exemplification in Peter Manley. He shall not be forgotten.

 

Other workers were succeeding too. The “baby boomers” were making their presence felt around Ottawa: Warren “Scotter” Throop dazzled us with his football moves; Kathy Hunter won the title of Ottawa’s top female Junior Gymnast; our Jane Mogg was chosen to dance with the Russian Ballet in Montreal; Linda Ingram was to begin a long association with “Orpheus”; Ted Gregory was the Intermediate League’s outstanding linesman while Eli Monsour was the league’s outstanding football player. Our cheerleaders were judged the best in the city.

 

It has been like that down through the years! Woodroffe quietly putting its best foot forward; Jeff Avery and Dan Dever to the Rough Riders, Joan Barrett to the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Janet Morrissey won the Canadian Figure Skating Championship in 1979 in Thunder Bay and then she competed at the World Figure Skating Championships and placed eighth,  another Manley, Elizabeth, won the Canadian Figure Skating Championships a few times and competed at the 1988 Calgary Olympics where she won the silver medal. And so many of our graduates returned to work with us: Nancy Pook, Fred Russell, Mark Gilchrist and Sue Berry. Indeed wherever you go you meet our graduates: Ingrid Matzelle, teacher of piano; Owen Hartley, Business man; David Rose, engineer; Larry Greenberg, business man; Charlie Brown and Glen Coughtrey, Math teachers; Warren Sheen, garage mechanic supervisor; Wayne Cooney, manager of inspectors; Barbara Woods and Ruth Cross, teachers. Graduates come to fix our plumbing and our stoves. They tend to us in hospitals as nurses and doctors. They are our social workers and accountants and clergymen and barbers and salesmen. By hard work they have flourished and “done us all proud”.

 

The staff room on the second floor has darkened somewhat by now.. the seagulls coast the winds back to the Ottawa...the flag whips in the west wind...and you remember the men and women who sat in these chairs recovering from their last classes and gearing up for the next ones... a quick smoke, a coffee, a quip or two and back at it... you sit here among these memories while the clouds race to the darkness... and you remember... Sounds of billiard and ping-pong blend with the quiet common room din: Jeff Burrows expounds on some concern - Harold Edwards- Davies rests in his favourite chair just inside the entrance, his wide colourful ties of yesteryear drawing an occasional jest - Rita Odendaal looks as lovely as usual - the Hawk marks papers at a side table - John Katic plays a hornpipe on his piccolo - Des Sullivan tells a witty story in his swift Irish brogue - the scarlet vest of Jack Livesley enters the room followed by Jack’s effervescent smile - Gord Murdock juggles the school accounts - Judy Simser brightens the room - Joe Koscher kicks the coffee machine - Jean Seasons dramatizes a classroom incident - and the funniest storyteller ever to come to Woodroffe, Jack Wilder, narrates another...You seem to remember the good times better...the Christmas parties for the children and the day you played Santa . the parties at the Manderley, Cedarhill, Sampan, Hunt, Rivermead, Chateau, Talisman - the gatherings at Peter’s Pantry, the Preston and the Albion - the strike parties at the King’s, Roach’s and Ogilvie’s - the apres commencement at Bert Hawkins’ maison...

 

... And those commencements when some of us literally murdered the students’ names or went the wrong way or presented the right gift to the wrong person or knocked over a flower ... and the assemblies when John Diefenbaker was on a roll, when Wally Hindle led the entire student body in “Matilda”, when we had International Children’s Day, when John Tokaryk did his Ukrainian dancing in full regalia, and when Young, Morgan and Duncan did the Maguire Sisters to a “T” with eight to the bar and Roy Thomas thinking that eight at any bar was a good number, and Joe Nuth, having had eight at the bar dropping his pants while speaking at the Hunt Club retirement dinner, Mr. Gardner not being terribly amused at the time... and you remember at the same dinner when the marvellous Gerry Frey (a small version of wonderful Murray Ault) bid the staff farewell and wished Graham Ferguson many, many long years as a vice-principal, Mr. Ferguson, not being terribly amused, nor Mr. Gardner... and the morning on the PA when Jack Merkley started the Our Father, realized he had lost his printed copy and fell silent at the switch...

 

As the sixties wore on, the baby boomers began to “chomp at bit”. Students demanded more of a responsible say in the daily functioning of the school. Dress codes were changing and students were enjoying their new common rooms. The Students’ Councils read the Hall-Dennis reports and turned to new principal, Jim Gardner, to bring some of the report’s suggestions to fruition in their school. Jim had served three years as Woodroffe’s vice principal and returned in 1966 as principal just in time to face these new educational growing pains. For almost three years, the dedicated Jim Gardner tried quietly and methodically to keep everyone happy. To his credit, he succeeded. In April, 1969, Jim picked up a late night phone call in England where he was visiting, and accepted a superintendent’s job with the new Carleton Board of Education. Jim was probably both happy and relieved. And so Bob Berry arrived at Woodroffe amid the April showers of 1969. Bob had already been appointed in March to the chief job at Sir Wilfrid Laurier - the appointment being for September. With Jim Gardner’s promotion, Bob requested Woodroffe since it was closer to his home. His transfer from the principalship of Hillcrest to Woodroffe was immediate so that within a month Bob Berry had been principal of three different schools. But then Bob always had colour.

 

...It is late evening in the back courtyard... A mist caresses the outlying fields...faintly the new bridge over the old creek shows itself - (many a June party was held there}... a few zealous robins scold from the safety of the apple trees in the cul-de-sac...Roy Tanner planted those trees. As building Super, Roy served Woodroffe faithfully for some nineteen years. He had been at Dieppe and had served in the war as a motorcycle dispatch rider. There were days in the late sixties when he would gladly have exchanged his hallways for the sands of Normandy. Every day on the job was a challenge. Watermains would snap, snowplows would break, washrooms would be vandalized, windows permanently ventilated and saplings sometimes cut. On the first level, boilers would become temperamental and above the fifth level “the worst roof in town” often dampened his days. Roy was front and centre for all the construction: the main building, the

auditorium, the library and the new gym. He always said Woodroffe had too many doors, windows and washrooms and even though vandals tried to lower these numbers over the years, Roy persevered. If he had had his motorcycle he would have caught them all. Roy is still searching for the school architect.

 

By the time Bob Berry arrived, the students had received several concessions and were now expecting others. At one point, shortly after his coming, a certain part of the student population refused to attend class and congregated on a knoll just to the left of this circular driveway of the back. Bob walked among them, spoke to them and listened to the impassioned pleas of their unofficial leader. It was a beautiful day in May but for Bob and his staff and students who peered down from the windows on that emotional event the weather was stormy indeed. The days that followed were not easy on any of us, but everyone did his or her best to restore equilibrium. With the cooperation of staff, students and parents, Woodroffe slowly regained its happy composure.

 

It was at this point that Woodroffe’s staff became even more mobile. Teachers had a greater choice of jobs and boards. In our own area, Bell High School, Sir John A, Champlain, Confederation, Earl of March, and Sir Robert Borden were well established. Teachers sought change or promotion or geographical improvement. If a teacher didn’t like it here, for whatever reason, he had options. Shall we ever see such laissez-faire times again?

 

The quality of our staff can perhaps best be measured by the number of promotions of our staff members. Among the new superintendents were Jim Gardner, Howard Barber, Russ McGillivray, John Beattie, and Graham Ferguson; to principals: Bill Dervin, Ross Beck, Ian Macdonald, Peter Norman, Dan Lynch, Gordon Fenton, Keith Sparling, Dave Harvie and Ann Jones; to vice-principals: Bob Ferguson, Harold Campbell, Barry Foster, and Jean Starrs. And so many others reached higher plateaus too: Mike Cyze, Ministry of Education - Ed Jackman, to the priesthood - Jim Christie, to law - Norman Cohrs, to Math Head - Bob Dickie, to Technical Consultant - Jim Sevigny to Director of Admissions at Carleton University - Bruce Coughtrey to Math Head - Mike Wiltshire to Administrative Head - Duff Butterill, to Board Math Consultant - Peter Fergus, to Board English Consultant - Pat Bradley, to Commercial Head - Pat Holloway, to Board English Consultant - Mike Purdy, to Board Geography Consultant - Jack Livesley to the Ontario Television Network - Wally Mellor, to a professorship at McArthur College - Jim Prebble and Joy Kingsbury to Headships - John Tokaryk, to Board Art Consultant - Thelma Tucker and Jean Seasons, to Assistant Headships - Joan Bradley, to Board Guidance Consultant - Jerry Vullings to Computer Consultant - Jean Runnells, to Head of Guidance – Ken Saunders, to Math Head - Peter Manley, to Board Music Consultant - Pat Bradley, to Commercial Head - Jeff Burrows, to Head of Languages - Bob Wilkinson, to Assistant Head of Math and so many others.

 

But not all the good ones left with promotions: some stayed to grow with the school: and new teachers came and filled the ranks with novel ideas and vitality. And the educational beat went on...

 

...From over the new gym a pale Easter moon lightens the green of the gridiron... playful shadows move about the outdoor basketball courts...beyond the south wing comes the muted cry of geese beginning their final approaches to the river... behind, the serpentine mass of the building looms sullenly... the light in Bob Berry’s old office guides the unsung cleaning lady in her appointed duties...

 

Bob was a complex man: one time, gregarious, another time, reclusive. He was his own man, seldom sharing his thoughts or intentions. His low key nature was deceiving, for he missed very little with his wary eye. He chose his staff members well and delegated with brilliance. An excellent business mathematician, he often had trouble totalling his golf scores. On any green, no matter the magnitude of his score, his magical number was seven, a practice that not only made for efficient bookkeeping but also maintained a respectable handicap. Bob did much for the community. He was President of the Rivermead Golf Club, founder of the Ottawa Teachers’ Credit Union and National Secretary of the Canadian College of Teachers. Each Christmas he directed the Metropolitan Life Ladies’ Choir on television. In the fifties he played saxophone at the Chateau Grill. At the piano he was equally accomplished, his rendition of “San Francisco” always being a particular delight to hear. Bob Berry loved to call meetings. A good listener, everyone was encouraged to give his opinion for what it was worth. One of his creations was the holding of Heads’ meetings in the evening at the homes of the various heads. (Come to think of it we never did get to “his” house!) At these nocturnal affairs, Bob usually chose the most comfortable chair from which to direct proceedings. The first part of the evening was directed to “serious” discussions on “operation Woodie”. The second half was far more popular. Refreshments arrived and names like Gordon, Walker and Gilby were bantered about with some reckless abandon. For some reason the attendance at these meetings was excellent. It was this ability to mix work and play that made Bob Berry so distinctive. He was indeed a man for the times. He did his job, but always found time to enjoy the roses. He ran a relaxed school. He gave his staff freedom to create. He brought colour into the halls, the lockers, the rooms. He added a new library, a new gym, a new guidance area and completed other practical renovations. In the words of the New York restauranteur, Toots Shor, “the bum had class”.

 

Through the years Bob Berry never gave up his individuality. He always kept a good bit of his movements cloaked in secrecy. There were some days when the Board, the staff and even his wife didn’t know his whereabouts. On one day during the 1975 strike he would be visiting the picket lines, bringing us coffee, asking us who we were; on the next day, the natives of Maui and Tampa and Georgia would be talking of the swashbuckling man in his swimming trunks...with the huge stride...carrying educational placards...on his back.. in the hot sun...on the beaches...for the cause.. .in March. But then he always had colour.

 

Then came the dress codes - they added colour, too. Ear!y summer attires, while pleasing to the eye, caused the administration some concern, One principal reminded students over the P.A. that halters were not to be worn in and around the school. Another tried frantically to use the correct phraseology to tell the young ladies that proper support systems were expected to be worn. The mini-skirt did much to uplift our spirits. The typing class of Diane the Commercial teacher, a “mini-mini” exponent, was extremely popular one year. Bob Berry tried to register in the class to check out the situation first hand, but his cardiac system would not permit it.

 

By the time the mini maximized, another quiet revolution developed among the lady staff members. Some ladies were flaunting trousers, Berry was already upset over the demise of the mini and for him this slack movement was a real bottoming out. Jean Seasons, Margaret Atack and a few others, using the latest hit and run tactics, slowly picked away at Bob’s veneer. Eventually, Bob threw in his field glasses. As a last resort, he badgered Ian Macdonald into waggling his kilt at school, and Bob himself tried wearing Bermuda shorts and socks, but nobody paid any attention and the “days of the trouser” prevailed.

 

Bomb scares were another worry for Bob. Their frequency increased in the early seventies. At first the schools were slowly emptied, just in case, but later we developed a PA emergency code to alert staff to check to and fro and here and there, since the possibility of being blown sky high was imminent. The code was: “If Harry Pullen is in the building, would he please come to the office”. By that time, Harry had retired as Director of Education for the Ottawa Board. Why anyone associated bombings with Dr. Pullen is difficult to understand unless having Harry present was similar to the same “fear nausea” engendered by planted dynamite. Fortunately, Harry was never in the building on the “scare days”. If he had gone to the office, someone might have asked him to relinquish the whereabouts of the bombs and a veritable explosion would have occurred right on the spot.

 

During these bomb threat days, Phyllis Slater, the Head Secretary, should have received “danger pay”. To her fell the unnerving lot of receiving most of the “bomb scare” phone calls. Being a somewhat apprehensive person by nature, these messages from beyond did little for her emotional constitution. She would first tell the principal; then the  announcement about the prowling Harry would be made, and by two o’clock Phyllis had already slipped on home with a small case of minor shell shock.

 

...Outside the main entrance the west wind has picked up speed...the last cracks of light follow the Gatineau hills to darkness - on the Parkway, a lonely bus driver rests mind and machine... inside the foyer the lights are ablaze... Louie is washing the floor with those long gentle sweeps of his mop...alone with his thoughts, the silence of the entire building centres in this one spot...it is a good time for work... And you remember these “special” people who toil day in and night out behind the scenes: men like Sam, Joe, Gerry, Alex, Tony, Fred, Hugo, Gordie, Frank, Roger, Ted and Peter. Jacks-of-all-trades, they sweep up the cafeteria carry boxes, move filing cabinets and restore washrooms... And you remember, in particular, the good natured Sly Reddick who worked the boilers and in his spare time helped clean up floods from frozen pipes. Sly is dead now, but a more peaceful gentleman never walked these halls.

 

...And the memory mirrors so many other unheralded workers: the cleaning ladies, and in particular Mrs. Cape who tried to hide the wastebasket each evening, and who always said “Good Night” so pleasantly even though she was exhausted or worried or ill; Mrs. Russell, Betty, Mrs. Hovey and Mrs. Coughran in the cafeteria; the audio visual men: Larry, Jim, and Gary; the school nurses: Minola Gould, Mrs. Von Tsighil, Joan Riley and June Ponting; the secretaries who listened to our requests, answered the phones, pushed the paper, met the salesmen and the repairmen and the delivery boys and the mothers with lunches and the students coming late for class or going home or wanting aspirin or needing paper, ad infinitum. You remember Roberta, Mary, Ella, Cathy, Edna, Linda, Mary Jane, Dorothy, Linda, Suzanne, Chamma, Phyllis, Carol, Cathie, Erica, Nicola, Sharon, Edie, Eulice, Lorraine, Mavis, and Bernice. How helpful they all were!

 

Gradually, as the seventies spent themselves, Woodroffe became even more and more student oriented. Its open door policy, no doubt invigorated by the arrival of the semestering system in 1974, became even more pronounced. In those early days of semestering, Woodroffe was on a five period day with most students having one free period.  Soon, more freedom was given in changing subjects - bells were replaced with chimes and spare periods became unassigned. Close to twenty-five per cent of the student body had part-time jobs. Announcements were printed and assemblies were presided over by teachers and students; “patrolling” was almost passe, after school detentions were few, subject prerequisites lost import, and our student body became even more mobile with one out of every two students being new to the school each year.

 

The open door philosophy preached by the Hall-Dennis report in truth did more for the students than the teachers. Our demands resulted in the strike of '75. Teachers were docked one one hundred and ninety-fifth of their salaries for each day out - the school doors were locked and the press and parents were - to say the least - not too understanding of our plight. Soon teachers wondered if extra-curricular activities were really part of their workload - vice-principals found out that they really were on a ten month pay cycle and not eleven. And the principal more or less

stood alone by the phone as the drone of parental and student concerns flowed into the office.

 

About this time, the “open” system of electing Board of Education members made its democratic presence known across the system. Soon pressures were brought to bear on superintendents, principals, heads and teachers to comply with the sometimes erratic headlines made by trustees who occasionally sought naught but their own political glory. New words like “aims” “rationale” and “objectives” crept into the vocabulary: more and more, everyone was being appraised on a regular basis by someone else. Teachers heard about duties, but seldom their rights. Administrators began to report to more and more people. Is it any wonder that principals often confined themselves to their executive offices to handle the paper work and the parents and complaints? More than once, a principal would even escape from there to the shelter of a guidance or nurse’s office when an irate parent or superintendent arrived unexpectedly on his office threshold...to return only after the smoke had cleared.

 

Yet, while the red-tape-verbosity ran on in and out of camera, and the staff at all levels valiantly adjusted to the battering of redundancies, declining enrollments, school closures, accountability and dead end jobs, it must be remembered that in spite of it all our Board and its teachers continued to do much that was good. You think at once of the strong curricula in the well equipped schools. Under people like Bob Darby, Robert Beatty, Harry Pullen, Frank Patten, Leo McCarthy, Hal Willis and Evalene Thom our concern for the individual needs of students has become second to none in Canada. Social workers and psychologists assist good guidance departments in all our schools - special education programmes abound for the exceptional child, and other services like the visiting teacher, the alternate school and the “step by step” programmes attest to our quality education. We have much to be proud of! It is a shame that some believe the educational system shifts on the sands of supply and demand while in reality it stands on the rock of mutual respect and trust between Board and Staff.

 

... The halls are deserted now... Soon the last worker will go home... In the foyer, the pictures of Head Boys and Head Girls, former principals and the Queen and Philip look down appreciatively on Louie’s shining floor... and on the walls near the auditorium entrance are the beautiful plaques that principal Bill McCarthy commissioned to commemorate the educational accomplishments of our students.

 

Many silver medallists and Ontario Scholars are remembered there in bronze. Our graduates in general took away over nine thousand diplomas. Over twenty-five hundred graduates went on to university and twice as many applied to schools of technology. In 1983, Woodroffe had the second highest number of graduates enrolled at Algonquin College of any school in the Ottawa Valley. Yet, while we remember in tablets a few of the academic creme de la creme, we must not forget all those other good, solid students who also carried our colours with distinction throughout society, and whose memory is not recorded here.

 

Bill McCarthy who is retiring this year after some thirty plus years in education can well remember the daily efforts needed to run efficient and happy schools. Meetings, meetings, meetings - of heads, parents, teachers, principals, counsellors, architects, salesmen...over a twenty-five year period, literally hundred and hundreds of meetings and thousands of classes. He can remember, too the open houses, our many sporting events and successes, the yearbooks, the school newspapers, the school plays, the assemblies and the commencements...Schools don’t run themselves, and graduates don’t come off assembly lines...It all takes much organization and unstinted effort. In his six years here, Bill McCarthy helped us all to keep up the fine heritage that is Woodroffe’s.

 

For the staff, the pressures of the daily grind were somewhat eased by the soothing balm of those once in a lifetime characters who taught here. Roy Thomas, otherwise known as Sir Royal Roy of Ridley, shared with us for twenty-one years his rather whimsical view of the world. An erudite man of great sensitivity, he could be emotionally shattered by a meaningless barb, his visage becoming a cross between Stan Laurel and a disciplined dachshund. Did Roy really leave a broken Port in every Hearth during the Second World War? (or was it the First?)...be that as it may, Roy was a fine history head who brought a steadying influence to Woodroffe.

 

Lloyd Greer, otherwise known as Jersey Joe Lloyd was a vice principal here with Bob Berry. A boxer at university and a former football coach at Ottawa Tech during their winning days of the fifties, he had an iron fist with a tender heart. An often recommended but never used favourite cure for delinquent boys was Lloyd’s old “five in the eye” treatment. Yet, the same Lloyd broke down on the P.A. when announcing the accidental death of one of our former students, the charming Orianne Laver.

 

And then there was John Tokaryk, a fine art and mathematics teacher. John wore immaculate threads, sported ice on his pinky and drove the latest wheels. John once kindly loaned his white convertible Chrysler to Mrs. Jack Kennedy on the occasion of her visit to Ottawa in the 1960's. No one ever put mathematical symbols on the blackboard in a more correct and artistic manner. A man of great energy and ideas and style, he is greatly missed - John died four years ago.

 

Gene Quesnel, Head of Commercial, came to Woodroffe in the early sixties and stayed until his retirement in the early eighties. A man of impeccable manners he could easily have passed for the French ambassador with his fur hats, pin-striped suits and his leather upholstered Mercedes. Gene was a master in penmanship, sang a bit like George Burns, and played piano ala Carman. Gene died last year. He too is sorely missed. A true gentleman!

 

Two other characters deserving honourable mention were Freddie Heskett and Joan O’Meara. A man not especially known for his sartorial splendour, Freddie did have a certain charm. But then so did Mrs. O’Meara. When the male staff of Woodroffe first saw those saucer blue eyes coupled with black teased coiffures and Shirley Temple mien, we knew we had a Parisian bombshell on our hands. Down the hall they came together - Freddie in his baggy pants and Joan in her mini. Now Freddie always wore shoes whose soles opened to the elements and Joan always sported spiked high-heeled pumps. Whenever you heard, “flap, flap, flop”, “click, click, click”, you knew Joan and Freddie were on the move. Joan was also further blessed with a fortunate anatomical endowment that allowed her to walk with a slight rumba effect. Even the stoical Wayne Pointen (in those days innocently unmarried) can recall with glazed eyes the one and only Mrs O’Meara, or to be poetic: “Even the staid Wayne Pointen would unashamedly stare at the undulating wiggle of O’Meara’s derriere”. Naturally, Joan was far from being the only example of female pulchritude: there were Thelma, Barbara, Penny, Ann, Nadine, Sandy, Judy, Marilyn, Cathy, Betty and Colleen and so many others: Vous êtes toujours dans nos coeurs, mes beautées.

 

And the men, magnifico!: the dapper (Jim) Bruce, Gentleman (Jim) Christie, Hollywood (Bruce) Coughtrey, Gunsmoke (Gary) Rowan, “Hitman” (Barry) Foster, Madison Avenue (Mike) Cyze, Big Apple (Al) Dresser, Kentucky (Skip) Riddell, Midas (Keith) Suykens, (Bob) McLeod Ferguson, Quincy (Barry) MacRae, Sweepstake (Milt) Sealy, Machine Gun (Jack) Wilder and Bag Man (Gordie) Murdock. Each in his own way, a bit of a Beau Brummell.

 

...The parking lot is dark...the air is heavy... few dogs are walking their owners in and about the school lawns... the building could well be a deserted castle in the Highlands...empty of people it is nothing...overhead a jet turns its eyes towards Uplands... and the warmth of the car is welcomed...The first quarter century will soon be over...but before it is, students and staff will come together in a joyful reunion on a day in May.

 

Some teachers and students will not return, because they me gone from us - teachers: John Hinton, Dave Zimmerman, Valerie Johnson, John Eagle, John Tokaryk, Gene Quesnel, and Harold Edwards-Davies; students: Brent Ostrom, Norm Thompson, George Orphanos, Orianne Laver, Mike Whitmore, Moira Lee, Gerry Cogan, John Leonard, Keith Box, Jay O’dell, Richard Sullivan, Tasso Calogecacos, Jacob Malomet, Pete Gray, Jennifer Lancaster, James Ashe, Totlyn Bravo, Hal McLaughlin, John Roberts, Kathryn Whitcher, James Cohen and Richard Mullins...May they all rest in peace!...

 

...But life is for the living. And soon the good times will roll and elbows will bend and tales will be told and friends will unite under the proud banner of Woodroffe High...

 

--Woodroffe, we salute you!

 

May you live on to see your children’s children!

 

Then you will be truly blessed--

 

May, 1985

Ottawa, Ont.

G.T.O.