Kenneth Oppel
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SUMMER 2011 • ST. MICHAELS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL School Kenneth Oppel ’85 Kate Jacobs ’91 The Bolton Legacy In conversation with Bert The New York Times Mark Grist ’92 writes about Archer ’86, Ken remembers bestselling author shares Rev. Bolton’s role in the his time at the school and what she likes to write creation of Strathcona Park. his path to writing. and read. You’re Invited The 6th Annual SMUS Alumni & Friends Golf Invitational September 12 2011 Register online at www.smusalumni.ca School Ties is distributed to more than 5,000 members of the St. Michaels University School community, including current families, friends, and current and past staff and students. The goal of the publication is to communicate current activities and initiatives and 2 Books provide articles and reports on the Contents alumni community. If you have any Bob Snowden talks about the unchanging comments or suggestions regarding essence of books. this publication, please email [email protected]. 3 Highlights from Published by the Advancement Office the SMUS Review St. Michaels University School News stories from all three campuses 3400 Richmond Road Victoria, British Columbia published on our web forum, the Canada V8P 4P5 SMUS Review. Kenneth Oppel ’85 Telephone: 250-592-2411 Admissions: 1-800-661-5199 6 Athletics Highlights Email: [email protected] Sports highlights from November 2010 12 Feature: SMUS Authors School Ties magazine and archive to March 2011. Ken Oppel ’85, Kate Jacobs ’91 and copies can be found in the publications Steven Price ’94 in conversation about section of the school website: 8 Arts Highlights the writer’s trade, plus teachers Gary www.smus.ca/pubs Arts highlights from November 2010 Barber and Terence Young on their If you are interested in attending alumni to March 2011. recently published books. events, visit the online Calendar of Events at www.smusalumni.ca. 9 Saying Goodbye 19 Alumni Weekend Editors: Erin Anderson, Laura Authier, Five staff members are moving on from Pictorial highlights from alumni weekend Gillian Donald ’85, Peter Gardiner, the school. events. Louise Winter 10 Celebrating Reverend 22 Alumni Receptions Contributors (in no particular order): Robert Snowden, Robert Wilson, Peter W.W. Bolton’s BC Parks We recently visited alumni in Canada, Gardiner, Laura Authier, Erin Anderson, Legacy the U.S. and Asia. Brenda Waksel, Louise Winter, Gillian The cofounder of University School also Donald ’85, Bert Archer ’86, Dariusz helped create BC’s first provincial park. 23 Alumni Updates Dziewanski ’97, Mark Grist ’92, Lachlan News from our alumni around the world. Murray ’78, and SMUS community members. We apologize for any 28 Passages: John Nation ’33 omissions. Rob Wilson recalls the “father of Photos: Erin Anderson, Gillian Donald ‘85, Rob Ducharme, Ann Fenje, amalgamation.” Peter Gardiner, Kent Leahy-Trill, Greg Marchand, Blair Shier Design and Layout: Reber Creative Featured Printed in Canada W by Hillside Printing Ltd., Victoria, BC Alumni Cover photo: Nic Hume ’00 Kate Jacobs ’91 (p. 16) Ryan O’Byrne ’02 (p. 7) Kenneth Oppel ’85 (p. 14) Mark Grist ’92 Steven Price ’94 (p. 18) Alumni 2011 • - Summer Ties School Contributors Bert Archer ’86 (p. 14) Dariusz Dziewanski ’97 (p. 5) Mark Grist ’92 (p. 10) Lachlan Murray ’78 (p. 12) This issue of School Ties was printed on Productolith 30% post-consumer recycled fibre paper. By selecting this paper, St. Michaels University School has preserved 6 trees for the future, saved 2,441 gal of wastewater flow, and conserved 4,069,800 BTUs energy. 1 BooksWhat does the future hold for books? Bob discusses what we lose and gain in the electronic age. by Bob Snowden SCHOOL bonfire of burning books conveys as much light as it Because of that irrepressibility I have already mentioned, Adoes darkness. While literal and impoverished minds at various I have absolutely no fear that books will disappear. For a long of pathetic moments of history have thought that if you burnt time I liked to be surrounded by books in my own study – they books you could burn what they stand for, you can’t. Like the were silent friends whose presence was a comfort. I could pull human impulse to be free, which resurfaces even after the most down one of these old friends and look something up. As a child repressive and lengthy attempts to quell it, the impulse to think I was as addicted a reader as I am now; my parents had to come and create – which is the same as the impulse to pursue truth – in and turn off my light, or take away the flashlight I would use HEAD HEAD is irrepressible. It continues to light our way. And besides, if desperate. Now, I rarely keep a book I have finished: I pass the thinking and creating that books embody offer so much it on to someone I think might like it. I also own a Kindle, a pleasure. This issue of School Ties features some of our alumni technology I find a great boon on a bedside table with limited and staff who have added to that pleasure. space, or in a carry-on when I travel, which weighs less than it Our library in School House is a favourite place. When we would with five or ten paperbacks inside. planned it we were well aware that the traditional notion of Our students, who are very good readers, likely don’t have such a place as a quiet – or silent – oasis where one could refresh a powerful fondness for books as tactile experiences – many of one’s intellect in the fertility of hundreds of years of collected them likely read more online than they do on paper. Most of us creativity and scholarship was a model that may be passé. No believe that a good reader makes a good writer, and this is true doubt over the next decade we will see differences in how books of our students. The two go hand in hand. Every year students are displayed and how many books are displayed. Electronic in our Writing 12 class carry away about 90% of the prizes in readers such as Kindles and Nooks and iPads will work out contests they enter. Their relationship with the printed page is their kinks and become more useful in libraries. We had best changing, as is mine, along with just about everyone’s. While think about this. we expend a certain amount of nostalgia and wistfulness as this evolution takes place, we do evolve nevertheless. Physical books over the centuries have become a metaphor for the creative and intellectual exercises that they contain. When I was at school, a little useful time was spent but much wasted in teaching us about literary terms such as metonymy. Metonymy is a poetic device in which a quality or symbol of an object is identified as the object itself. So the phrase “all hands on deck” clearly doesn’t just mean the hands but the sailors those hands belong to. When Mark Anthony asks his listeners at Caesar’s funeral to “lend me your ears,” he doesn’t want their ears, but their attention. Likewise books – books have become so embedded as the physical symbol for what they contain that many of us think you can’t have one without the other. But the book is only the medium, now to be replaced by electronic files, or webpages. One of the guiding themes of the recent redevelopment of our facilities has been the creation of quadrangles, gathering places that themselves were modelled on the village square. They make it easier for the community to be communal. The reason we devoted so much thought to the nature of our library is that we believed that regardless of what form books take in the future, a school will continue to need a quadrangle, so to speak, that is also set aside for its intellectual and creative life. Our library is well loved as a place to gather, and even if the gathering isn’t always as high-minded as the creative and intellectual ambitions suggest, that doesn’t matter. Like a book, a library is simply the physical manifestation of the idea it represents – a space where creative, thoughtful minds can think, read, reflect, create and, at times, make Mrs. Tweedie, the librarian, pull her hair out. Vivat! • School Ties - Summer 2011 - Summer Ties • School 2 Visit http://blogs.smus.ca/head/ Highlights from the SMUS Review SCHOOL The SMUS Review publishes weekly on our website and covers school news from all three campuses. The following highlights were taken from stories published from November 2010 to March 2011. N You can read more about these stories in the SMUS Review at http://blogs.smus.ca/review. E W November S During Spirit Week, Grade 10 student Richard Cunningham correctly gives pi to 15 decimal points to win points for his house through a Jeopardy-style quiz game. Grade 2 students bake, decorate and sell gingerbread cookies to raise money to buy toys for Santas Anonymous. The SMUS Middle School has its first school-wide service day, with all 208 students volunteering around Victoria. Grade 6 Science students Grace Hart and Laura Williams meet two very tame snakes as part of their unit on reptiles. School Ties - Summer 2011 • - Summer Ties School December Rebecca Louw and Cortney Ewonus help load Christmas hampers for delivery to local families after students at the Middle and Senior Schools collected food and gifts in support of the YMCA/YWCA Outreach program. 3 S W E N SCHOOL The Junior School holds its own carol service, complete with a nativity scene and many songs.