150 attend Montreal Reunion 2007

The 29^th annual Old Boys’ Reunion, held at the school on September 28, was the best-attended event of its kind in recent memory, with 150 Old Boys, guests, staff and former staffers attending.

Special classes for this year’s reunion were: 1957 (four members present), 1977 (10 members present), 1982 (23 members present), 1987 (25 members present), 1997 (24 members present) and 2002 (two members present).

Chris Hyde ’57 gave a toast to the school. “When my class attended Selwyn House, we were still on Redpath Street,” he recalled, “and our schooling there ran out at Grade 9, or Fifth Form, having started in Form D in 1948.” He then read a Letterman-style top-10 list of his best memories from his days at Selwyn House:

10. The kindness to small boys from women like Mrs Howis, Mrs Markland and Miss Tester.

9. Mr Moodey’s mental arithmetic exercises.

8. Away soccer, hockey and cricket matches at Sedbergh and Bishop’s

7. Ball hockey at break on the rink.

6. Listening to Gillette’s Friday night fights on the radio the night before Saturday morning boxing lessons at the gym.

5. Assemblies with great speakers like Olympian Jesse Owens and Dam Buster leader Douglas Bader.

4. Our joy when a guest speaker requested that the boys be given a half or full holiday.

3. Lunches in the gym, especially when George’s Shepherd’s Pie was on the menu.

2. Mr Speirs’ white-hot fury when the grad class booby-trapped the school at the end of the last term.

And the number-one memory….skipping Grade 10 in Ontario and still being ahead in most subjects.

“Many of you don’t remember what the school was like in the bad old days of the 1960s,” said Ted Claxton ’73, chairman of the Selwyn House Board of Directors. “But if you look around you now, the physical plant of the school is just fantastic.” Improvements to the school buildings were made possible by a $17-million Capital Campaign, Ted reported. In the future, however, the focus of fundraising will shift from physical improvements to increasing endowment for financial aid. The school must have $250,000 invested in endowment in order to generate the interest necessary to pay a full scholarship for a deserving student, Ted explained.

Ted reminded the Old Boys of the school’s upcoming Centennial and the “almost impossible” task of finding a replacement for Will Mitchell when he retires as headmaster next year. “There are lots of activities on,” he said, “but more than anything else I wanted to tell you it’s great to see you in such a large number out just to have fun tonight.”

Old Boys’ Association President Paul Mayer ’74 opened the organization’s annual meeting. Najib Sallman 2002 read the slate of officers, which saw two OBA board members, William Black ’86, Hagen Mehnert ’84, stepping down. Charles Bierbrier ’93, Geoffrey Moore ’83, Mark Palayew ’76 and Ben Wearing ’94 were elected to fill the board.

Other members of the Old Boys’ Board are: Paul Mayer ’74 (President), Vince Guzzo ’86 (Vice-President), Alan Rossy ’79 (Secretary), Raymond Ayas ’95, Matthew Beckerleg ’94, Thomas Konigsthal ’74, Michael Osterland ’78, Nicholas Powell ’79, David Skinner ’82 and Fil Papich ’77 (Past President).

Chapter Representatives for the year 2007-08 are: Tim Shorter ’81 (Australia), George Sopel ’86 (Boston), Stephen Scott ’77 (London), Michael Culver ’67 (New York), Sean McKinnon ’98 (Ottawa), Sean Sofin ’84 (Toronto) and James Pitblado ’81 (Vancouver).

OBA Past President Fil Papich ’77 introduced Headmaster Will Mitchell, whom he described as “a determined man of vision.” The audience gave standing ovation for Will, who responded by giving credit to all the school’s constituents, including the Old Boys. “Your expression of confidence in the school and its mission are what keeps us pushing forward to advance the school at all times.”

He also spoke about the importance of increasing endowment. “Right now,” he said, “we have 10 to 12 per cent of our students on financial assistance, with $300,000 out. Our plan is to increase out endowment from $4.5M to $20M so that we can have financial assistance increase from $600,000 to $800,000 immediately to 20 per cent of our population. That will contribute to the diversity of the school and I think that I would not have been comfortable being the headmaster of a school like Selwyn House had the school not had a commitment to that diversity and financial assistance.”

Andrew Webster and Tim Reid, both from the Class of ’82, each gave a short talk on their professional lives, as both men work in some capacity for the United Nations. “I hang out with bureaucrats, diplomats, prostitutes, war criminals and child soldiers,” Tim said. “As you can imagine, Selwyn House was a good preparation for that.”

Richard Martz ’97 gave a moving tribute to his classmate Colin No, who died in 2002, and whom he described as “a friend to everyone in the class.” The school has established a special endowment fund in Colin’s name, which is funded by a basketball tournament held every January. Richard appealed to Old Boys to participate in the tournament, “So that we can make the impact on the world that Colin was destined for, but never lived long enough to realize.”

The camaraderie carried on into the night, at Selwyn House and in other locales throughout the city. A number of activities organized by each class kept the celebration going throughout the weekend.

For more photos from the reunion, click here.

In attendance at the reunion were:

William H. Daly, 1952

Massimiliano Ferro, 1957

Christopher D. Hyde, 1957

J. K. Martin, 1957

Allan G. Wakefield, 1957

Murray J. Leiter, 1964

Edward B. Claxton, 1973

Thomas Konigsthal, 1974

Paul Mayer, 1974

Joseph J. Dydzak, 1975

Mark D. Palayew, 1976

Dean J. Barriere, 1977

Timothy D. Fitzpatrick, 1977

Michael I. Holy, 1977

Alexander Hyder, 1977

Tomas Kaufman, 1977

Manlio P. Marescotti, 1977

Peter C. Oliver, 1977

Filip Papich, 1977

Bruce Williams, 1977

Constantine Zarifi, 1977

Alan P. Rossy, 1979

David W. Daly, 1980

Geoffrey J. Canlett, 1982

Grant G. Daly, 1982

Philippe E. de Leonardis, 1982

Gavin B. Drummond, 1982

Gary Groszman, 1982

Theodore J. Homa, 1982

Esko T. Kilpinen, 1982

Philip Lapin, 1982

I. A. MacKay, 1982

Marc P. Mintzberg, 1982

John J. Norman, 1982

David Pascal, 1982

Geoffrey Reford, 1982

Timothy B. Reid, 1982

Adam W. Rolland, 1982

Paul Sader, 1982

Peter M. Saykaly, 1982

David F. Skinner, 1982

Denis H. Stevens, 1982

Timothy G. Utting, 1982

Andrew K. Webster, 1982

Mark P. Wrobel, 1982

Timothy S. Zyto, 1982

Geoffrey S. Moore, 1983

Vincenzo Guzzo, 1986

Ian S. Blachford, 1987

Robert G. Briscoe, 1987

Christopher T. Bruneau, 1987

Derek F. de Bono, 1987

Nicholas Ducic, 1987

Barry Friedberg, 1987

Trevor K. Ham, 1987

Nicolaus A. Harnack, 1987

J. Andrew E. Hill, 1987

Eric R. Knai, 1987

William A. Lloyd, 1987

Clarence E. Mah, 1987

Paul-Eric Marko, 1987

David L. Metcalf, 1987

Ravi S. Nayar, 1987

Michael W. Olders, 1987

Kenneth M. Palko, 1987

Ian M. Pickwoad, 1987

Gary K. Porter, 1987

Neil S. Riddell, 1987

Michael G. Riley, 1987

Andrew D. Smith, 1987

D. R. Strom-Olsen, 1987

Andrew R. Waterston, 1987

Peter J. Zukow, 1987

Thomas E. MacKay, 1990

Charles V. Bierbrier, 1993

Sikander S. Lal, 1993

J. M. Beckerleg, 1994

Ben J. Wearing, 1994

Raymond Ayas, 1995

Trevor A. Ahmedali, 1997

Roberto F. Bellini, 1997

Kevin S. Boyle, 1997

James G. Brooks, 1997

Charles C. Colby, 1997

Michael E. Dalgleish, 1997

Michael A. Durcak, 1997

Christopher Eich, 1997

Robert N. Fagan, 1997

Jeffrey R. Gantz, 1997

Ziad Kaedbey, 1997

Morgan N. Lackenbauer, 1997

Igor Lauw-Bastien, 1997

Richard Z. Martz, 1997

Bradley J. Massi, 1997

Jasjeet S. Minhas, 1997

Ajay Narasimhadevara, 1997

Randall J. Newman, 1997

Tomek C. Nishijima, 1997

Tobias No, 1997

David S. O'Brien, 1997

Thomas G. Simon, 1997

Thomas T. Sontag, 1997

Nicholas A. Yanow, 1997

Ian A. Ratzer, 1998

Sherwin S. Kong, 2002

Najib P. Sallman, 2002

David Webster, Former Parent

Monty Krindle, Former Staff

Jack P. Martin, Former Staff

Ellen R. Pinchuk, Former Staff

Rob Wearing, Former Staff

David P. Williams, Former Staff

Sharon Cozens, Former Staff

Andrea Batsis, Guest

Ania Belewska, Guest

Caroline Desmarais, Guest

Ewa Nowinska-Kilpinen, Guest

Alisa Porter, Guest

Jennie Sardo, Guest

Elinor Utting, Guest

Monique M. Bégin, Staff

Kathleen Biggs, Staff

Colin Boyle, Staff

Michael Downey, Staff

Tom Downey, Staff

Kathy Funamoto, Staff

Nathalie Gervais, Staff

Peter Govan, Staff

Scott Kilbride, Staff

Pia Lalli, Staff

Marie-Line Leflèche, Staff

Andrew M. Lumsden, Staff

Carol Manning, Staff

Michael Maurovich, Staff

Beth McMillan, Staff

James F. McMillan, Staff

Steve J. Mitchell, Staff

William Mitchell, Staff

Bradley J. Moffat, Staff

Thomas J. Nicoll, Staff

Shawn O'Donnell, Staff

Alfie Paoletti, Staff

Kelli Poulin, Staff

Courtney Prieur, Staff

Heather M. Rochette, Staff

Kelly Tonkin, Staff

Jean-Pierre Trudeau, Staff

Sharon Walker, Staff

Johanne Werbiski, Staff

Richard Wills, Staff