Page 22 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 22
22
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
these opions but to draw atenion to the serious situaion of the school which then lacked self
conidence and a sense of idenity.
Cometh the hour cometh the man. Fr Dermot Murray was appointed Headmaster in October
1974. His pracical and shrewd management of a prety desperate situaion saved the school
and laid the foundaions for what it is today. He set about building proper faciliies, establishing
irm discipline, maintaining excellent relaionships with staf and managed to retain much of
the ethos of the old Sixth Year with the new academic demands of university entrance. In this
Fr Alan Mowbray played a crucial role. But it was not only on the pracical level that Fr Murray
made his mark on the school. He was a scienist by training, and a keen musician. Under him the
scieniic and aestheic strands of the curriculum assumed a greater importance and he let the
school with a more balanced and humane curriculum. I do not think that one can underesimate
the role he played at a criical ime.
Father Murray stabilised and developed the school and merits the very high esteem in which
he is held. However, despite his outstanding work, there were factors afecing the school which
indicated that it sill lacked a sense of idenity. Two issues remained unresolved. On the one
hand, it emphasised faith and jusice, and on the other, it charged fees; in the eyes of many this
was an uneasy it. The school was not at home with itself. It was a ightly knit community being
religiously, socially, and academically selecive; the boys were all above or well above average
ability and came From families that were overwhelmingly professional and higher managerial
which provided them with the support of an educated and knowledgeable home environment.
Many quesioned if this provided the boys with a suiciently broad social experience. Certainly
one could observe that some were led to an insensiive bias to their own group or class and
others were led to a romanic rejecion of their own social group. It was argued that the school
should earnestly seek ways to prepare young men to take their place in society and to serve as
agents of reconciliaion, social harmony and jusice without which the two previous qualiies
cannot exist. There was in short a social ideal to be realised.
Secondly, the number of Jesuits available to teach in the school was decreasing and
the Jesuits were asking themselves if the school could remain Jesuit in these circumstances. I
recall having many discussions with my Jesuit colleagues about how many Jesuits were required
in a school for it to be a genuine Jesuit school. In fact what was happening was that a ‘family
irm’ in which the family retained the control and management and provided the personnel
of the ‘business’ was being transferred into a ‘public company’ in which an increasing number
Fr Dermot Murray: of the management and staf was not members of the family. That transiion was not without
appointed Headmaster its tension. The quesion gradually became: Can a school without Jesuits be a Jesuit School?
in 1974
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
these opions but to draw atenion to the serious situaion of the school which then lacked self
conidence and a sense of idenity.
Cometh the hour cometh the man. Fr Dermot Murray was appointed Headmaster in October
1974. His pracical and shrewd management of a prety desperate situaion saved the school
and laid the foundaions for what it is today. He set about building proper faciliies, establishing
irm discipline, maintaining excellent relaionships with staf and managed to retain much of
the ethos of the old Sixth Year with the new academic demands of university entrance. In this
Fr Alan Mowbray played a crucial role. But it was not only on the pracical level that Fr Murray
made his mark on the school. He was a scienist by training, and a keen musician. Under him the
scieniic and aestheic strands of the curriculum assumed a greater importance and he let the
school with a more balanced and humane curriculum. I do not think that one can underesimate
the role he played at a criical ime.
Father Murray stabilised and developed the school and merits the very high esteem in which
he is held. However, despite his outstanding work, there were factors afecing the school which
indicated that it sill lacked a sense of idenity. Two issues remained unresolved. On the one
hand, it emphasised faith and jusice, and on the other, it charged fees; in the eyes of many this
was an uneasy it. The school was not at home with itself. It was a ightly knit community being
religiously, socially, and academically selecive; the boys were all above or well above average
ability and came From families that were overwhelmingly professional and higher managerial
which provided them with the support of an educated and knowledgeable home environment.
Many quesioned if this provided the boys with a suiciently broad social experience. Certainly
one could observe that some were led to an insensiive bias to their own group or class and
others were led to a romanic rejecion of their own social group. It was argued that the school
should earnestly seek ways to prepare young men to take their place in society and to serve as
agents of reconciliaion, social harmony and jusice without which the two previous qualiies
cannot exist. There was in short a social ideal to be realised.
Secondly, the number of Jesuits available to teach in the school was decreasing and
the Jesuits were asking themselves if the school could remain Jesuit in these circumstances. I
recall having many discussions with my Jesuit colleagues about how many Jesuits were required
in a school for it to be a genuine Jesuit school. In fact what was happening was that a ‘family
irm’ in which the family retained the control and management and provided the personnel
of the ‘business’ was being transferred into a ‘public company’ in which an increasing number
Fr Dermot Murray: of the management and staf was not members of the family. That transiion was not without
appointed Headmaster its tension. The quesion gradually became: Can a school without Jesuits be a Jesuit School?
in 1974
