12 September 2014 & 13 September 2014
The Class of 1964 enjoyed their 50 Year on Reunion at Pretoria Boys High School earlier this month and a wonderful time was had by all.
Mr Howard Ross presented the scripture reading and Dr John Verster addressed the school. John Verster, is an emeritus professor of business science, chairman of a public benefit organisation, vice chair of a conservation foundation, former managing director of a behavioural finance company and retired group human resources director of Standard Bank. His early career was in social sciences research under the CSIR, HSRC and NATO Advanced Study Institute in Human Sciences. He holds a BA in Economics, Psychology and English, Honours (First Class) in Psychology, MA (cum laude) in psychological measurement and D Litt et Phil in cognitive science and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School, USA.
We have included an abridged version of his address below:
It’s been fully 50 years since last I set foot in the grounds of this great school. I can assure you I feel as awed today as I did when I first entered the school, as a new boy back in 1960.
One of my earliest memories from that distant time is of our first PT class, on a stretch of lawn below the swimming pool. The 200 or so new boys, stripped down to shorts, were instructed to line up, from tallest to smallest. After much pushing and shoving, the pecking order was established. At the top end were the bean poles. Nearly 200 boys down the line, I found myself among the vertically challenged. I looked up that day, quite literally, to all the boys in my class. I look up today, in a more figurative sense, to that same cohort, now distinguished gentlemen some 50 plus years on, and feel deeply humbled at this opportunity to deliver a message on your behalf to the current boys of the school.
As you, the boys of today weigh your options for the future, it may be of interest to reflect for a moment on the qualities that have underpinned life success in the older generation, us baby boomers of the post-War era. For us, success has meant health, wealth and happiness – a good career, happy marriage, wellness over the lifespan and accumulated savings for a secure retirement. Extensive research conducted internationally shows that the personal qualities which have best predicted these long-term life success outcomes are the following: a tertiary education, information processing efficiency, conscientiousness, emotional stability and numeracy. These qualities, more than many others considered, have stood out and stood the test of time. Whether these same qualities will prove equally critical to life success in your generation remains to be seen. My advice is to heed them and hone them.
I feel confident that this great school has the wherewithal to prepare its current charges for the exciting future that awaits them. In my humble view this has less to do with the content of what is taught in class, which may be overtaken as new knowledge unfolds, and more to do with learning how to learn and how to think for one’s self. These are crucial and enduring skills that need to be developed at school. So too are the enduring values of respect for self, others and otherness, compassion for those less fortunate and above all, personal integrity. Schooling has much to do with the person we become in adulthood. This is revealed, through time, in the pattern of decisions and actions that mark out the trajectory of our life. We are known by what we do and how we do it.
In my varied career to date I’ve come across many an old boy of the school, from different cohorts, both earlier and later than mine. All have impressed me with their gentlemanly bearing, genuine warmth and good humour. I’ve also had close working relationships with several old boys of the school. One was my sometime boss, a former CEO of Standard Bank some 8 years my senior, who on occasion asked me to deputise for him while he was away. Another worked under me as a subordinate, yet had been my senior at school, a deputy head boy in his year. Yet another, a head boy here in his day, about half my age, came to study under me while I was director of the doctoral programme at GIBS.
In all of these cases, the mark of the school was clearly evident. A Boys High man is known by his credo: Virtute et Labore! Long may that last.
On behalf of the Class of ’64, I have great pleasure in wishing all in the school today the very best of good luck for a happy, healthy, successful and fulfilling life ahead.
