PBHSOB ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Dear Old Boy
Michal Wronski – Class of 2004 is the founder and managing director of FuseWare. The following article is taken from the Mail and Guardian – 200 Young South Africans 2014.
Mike Wronski epitomises the entrepreneurial spirit of building something from nothing, often on little more than an idea and boatloads of courage.He admits that starting his online media and monitoring company FuseWare when he was 23 was “ballsy”, especially because he had no business experience and only one year of work and an electrical and computer engineering degree under his belt.
However, he did show an early fascination with the world of commerce, becoming the self-styled “king of bubble gum” while at school, where he sold gum to a receptive and captive audience of school mates.
But today, at 27, he is recognised as one of the country’s leading sources of intelligence in the online media space.
Apart from building FuseWare into a respected partner of major brands, Wronski has established his profile as a commentator on matters such as the future of media, online reputation management and social media.
He was recognised this year as one of the leading 40 under 40 personalities by local publication The Media.
He says his entrepreneurial journey, including during his school days, has always been driven by the satisfaction of giving people something they want. It has by no means been an easy journey, although Wronski says it is the recovery from the low points that define an entrepreneur.
“There are a lot of trade-offs and compromises you have to make while running a business. But like the great entrepreneurs say: the number one key is perseverence,” he says. “If success is guaranteed if you persevere and grow, why shouldn’t you persevere?”
He ascribes his success to building solid partnerships and networks, especially the latter. “You never know when you will learn something new that will change your life,” he says. Visit his website here
– Johann Barnard
FRIDAY TIE DAY SEPTEMBER 2014
PRETORIA BOYS HIGH SCHOOL NEWS
The school has embarked on a process to digitise its historic archives and also to preserve digital content that is being captured on digital recording devices, such as digital cameras.
The school has begun by digitising a number of editions of the school magazine. Over time they would like to digitise the entire set of magazines as well as school histories, newspaper clippings, photographs, video and so on. These, together with born-digital content, will be placed in this archival digital repository for both long-term preservation and for ready access by the school community:
https://boyshigh.africamediaonline.com/
If you would like to donate material that should be included in the archive or if you would like to give toward this project of building a digital archive please email Mr John Illsley at the school: John@boyshigh.com
PRETORIA BOYS HIGH SCHOOL FIXTURES & EVENTS
- 12 & 13 September 2014
50 Years on Reunion - 18 September 2014
Photographic Exhibition - 25 September 2014
Winter Sports Dinner - 26 September – 28 September 2014
Water Polo: U15 Tournament at Wynberg Boys
THE NEW HALL
The new School Hall was officially opened at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, 26th August, 1964.
The new School Hall was opened officially at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 27th August, 1964.
The above is not a printing error. It is a statement of fact and a true record, for the new building had two official openings – the first, for dignitaries and parents, was performed by the Administrator of the Transvaal, Mr. F. H. Odendaal, the second, for the masters and boys of the School, was performed by the Headmaster, the Head Prefect, George Laurence, and a number of boys. The first was a splendid and dignified occasion; the second was splendid and gay.
Both occasions were made memorable by the superb singing of the School Choir. Two anthems had been prepared specially for the occasion, “If Ye Love Me’ and “O, Holy Jesu” and their singing will be long remembered by all those who attended the
ceremonies.
During the [Wednesday] ceremony the School Dedication, a distillation of the ideas put forward by all the boys of the School, was read by the Head Prefect:
On the occasion of the opening of our new School Hall, we, the present scholars of PRETORIA BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL, gratefully acknowledging our indebtedness to all whose devotion to the School in the past has made it what it is, dedicate ourselves
sincerely and in humilityto the service of God and our fellows, both within the community of the School and beyond it
to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding
to the preservation and promotion of all that is best in the traditions of our School
to the practice of tolerance and goodwill towards human beings of all types races, and groups
to making our School a symbol of enlightenment, true freedom, generous-hearted fellowship and good sportsmanship.
The Thursday morning ceremony, a rather more intimate occasion, started with the sound of music. A fanfare of trumpets. It was played by five trumpeters, John Blatcher, Nicholas Christodoulou, John de Kock, Michael Thorne and Hendrik Groot-veld, posted on the front steps of the main building to send their bright, triumphant shafts of music above the heads of the waiting boys assembled there, and across the valley to the Union Buildings on the distant horizon.
Then the boys filed in through the main doorway, a seemingly endless line, across the vestibule with its bronze Roll of Honour, across the dazzling new foyer which had been the very heart of the old hall, and into the new edifice.
The thirty-four representatives of the School Council, each elected by his class, then took their places in the front row beneath the lectern at which stood a Form One boy, John Mclver, who read aloud the Twenty-third psalm, clearly and simply, after which this psalm was sung by the Choir in the gallery. Each class representative presented to the Head Prefect a copy of the School Dedication which had been signed by every boy in his class.
The Dedication was read aloud by George Laurence who then gave the thirty-four documents into the safe-keeping of the Headmaster. It had been agreed that these sheets together with copies of Thursday, 26th August’s newspapers and a Prefect’s badge would be placed in a sealed container which would be secured in the foundations of the new building to be retrieved fifty or a hundred years hence by the future pupils of Pretoria Boys’ High School – the descendants of boys attending the School in 1964.
The Headmaster’s address was short and joyous. He felt that only at that moment when, for the first time, the new building was filled with the school-boys for whom it had been built, was the hall truly alive and functioning. He had a suspicion that one or two masters who had attended the previous day’s pomp and ceremony secretly agreed with him and felt that this was the real opening. But this was a historic occasion for once more now the very focus of the School’s activities existed again and this hall would see all the multifarious ceremonies and activities so peculiarly the privilege of a hall such as ours: morning assembly, boarder dances, play and opera rehearsals, film shows, choir practices, sports meetings, lectures and a hundred others.
“This is the day the Lord hath made,
Be glad, give thanks, rejoice!”
said the Headmaster in conclusion and the spirit of those words, as the delighted new owners of the hall dispersed excitedly, was transformed into action, for did not a bun-fight and a half-holiday wait invitingly ahead?
GOLF DAYS
SOLOMON HOUSE GOLF DAY 2014
Date: Friday, 24th October 2014
Venue: Zwartkop Country Club
Cost: R3300 per Fourball
(Includes greenfees, halfway, prizegiving and dinner)
Click here for more information
SCHOOL HOUSE CENTENARY GOLF DAY
Date: 28 October 2014
Venue: Zwartkop Country Club
Cost: R3000 per fourball
(Includes arrival gift, greenfees, halfway, dinner and free advertising on certain holes)
Click here for more information
UPCOMING OLD BOY EVENTS
- 12 & 13 September 2014
50 YEAR ON 2014 - 24 & 25 October 2014
40 YEAR ON 2014 - 8 November 2014
20 YEAR ON 2014 - 22 November 2014
10 YEAR ON 2014