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Page 5 West Vancouver Historical Society November 2003 Veterans of the War; Veterans of West Van High Richard James “Dick” Wright graduated from Burnaby North High School and was almost the top ma- triculant in the province. His exam results brought him within a breath of the Governor-General’s Medal for scholastic exellence. (He would have been a medallist had he realized that there was an exam question on Ohm’s Law.) Dick graduated in Sciences at U.B.C. in 1934, and the following year came here to teach at West Van High School, when the academic subjects were taught in the Hollyburn School building. In 1939 he was a member of the Canadian Championship basketball team which toured the Orient. Two years later he Joined the R.C.A.F., where he served as the ace navigation instructor, and co-authored lecture plans and set exams on the subject for the air force. He returned to W.V.H.S. in 1946 to teach Sciences (while technically still a member of the R.C.A.F.). In 1953 he was appointed Vice-Principal of Inglewood Junior High School. In 1955 he was made Vice- Principal of the school under James A. Inkster, and during Easter of 1958 he was appointed Principal of Hillside Junior High School (as it was called in its beginning). Working with the architects. Sharp, Thompson Berwick and Pratt, he helped oversee the building of the school. Unlike later appointees, he was not given time off to do this collaboration: he had simultaneously to carry on with his teaching and administrative work at the school. For three years running, he had no summer holidays whatever. Dick, you should know, never took a single day off for sickness in his entire teaching career. Ernest McDonald “Ernie” Kershaw completed his university studies in Applied Sciences in the ‘thirties. He began teaching in Mission in 1932. Later he taught in Smithers, where he got a job largely because he could direct the orchestra, play professional baseball and teach. In September 1936 he succeeded to Jimmy Sinclair’s job teaching Mathematics at West Van High, all the while playing semi-pro and later pro baseball at Athletic Park under the redoubtable Bob Brown, who took the Vancouver Capilanos into the Western International League. (Jimmy had left teaching to enter politics.) His school career was tempo- rarily derailed by the war. He began a four-year stint in the R.C.A.F. beginning in August 1941. He returned to teach at West Van High in 1945. Like Dick, he was still technically in the employ of the air force. He finished his teaching career at West Van High in 1973. A number of us remember being in Mr. Kershaw’s Maths (Yes, it had an ‘s’ then) 91 class when suddenly he was called to the office by Miss Maycock to inform him that his wife Audrey had just given birth to their first child, a girl. Before he got back to Room (11), someone had relayed this news to the members of the class, one of whom had written on the board: “Congratulations, you’re a father!” As this event was later reconstructed, the students saw that message before Mr. Kershaw had reached the office, which was barely steps away-just down the corridor. How this intelligence reached the students before it had the new father is conjecturable. I had a real treat on October 21 st. Tom Rippon, who arrived at Inglewood in September of 1935 (the same year Dick did) took Dick, Ernie and me to lunch at the Capilano Golf Club. If there ever there was a non- athletic tablemate it was me. These three were stars in their fields. Dick once remarked that Tom was the best all-round athlete he ever knew. Lack of space does not allow us to include another ex-WVHS teacher who served during the war, and who married no. 35 (alphabetically speaking) of the 53 1942 graduates of West Van High. Had he started teaching here in 1934 instead of 1948, he would have been the first to receive space. More about him in the January issue of the newsletter. The school was lucky to have had him on staff. -Ed.