Mr Aby Raymond Ryder – 1931 to 1947
Mr Aby Raymond Ryder – 1931 to 1947
Mr Aby Raymond Ryder (M.A., B.Ss) came from the South Island, having been born in Oxford in North Canterbury in 1887 and educated at Christchurch Boys High School.
He was the Principal of the Rotorua High School when he was appointed Principal of Whangārei High School. He began on 1st February 1932 and Mr Ryder was later given the nickname Pop.
His leadership at Whangārei High School coincided with one of our Nation's most difficult periods in history, the Great Depression. It affected the SCHOOL through loss of pupils, grading’s and as a consequence, staff, and while the global war of 1939-45 that followed reduced the teaching staff, both restricted finance for buildings and grounds development.
However during the years as Principal he re-organised the House system and consolidated those institutions already established. He encouraged the founding of such groups as the music and stamp club and assisted in organising boxing and gymnastics.
The first task confronting Mr Ryder when he assumed control of the SCHOOL was to separate the girls from the boys. He reported to the February 1932 meeting of the Board that as far as practicable this had been accomplished. The boys now occupied what had hitherto been the Senior School while the Junior School (the old school in Lupton Avenue) was given over to the girls.
Under Mr Ryder this school became one of the leading institutions of its kind in New Zealand, and surely no other type of school — co-educational, secondary, and technical, with attached intermediate and two boarding establishments could have presented more administrative problems. Mr Ryder, endowed with exceptional organising ability, took them all in his stride, patient, unflurried and doggedly determined to have nothing but the best for his school, and to get the best out of his pupils.
Between 1932 and 1945 he was Headmaster of both. Although ably assisted by teachers such as Miss Himmel at the Girls School and Mr H. E. G. Smith at the Boys it was an exhausting task entailing daily trips, in all weathers, between the two schools.
Mr Ryder divided his time between them as best he could, although his office and administration staff were located in the Boys School.
For a number of years he took morning assembly at each school on alternate days but in later years he came to rely more often on his Senior Mistress for this task.
He retired in 1947 but returned on several occasions in a relieving-teacher capacity.
Because of a sudden early closing of the School due to a poliomyelitis epidemic a large farewell function was not arranged.
He passed away in Auckland in June 1961.