Positive influence on rural youth
STUART Morton’s positive personality, mentoring skills and background in sport and outdoors pursuits are the attributes many of his exstudents will remember most.
Mr Morton was well known as a longserving teacher and stalwart of Dunstan High School in Alexandra and as a popular head of the school’s technical department from 1964 to his retirement in 1990.
He died on June 8 at Ranui resthome, in Alexandra, aged
88.
To his students he was Tex Morton (famous for his bandy legs, not his singing), the coach of the 1st XV rugby team, and a firm but fair teacher with a quick sense of humour.
Rural areas need good coaches and leaders for young people to look up to, and Mr Morton was such a person.
An Otago boy, he was born in Milton in 1929, the youngest of six children.
His first job was as a joiner, but in 1957 he had a career shift and trained as a teacher at Christchurch Teachers’ College.
Before taking up his position in Alexandra, he played club rugby for 11 years with Southern, represented Otago and Westland in rugby, captained the West Coast team for three years, played senior tennis and spent five years teaching at Westland High School.
During his tenure at Dunstan High School, he coached the 1st XV rugby team for seven years and was a teacher in charge of sport for some time.
Rugby teams were very successful under his watch.
One example was the team of 1968, who refer to themselves as the ‘‘68 Club’’.
A reunion of past players and Mr Morton, as excoach, took place 40 years later in 2008, and a 50th reunion was planned for later this year.
Mr Morton was held in such high esteem that members of the 68 Club formed a guard of honour at his funeral.
Dunstan High School recognised his mana in 2012 by asking him to cut the school’s 50th anniversary cake at the reunion.
Away from school, Mr Morton’s interests included curling, bowling, fishing, and duckshooting.
He had a special place in his heart for the Central Otago outdoors, and in later years he fished the Poolburn Dam weekly with his good friend Richard Golden.
In the community he had links to Probus, acting as its president for a year, and the Alexandra Tennis Club, of which he was a member for decades.
He was also a Mountain Safety Council arms officer for 25 years.
Friends and acquaintances remember him as a man of integrity, and a family man with a keen sense of humour and winning smile.
He was dedicated to his family, devoted to his wife Sylvia, with whom he recently celebrated 66 years of marriage, and to his five children and their families.
Mrs Morton said she and their children had been touched to learn of the breadth of Mr Morton’s influence after he died.
‘‘What touched me the most was all these men coming up to us after the service and saying how important Stuart was to them at school or as their coach. He made such an impression on them, he was such a role model, changing their lives for the better.
‘‘We have also been sent letters from all over New Zealand with the same sentiment. It has been very special and very moving — we had no idea so many people felt like that after all these years. But Stuart was genuinely interested in young people and their futures, and he always had a smile on his face.’’
Mr Morton is survived by his wife, Sylvia, children Caroline, Greg, John, Pam and Julie, and his 13 grandchildren and four great grandchildren. — Staff reporter