Fox to leave south with reservations
As one of Invercargill’s most vocal heritage supporters prepares to leave town, she says her greatest disappointment was the closure of Andersons Park.
Maureen Fox also has reservation’s about the future development of the city.
Her is is that people are not thinking of the city’s historical value.
The historical places advocate said her greatest disappointment was the closure of Andersons Park.
‘‘I think its an utter disgrace that it has been so ignored, I understand they want an art gallery in the city but I believe there is room for two.’’
Fox is a life-time member of the Anderson’s gallery and said the money that would be spent was nothing compared to keeping the building operational.
‘‘For goodness sake, it’s a million dollars, I don’t know what they’re thinking about.’’
Fox also had reservations about the inner city rebuild project and the hotel which is to be built on the corner of Don and Dee streets,where the Langlands Historical building currently sits.
‘‘When you are going along the street, look above the verandas and you will see a different world, and when you think about it that’s where the heritage is.’’
Upon her retirement from teaching, Fox and her husband Pat took their passion for historical buildings and it quickly became an obsession.
‘‘I didn’t find it easy but my husband and I were always interested in heritage.
‘‘We decided that we would do something for Invercargill and so we set out.’’
Fox said her and Pat used to give talks to people in the area and by the end she said they had addressed about 3000 people.
‘‘We’d have a fight in the middle of it, I’d say ‘come on get on with it’ and he’d say ‘I do more than just show the slides’. It was always quite funny we always had a sense of humour.’’
In the Fox’s endeavour to raise awareness about these buildings, they were able to get Invercargill’s Yule house and the Bank of New South Whales restoration projects finished.
Fox was a teacher for what she described as all of her life, and was the principal at Kingswell High School for 14 years.
Maureen Fox was the first female principal of a co-ed school in Southland, she said when she started at the school there was an image problem.
Said she over her 14-year tenure she was able to change the school’s reputation. ‘‘My pride and joy was Kingswell I was very happy about that.’’
Fox said her life time of teaching had taught her a lot about education.
‘‘You must do something different for every student, you’ve got to have sent them out better than they came, so you find something to celebrate.’’