Author(s): Andrew Mason

NZ Non Fiction

Sir Henry Cooper (1909?1990) is probably best remembered now as a dynamic and dedicated headmaster of Auckland Grammar School, which he raised to the pre-eminent position it occupies today. But to his generation he personified education in Auckland, playing a leading role in the development of the University of Auckland and of the Woolf Fisher educational trust for nearly 30 years. Henry Cooper's achievements over 50 years at Auckland Grammar School are rightly at the heart of this book. It shows how, from his arrival as a scholarship pupil from a small country school in 1922 and then as a master from 1935, he gained a unique understanding of the school and its traditions. As headmaster from 1954 to 1972, he worked tirelessly to enhance the school's reputation for all-round excellence, despite a rapidly changing educational climate. He triumphed over almost insuperable obstacles to obtain the facilities appropriate to a school of its size and status. Henry Cooper's other achievements in education, most notably as a member of the Auckland University Council for 26 years and as Pro-Chancellor and then Chancellor of the University of Auckland, are also described in detail. His crucial role in setting up and guiding the Woolf Fisher Trust is revealed for the first time. Henry Cooper also won renown as a sportsman, especially as an Auckland representative player in both cricket and hockey in the 1940s. He managed New Zealand's first-ever cricket tour to India and Pakistan in 1955/56, and this book makes good use of his personal diary in recounting this notorious 'hellish' tour. This richly detailed and illustrated book illuminates not only a remarkably energetic and inspiring life but a key period in the development of New Zealand education.