JOHN INCE
Of John Ince, who died in October 2010, it was said, and by none other than the great Robin Whiteford,’ No-one, other than John Ince, has better merited the Biblical injunction: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.”’
Whiteford was not a person given to fulsome or unnecessary praise, but his observation about John went right to the essence of the man. John Ince did not believe in half-measures, mild approval or faint praise. Having decided on a course of action, he went for his objective full tilt, and in doing so, enhanced the life-experiences of all those involved with it and with him. There was activity, altruism, planning, enthusiasm, some drama, and an intense exchange of ideas, all around him, wherever he went, at every stage of his life. He attempted, in the very best way, to manage his world, and for most of his life, his world was SACS.
Born in the Eastern Cape in 1936 to a respected South African family, John came to Cape Town in 1940. His mother, Mrs Girlie Ince, who had been earlier abandoned by her husband, enrolled John at SACS Junior in Orange Street and there he received his whole schooling, at the Junior and High Schools. Having matriculated, he went to UCT to study for a BA in English and history and, with a professional qualification, he embarked on his true calling, which was to be a teacher.
While he taught initially at SACS from 1960, he had later educational practice at Dulwich College, London and also in the United States. He attained a further teaching qualification at Edinburgh University and rejoined the staff of his alma mater. In 1977 he was head-hunted, so to say, to become the fourth headmaster of Camps Bay High School. His appointment was unusual in that the School Committee as it was then called, ignored the usual ponderous Departmental procedures of vetting candidates and short-lists, indicating that it was John CR Ince whom they required and no-one else would do.
Over the next ten years, transforming what had been a village-school into a vibrant progressive institution three times its original size, John served also, during that time, a term of office as President of the South African Teachers’ Association. Overcoming the worst effects of the severe stroke he suffered in 1986, John subsequently taught for a further ten years, at SACS Junior, before his appointment in 2000 as Executive Director of the SACS Old Boys’ Union. In 2009 he took partial retirement from that office, continuing to edit the Newsletter and to undertake specific additional tasks.
John had met and married Corriene (also a teacher) at Camps Bay and, with the arrival of their two sons, Jackie and Richard, had the benefit of thirty years of happy family life. What is unknowable but guessed at by us, is the love and support which Corriene and the boys afforded him, in sunlight and shadow, for that time, sustaining him and contributing to the success of everything he undertook.
For the past half-century, in terms of an energy and courage apparently without limit, coupled with the most sincere concern for people as well as a vision for what they might become, John lived out and lived up to Robin Whiteford’s observation about him – that indeed, he did everything to the maximum of his power, and beyond.
The Rotary Organisation, with its aspiration to put “devoted and unselfish service before self” found in John a person whose life epitomized their ideal. Though he was not a member of Rotary, the Organization made him, in 1995, the recipient of their Award of Merit. For similar reasons, the Sean Day Foundation is to fund their new scholarships – the John Ince Scholarships – in his honour.
SACS feels so grateful that, in the last year of John’s life, the Spectemur Agendo Award, the school’s most prestigious acknowledgement of excellence, was made to him, giving public and formal expression, finally, to all that we knew and cared about him.
Everyone has his or her own ‘John Ince story.’ In the case of those privileged to have worked with or known him well, their cherished accounts are probably legion. But, many or few, what all such moments with him have in common is their reflection of his warmth, compassion, vigour and intense interest and concern for the other person – and the problem, challenge, opportunity or dream they might have brought to him. His immediate empathy with the star sportsman or prominent businessman was identical to his kindness and feeling for the loneliest SACS newboy. He was, by nature, ignorant of distinctions of colour, class, creed or status.
Teachers, at the end of their careers, seem to have little to show for their labours. Indeed John’s professional life might seem indistinguishable from those of any number of similarly efficient and relatively prominent educationists. An official history of his life would omit, therefore, almost wholly, the substance of his contribution to education. John Ince, in terms of his intuitive sense, his recall of the minutiae of hundreds of different individuals and their families and an overwhelming kindness, touched and changed the lives of a host of people - pupils, parents, Old Boys and friends world-wide – and always and only for the better.
Following a period of failing health and subsequent hospitalization, he died on World Teachers’ Day. The services held for him, the funeral at St Andrew’s in Newlands and, on the same day, a memorial service in the Hofmeyr Hall, were together attended by about 3,500 people and with tributes being received from around the world.
It is in that final acknowledgement of his powerfully enriching influence on the lives of so many that John Ince’s true measure and worth is taken. The SACS Family, Old Boys’ Union and both schools, know this, and warming to that knowledge, their gratitude to him and his legacy has no bounds.
Whiteford was not a person given to fulsome or unnecessary praise, but his observation about John went right to the essence of the man. John Ince did not believe in half-measures, mild approval or faint praise. Having decided on a course of action, he went for his objective full tilt, and in doing so, enhanced the life-experiences of all those involved with it and with him. There was activity, altruism, planning, enthusiasm, some drama, and an intense exchange of ideas, all around him, wherever he went, at every stage of his life. He attempted, in the very best way, to manage his world, and for most of his life, his world was SACS.
Born in the Eastern Cape in 1936 to a respected South African family, John came to Cape Town in 1940. His mother, Mrs Girlie Ince, who had been earlier abandoned by her husband, enrolled John at SACS Junior in Orange Street and there he received his whole schooling, at the Junior and High Schools. Having matriculated, he went to UCT to study for a BA in English and history and, with a professional qualification, he embarked on his true calling, which was to be a teacher.
While he taught initially at SACS from 1960, he had later educational practice at Dulwich College, London and also in the United States. He attained a further teaching qualification at Edinburgh University and rejoined the staff of his alma mater. In 1977 he was head-hunted, so to say, to become the fourth headmaster of Camps Bay High School. His appointment was unusual in that the School Committee as it was then called, ignored the usual ponderous Departmental procedures of vetting candidates and short-lists, indicating that it was John CR Ince whom they required and no-one else would do.
Over the next ten years, transforming what had been a village-school into a vibrant progressive institution three times its original size, John served also, during that time, a term of office as President of the South African Teachers’ Association. Overcoming the worst effects of the severe stroke he suffered in 1986, John subsequently taught for a further ten years, at SACS Junior, before his appointment in 2000 as Executive Director of the SACS Old Boys’ Union. In 2009 he took partial retirement from that office, continuing to edit the Newsletter and to undertake specific additional tasks.
John had met and married Corriene (also a teacher) at Camps Bay and, with the arrival of their two sons, Jackie and Richard, had the benefit of thirty years of happy family life. What is unknowable but guessed at by us, is the love and support which Corriene and the boys afforded him, in sunlight and shadow, for that time, sustaining him and contributing to the success of everything he undertook.
For the past half-century, in terms of an energy and courage apparently without limit, coupled with the most sincere concern for people as well as a vision for what they might become, John lived out and lived up to Robin Whiteford’s observation about him – that indeed, he did everything to the maximum of his power, and beyond.
The Rotary Organisation, with its aspiration to put “devoted and unselfish service before self” found in John a person whose life epitomized their ideal. Though he was not a member of Rotary, the Organization made him, in 1995, the recipient of their Award of Merit. For similar reasons, the Sean Day Foundation is to fund their new scholarships – the John Ince Scholarships – in his honour.
SACS feels so grateful that, in the last year of John’s life, the Spectemur Agendo Award, the school’s most prestigious acknowledgement of excellence, was made to him, giving public and formal expression, finally, to all that we knew and cared about him.
Everyone has his or her own ‘John Ince story.’ In the case of those privileged to have worked with or known him well, their cherished accounts are probably legion. But, many or few, what all such moments with him have in common is their reflection of his warmth, compassion, vigour and intense interest and concern for the other person – and the problem, challenge, opportunity or dream they might have brought to him. His immediate empathy with the star sportsman or prominent businessman was identical to his kindness and feeling for the loneliest SACS newboy. He was, by nature, ignorant of distinctions of colour, class, creed or status.
Teachers, at the end of their careers, seem to have little to show for their labours. Indeed John’s professional life might seem indistinguishable from those of any number of similarly efficient and relatively prominent educationists. An official history of his life would omit, therefore, almost wholly, the substance of his contribution to education. John Ince, in terms of his intuitive sense, his recall of the minutiae of hundreds of different individuals and their families and an overwhelming kindness, touched and changed the lives of a host of people - pupils, parents, Old Boys and friends world-wide – and always and only for the better.
Following a period of failing health and subsequent hospitalization, he died on World Teachers’ Day. The services held for him, the funeral at St Andrew’s in Newlands and, on the same day, a memorial service in the Hofmeyr Hall, were together attended by about 3,500 people and with tributes being received from around the world.
It is in that final acknowledgement of his powerfully enriching influence on the lives of so many that John Ince’s true measure and worth is taken. The SACS Family, Old Boys’ Union and both schools, know this, and warming to that knowledge, their gratitude to him and his legacy has no bounds.