Class of 1912

Alaric Pinder Boor, son of a draper from Carnarvon, was a giant amongst men in nearly everything he touched: sport, academia and socially as a person, he was a natural role model. In his journey through school, he impressed those he worked with and competitors equally. As Captain of both the Football and Cricket teams and as champion in Boxing and Gymnastics his opponents frequently commented on his sense of fairness and sportsmanship.

As Head Prefect and Dux of the College, he also made time to mentor young students. He even captained the Inter-School Tug-of-War team. Pinder won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, with the intention of becoming a doctor. He was universally liked and admired.

Lieutenant Boor fought during WWI in the 7th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and was attached to the No. 113 Squadron Royal Flying Corps. He played a crucial role in the memorable Battle of Beersheba on 31st October 1917. On his last day on earth, Lt Boor led a reconnaissance mission flying an RE8 aircraft over German and Turkish troops in Palestine to gauge the strength of the enemy. He took off at 0830 and, tragically, crashed on the return along with his co-pilot.

Engine failure was the probable cause. Ironically, he never knew that the charge his troops went on to fight later that day was one of the “last great cavalry charges in military history”. His commanding officer summed him up when writing to his parents after his death: “With the very deepest sympathy for you who had so grand a man for a son. Believe me.”

During his time at CBC on the Terrace, Pinder exploited the opportunity to learn and make a difference to the full. He claimed academic and sports’ honours in equal measure. However, it was his sense of fairness and his ability to lead that made him stand out from the pack.

The Pinder Boor Boarding House at Aquinas College is named in his honour.

When he died in 1917 the Head Boy of Scotch College sent a letter to the school noting Pinder Boor was: “a scholar and athlete… an opponent regarded with affection and respect by all who came in contact with him… the best sportsman in the true meaning of the term.”

Alaric Pinder Boor was an outstanding all-rounder who made an impact on whomever he encountered.

Class of 1993

Son of a Korean mother and an American father, Peter was adopted at the age of three by an Australian couple who were working in South Korea as missionaries. They returned to Western Australia and settled in Kojonup to set up a farm management business. Peter was one of seven children and did not realise he was adopted until he was nine. At the age of 10, something he did discover was his love of football and his promising skills to match. An early trauma in his football career was breaking his leg at the tender age of 13. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his mother, a trained vet, spotted it was badly set and that it had to be broken again to be reset.

At 15 years of age, Peter came to Aquinas as a boarder and entered the world of state football teams. His leg healed in spite of a second break and he began to show incredible promise on the football field. Peter’s sporting career has since been a roller coaster with some spectacular highs and lows.

Voted Best and Fairest at South Fremantle in 1994, he was one of the first players to be signed by the Fremantle Dockers as it entered the AFL the following year. In spite of kicking two goals with his first two kicks in AFL football, the coach did not rate him and he was selected for only two games in 1995. It seemed incredible to him at the time that he was the first player signed with Fremantle and the first player sacked!

In between selections he studied and graduated Law, but it was really a way of marking time before his next selection in AFL football. This came quickly from North Melbourne on the cusp of premiership glory when coach Dennis Pagan selected him the following year after introducing him to the selectors as “his cousin Ricky from Wangaratta” to keep his identity a secret. He was asked back to the Dockers in 2000 where he was captain for five seasons. He was awarded three Doig Medals and in 2006 awarded the Ross Glendinning Medal, before retiring in 2008.

Subsequently, he was offered and accepted a position on the board of the Dockers. Recently, after years of success in the media and public speaking, he stepped down from the board and became the General Manager of the Fremantle Dockers. On being appointed, he spoke of the importance of relationship building and being the best that you can be. He also mentioned the importance of the “whole player” and what they do off the field to contribute to society.

Class of 1972

Among the sporting legends of the school is the second of four brothers, Olympian and World Cup winner on the hockey field David Bell. He describes himself modestly as academically “sound” (good enough for a Commonwealth Scholarship), “but not stellar”. Although he captained both the Cricket and the Hockey teams in his last year at Aquinas in 1972, it wasn’t until after a few more years playing at club level that he finally made the choice between cricket and hockey. As Captain of the Australian Under 19 team, he could easily have continued to play cricket for Australia. However, he picked hockey, playing at state level and then selected for the Australian championships. His talent on the hockey field defined his career. Blessed with ambition and ability he entered into the national arena on a World Cup cycle, playing in four: Kuala Lumpur (1975), Buenos Aires (1978), Mumbai (1982) and captaining the team that won in London in 1986. He also played in two Olympics: Montreal in 1976 (won Silver) and Los Angeles in 1984. (It would have been three had Australia not boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics). His Olympic Silver medal is not on display in a glass case so much as lying in a shoebox in the pantry. Like many highly talented Aquinians, he gets in, does the job and is not showy about it.

After winning on the hockey field, unsurprisingly, David has been in high demand globally as a coach. He led the Australian Women’s team to Athens in 2004 and in 2016 took the Indian Women’s team to Rio. He trained as a Physical Education teacher post World Cup but returned to Aquinas to coach hockey in 2014 and 2015.

Looking back still fit and enjoying an ongoing relationship with his sport, he has two observations to make: “You can teach people from experience and share it, but you can’t give the answers - people have to find their own answers”. He attributes the breadth of education he received at Aquinas to the Brothers and a proud moment for him was over-hearing his son saying: “The best

Class of 1969

Born on Noongall Sheep Station in Yalgoo near Geraldton as the first boy, but second of five children, Michael Morrissey boarded at Aquinas for seven years. Armed with a love of reading Michael showed an early passion for the Church. His mother recalls that his calling for the Church showed itself early as he would round up the local children for Mass which might happen once a fortnight or once a month as Church was about 30kms from Yalgoo and the priest would come from Mullewa or Mt Magnet. Even as a very young person he really enjoyed going to Mass.

Michael left Aquinas College after his final year in 1969 and his mother remembers his calling to the priesthood did not come as a surprise. She is not alone in saying: “I think it was his nature. Some people are born to be certain things, and, Michael was born to be a priest.” Growing up on a station young Michael was home taught on the station, barefoot and in a class of only three: his brother, his sister and himself. But he recalls his mother ran a tight ship and adhered to regular hours and lessons.

Not surprisingly, therefore, Year 1 at Aquinas where he was suddenly thrust into a class of 43 boys, was a foreign experience. He found it “exciting and a bit traumatic”. By Year 9 it began to feel more like home and he recalls that academically things fell into place and he was very happy at school.

On discovering he was not a natural athlete or swimmer, Br Worner put young Michael in charge or organising the Swimming Carnival. He found he rose to organisational challenges easily. While at Aquinas he was one of four St Vincent de Paul Society “Leaders” featured in the Annual of 1969.

The strong need within him to help others was something he found grew stronger while at the school. By the time he had reached Year 11 he felt he could speak to one of the brothers about it and did so.

Michael was the first person from Geraldton to be brought up there and eventually become a priest for the region. At his ordination in St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Geraldton in 1981 his mother Margaret said: “He has dedicated his life to God and his pastoral work, and I cannot be happier for him. It is a very special occasion for all of us.”

His lasting memory of Aquinas was somewhere he learned: “It was important to show respect and value what you received. More than this it is important to show it by doing something for someone else.”

Class of 1911

Lance Corporal Herbert Johansen (HJ) Appel was another young, brilliant Aquinian who paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country on the battlefields of Europe. He was the only son of Mr and Mrs Jens Appel of Subiaco. Herbert was remarkable in the way he charmed all who knew him, teachers and students, alike. He studied at CBC Perth for seven years and made his mark academically when he topped the list in the West Australian and South Australian Junior examinations and passed the senior examinations with two distinctions.

Herbert was College Prefect for three consecutive years from 1909 and won the Durack Medal, received by the Dux of the College, in 1911. He was also a candidate for the Rhodes’ Scholarship. As an athlete, Herbert shone in both football and cricket. He was a member of the 1st XVIII Football and 1st XI Cricket 1909 premiership teams. He distinguished himself by making the highest score of the season with 138 against Hale and had the record of the greatest hit of a cricket ball at the College, hitting from the turf wicket and sending the ball to the roof! Nearly hitting the tower. He played for Subiaco Football Club during 1910 and 1911.

On leaving, he sat the Government Surveyor’s Examination and his name “figured first”. Herbert was a third-year university engineering cadet aged 23 when he was called up to join the war effort in August 1915. He served in France for two years as a Lance Corporal with the 6th Field Company Australian Engineers. He tragically died on 19th September 1917, aged 26.

Herbert had served at Poperinghe “Pops” and was buried in the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery Flanders in Belgium for soldiers who had been wounded near Ypres and who later died in the large Allied casualty clearing stations in that area.

The Holy Father Pope Francis appointed Old Aquinian Fr Michael Morrissey as the ninth Bishop of Geraldton this week.

Bishop-Elect Morrissey is the first Bishop of Geraldton who was born, raised, ordained and has ministered in the Diocese.

He said his appointment recognised “all those small communities scattered throughout the diocese, including Yalgoo, my home town where I grew up on a sheep station.”

Born in Yalgoo on 9th September 1952, Bishop-Elect Morrissey was educated at Aquinas College, graduating in 1969. He continued his studies at St Charles Seminary in Perth and at St Francis Xavier Seminary, Adelaide. He was ordained a priest in 1981 and worked as Assistant Priest in the Parishes of Bluff Point and Port Hedland. He served as Administrator in the Parishes of Bluff Point, Port Hedland and South Hedland between 1984 and 1985.

He was appointed Parish Priest of Karratha from 1985-1992. He headed to Geraldton following his appointment, taking on the role of Administrator of the Cathedral until 2007. He held this role again from 2014 to 2017. Bishop-Elect Morrissey was appointed Chancellor of the Diocese in 1994 for nine years and his mission was renewed in 2006 until the present day. In 2007, he was also nominated Vicar General of Geraldton.

He has been a long standing member of the College of Consultors, from 1991 to present, and the Presbyteral Council, 1983-1998, 2003-present, which he chaired between 1994 and 1996 and between 2004 and 2006. Since 1983, he has been Senior Chaplain of the Army Reserve Second Division.

In 2015, Bishop-Elect Morrissey was also appointed as Parish Priest Representative to the Board of the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia.

Spending time in the garden, swimming in the pool, walking and playing golf are amongst his hobbies.

Bishop-Elect Morrissey will be ordained in June.

Aquinas College is proud to announce the Class of 2017's ground breaking gift to Aquinas - the gift of an Aquinas College education.

Until now, it has been customary for our leaving class to raise funds for a parting gift to the College, resulting in many wonderful gifts over the years. The Class of 2017, however, will be the first class to provide the gift of an Aquinas College education for another boy, putting our core value 'Service with Generosity' into action and starting a fantastic new tradition at the College.

Working with the Foundation, the Class of 2017 Scholarship will provide a half-scholarship for a student to attend Aquinas College in Years 11 and 12, commencing in 2018. Participation is voluntary, but students are asked to consider a contribution of $50 this year. Families who would like to contribute more are welcome to do so.

Following graduation, the Aquinas College Foundation will write to each student and his family - in 2018 and again in 2019 - encouraging them to contribute a further $50 to cover the two-year half-scholarship, resulting in a total contribution of $150 over three years.

A plaque commemorating the Class of 2017 Scholarship will be hung in a prominent location on the College grounds and will take pride of place as the first of many Year 12 Scholarship gifts.

Contributions to the Class of 2017 Scholarship can be made by visiting the Online Store and selecting Class of 2017 Scholarship from the dropdown menu, or by completing the Contribution Form and returning it by post to Aquinas College, Locked Bag 11, Bentley Delivery Centre, Bentley WA 6983 or by email to foundation@aquinas.wa.edu.au.

By contributing to the Class of 2017 Scholarship you will change a life, whilst leaving a legacy that fulfills the core values of Aquinas College.

Thank you for your support.

Geoffrey (Geoff) Thomas John Cowcher, our most recent initiate to the Veritas Society, was born in Narrogin on 23 December 1938, the sixth child of William and Ellie Cowcher of Williams.

At the age of eight, Geoff attended the Katanning Convent School, followed by several years at the local Quindanning School, before attending Aquinas College for three years during his high school years.

Following school, Geoff returned to the family farm and was involved in sheep and cropping activities. He also spent quite a lot of time catching rabbits. Later he turned to pig farming and was very proud of the fine animals he produced.

At the age of 25, Geoff sought to join the Christian Brothers who he greatly admired from his time at Aquinas, travelling to Tardun to pursue his faith journey. Unfortunately, due to health problems that plagued him throughout his life, he was unable to fulfil his dream, returning to the family farm once again until his father passed away in 1978.

Following his father’s death, Geoff and his mother moved to Mandurah where the Church became the focal point of Geoff’s life and it was here he made many lifelong friends.

Despite being unable to play any sport due to severe back problems, Geoff loved his sport, supported many of his family members who were keen sportsmen with interest. He loved to follow the football at all levels and was a shrewd punter who followed the horses and always enjoyed a small bet.

As Geoff’s health deteriorated, he moved into Aged Care in Mandurah, living there until he passed away in January 2014.

Geoff remained proud of his Aquinas College links throughout his life – willing a portion of his estate to the school – and came from a long line of Aquinians dating back more than 100 years. His father, William, was a successful scholar at CBC on the Terrace in the early part of the 20^th Century, whilst Geoff and his three brothers, Neil, Bruce and Max, all attended Aquinas College in the 1940s and 1950s. Geoff was followed by 8 nephews and 11 grandnephews, two of whom are current students, Sam and Joshua Cowcher, not to mention a plethora of other Cowcher relations with connections to the College.

Four generations of Cowchers have now graced the grounds of Aquinas College. The College and the Foundation thank Geoffrey and his family for their generous and ongoing support of the Aquinas and we look forward to welcoming a fifth generation of Cowchers at the College in the years to come.