Great Scot - The Scotch Family Magazine - Issue 151 September 2017 GreatScot_Internal_Sept_2017_FA | Page 62

Foundation
Foundation President – Mr Michael Robinson AO ('55)
MR MICHAEL ROBINSON AO
PRESIDENT OF THE SCOTCH
COLLEGE FOUNDATION
A productive year
for the Foundation
ABOVE: FOUNDATION PRESIDENT MICHAEL ROBINSON AO ('55) WITH SCHOOL CAPTAIN MICHEL NEHME, JUNIOR SCHOOL VICE CAPTAIN HENRY
ROGERS, HILL CAPTAIN ARCHIE WALLIS, JUNIOR SCHOOL CAPTAIN JAMES JOHNSTON AND SCHOOL VICE -CAPTAIN WILL SUTHERLAND.
It has been another productive year for the Scotch College
Foundation, and I often reflect on how fortunate we are to have
such a thoughtful, caring and generous community.
The response to our campaign to raise $6 million to endow
the school’s Indigenous Scholarship Fund in perpetuity has
been heartening. To date, 300 donors have supported the
appeal, committing $2.2 million. Last year the Scotch College
Foundation Australian Art Show raised $120,000; and,
importantly, $40,000 was directed to Tiwi College to assist
with the school’s numeracy and literacy program, as well as
funding the recent trip of Tiwi College students to Melbourne.
Their annual visit to Scotch is a real highlight, and affirms this
important longstanding relationship. I am hopeful that the
outstanding $3.8 million will be committed by the end of 2020.
Since the Capital Campaign for the Sir Zelman Cowen
Centre for Science successfully concluded in 2015, more than
300 generous members of the Scotch Family have supported
the building fund, by committing $11 million to the development
of the Centre for Design and Technology. This support to date
is a glowing endorsement of the leadership of the school and its
strategic plan. Another $14 million is sought to deliver the next
much needed elements of the Development Plan.
Since 2016 $6.5 million has been committed to the Scotch
College Foundation Scholarship Fund. The fund provides for
academic, music or boarding scholarships, allowing boys who
otherwise would not be able to attend Scotch to do so. A large
percentage of these funds has come from two bequests. Mabel
‘Beth’ Brewster, the lifelong partner of Old Boy David Powell
(’45), bequeathed a third of her estate to Scotch to establish the
Beth Brewster Scholarship and a laboratory in the Sir Zelman
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Cowen Centre for Science, to be named in memory of David.
More can be read about this bequest on the opposite page.
Walter Paton (’32) had the generosity and foresight
to include the Scotch College Foundation in his will. The
Foundation is one of four beneficiaries, and has received
approximately $6 million to endow the Walter Paton Music
Scholarship Fund. There will be more about this bequest in the
next edition of Great Scot.
By including Scotch in your will, you help to ensure that
future generations of boys will continue to acquire an enduring
love of learning, and benefit from a life-changing educational
experience, where each boy is presented with the opportunity
for success. There can be no greater gift than the gift of
education.
With a tinge of sadness, but with no regrets, I have indicated
to the Scotch College Foundation Board of Trustees that it is my
intention to retire from the board at its November meeting.
I would like to record my thanks for the great trust and
support which I have received from every member of the board
throughout my tenure as President. In this context, I also would
like to thank the Principal, Tom Batty, the Chairman of Council,
David Kemp, the Director of Development, Tim Shearer, and the
entire Development Office team for their unwavering support. I
have been fortunate indeed.
I leave the role as President with the utmost confidence
in the continuing leadership of the Foundation, under the
immensely capable mantle of Doug Lording (‘64).
I retire with a feeling of enormous gratitude for all that has
been accomplished, and of overwhelming warmth towards
e verybody at Scotch. I shall follow the school’s future with a
keen and loving eye.
MICHAEL ROBINSON AO (’55)
Great Scot Number 151 – September 2017