by Melissa Rodgers

OBHS Book 'Above the City'

This book is available for purchase from the school office for $50.

This is the first published history of one of New Zealand’s oldest secondary schools. Commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Otago Boys’ High School in 1863, this book traces its early tribulations, its growth and development, and its response to the challenges of social and educational change. The author has drawn on a wide range of private and official documents, along with hundreds of personal reminiscences and interviews with former pupils and staff members.

Dr Rory Sweetman is an Irish-born New Zealander, who holds degrees in history from Dublin and Cambridge universities. His most recent book in this field was ‘A Fair and Just Solution’? A history of the integration of private schools in New Zealand (2002).


1 Thomas Campbell

2 Beginnings

3 Frank Simmons

4 Stuart Hawthorne

5 William Norrie

6 William Macdonald

7 Henry Belcher

8 Alexander Wilson

9 William Morrell

10 Percy Kidson

11 Edward Aim

12 Donald MacLachlan

13 Michael McMillan

14 Clive Rennie