Wall of Fame
| 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 |
| 2016 Wall Of Fame |
| John Heslop (At KHS 1938–42)—Humanities |
| In his final year at King’s, John who died in 2014 was a prefect, the senior athletics champion, had spent four years in the 1st cricket XI, and was a member of the 1st rugby XV. He moved to OU, graduated MB ChB in 1949, becoming a house surgeon (with his future wife) at Dunedin Hospital, and then the resident surgical officer (RSO). He married Barbara, and they moved to England where John became RSO at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing, where he qualified as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS), before shifting to the Middlesex Hospital in London as the Leverhulme Research Fellow. The family then returned to Dunedin where he was senior registrar and surgical tutor at Dunedin Hospital while qualifying as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS). Graduating with a Ch.M from OU in 1959, he was awarded the coveted Moynihan Prize for research in surgery, being the first NZ surgeon to achieve this honour which is awarded by the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and not usually to anyone outside the UK. By 1960 John was surgeon in charge of the burns unit at Wakari Hospital, a position he held for 20 years, and two years later he became senior lecturer in surgery at the OU Medical School. In 1978 he was promoted to Associate Professor and Dean of Post Graduate Studies. In 1994 he retired ending 36 years as a public surgeon at Dunedin Hospital, and 35 years as a private surgeon at Mercy Hospital. He had pioneered stomach stapling, has been national president and a life member of the Cancer Society of NZ and had co-founded Sports Medicine NZ in Dunedin in an effort to get uniformity of treatment throughout NZ—he was duly awarded life membership. While all this had been going on, John had not neglected his sporting interests, especially regarding cricket. He had displayed his talent as a swing bowler and represented Otago in the Brabin Shield tournament as a school leaver and represented Otago B after several years playing club cricket in Dunedin and in London, but his greatest contribution to the game was as an administrator. In 1960 he was chairman of selectors for the Otago Plunket Shield team and was instrumental in recognising the potential of Glenn Turner to be one of the world’s most successful test batsmen. John was appointed to the NZ Cricket Board of Control, and subsequently, the NZ Cricket Council, serving as president and being made a life member (he had previously served as president of the Otago Cricket Association and awarded life membership). In 1976 he was the manager of the NZ cricket team which contested the World Cup ODI tournament in England, and ten years later managed the NZ tour of the West Indies. In his “spare” time he edited a history of Logan Park, was a president of the Dunedin Wine and Food Society and was a member of the Dunedin Tripe and Onions Club which met monthly to consume this delicacy! John’s career culminated in 1995 when in the New Year’s Honours he was awarded Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to medicine, sport, and the community—thereby joining his wife who had been awarded her CBE five years earlier! He and Barbara were very much a team, having been joint recipients of the RACS—awarded Sir Louis Barnett Medal for services to surgical education, while in 2004 the RACS established the Heslop Medal to honour their huge contribution to medicine. Generally described as amiable or genial, John died within months of Barbara. |
| Wayne Wright (At KHS 1959–62) —Business |
| Apart from being the school’s “Fives” champion in his final year at King’s, and famously hitting a whirlwind 128 runs in 80 minutes in a cricket match against South Otago High School, Wayne generally maintained a low profile and left school after four years. Even then he harboured doubts about authority, and through achieving the requirements for a Queen’s Scout, he had absorbed the concepts of collaboration, taking risks, and assuming responsibilities, which became essential when he and Chloe married young. To support the growing family of five children, Wayne became a lawn-mowing contractor in Lower Hutt and progressed to being a general contractor specialising in the manufacture and construction of crib walls throughout the lower North Island. In 1975 he and Chloe established their first kiwifruit orchard in the Bay of Plenty, and Wayne became a main syndicator of kiwifruit orchards. Meanwhile in 1978 they had started a company in Escondido, Southern California, making and building crib walls, and when the rules for tax deductibility relating to expenses incurred in the development were changed, and with the kiwifruit industry seemingly on a downward slide, they sold up their business interests in NZ and shifted the family to Austin, Texas where they expanded their crib wall company across America and into Mexico, employing 1000. In 1990 they started a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telecommunications venture in Alabama, using technology which is nowadays taken for granted, up against Bell South which was using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). However, towards the end of the century, Wayne and Chloe sold up all of their US interests and moved back to the home they had built and retained in Omokoroa, a small community about a dozen kilometres northwest of Tauranga, where after dabbling in property and establishing websites, they discovered Early Childhood Education (ECE). Despite their previous lack of experience in that field, this has become their consuming passion. They established KidiCorp, which they built-up to become NZ’s largest childcare group: this took some fifteen years of consistent application in order to convince people that the “driver” behind this structured and professional enterprise was motivated by wishing to make a difference to children’s lives, rather than merely seeking financial reward. Through judicious growth and strategic organisation, KidiCorp morphed into BestStart which today operates out of 256 centres, is licensed for 15,720 children, and employs more than 4,370 staff, while maintaining Wayne’s vision of excellence and sector consolidation. In January 2015, ownership of BestStart was transferred from the Family Trust to the Wright Family Foundation, a Registered Charity which seeks to enable individuals to achieve their full potential through education in its widest and most varied forms. Last year the Foundation distributed nearly $1 million and aims to distribute increasing amounts each year, depending on the availability of such funds. During all this, Wayne has not ignored the community from which he chooses to operate, having established the clubrooms at the Omokoroa Sportsground, been treasurer of the Omokoroa Pony Club, underwritten the sinking of the Taioma diving wreck off the Bay of Plenty coast, and underwritten the construction of the BoP cricket pavilion in Tauranga in time for the 2014 World Cup. He has been or is a Trustee of the NZ Plain Speaking Awards, Plunket NZ Gold Sponsor, the NZ Spelling Bee, and this year the NZ Literature Quiz World Championships. Wayne is a low-profile man who makes things happen; he is individualistic and self-motivated and was last year’s EY Master class Entrepreneur of the Year. He is also a Trustee of the King’s High School Charitable Trust |
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