Campbell Howlett, the current Deputy Rector at the College, has a strong family connection with the College as his brother, son and nephew are all Lindisfarne Old Boys.

Another Howlett family tradition is the teaching profession as Campbell’s father was a music and English teacher and his mother was a singing teacher. In spite of this, Campbell recalls: “My father was distraught when I said I wanted to be a teacher!”.

One of the reasons Campbell was prepared to incur his father’s initial displeasure and enter the teaching profession was because of the inspirational teaching he had had at Lindisfarne from teachers like Jamie Francis and John McKenzie.

Campbell recalls: “We used to have geography lessons in Jamie Francis’ lounge so that we could watch David Attenborough on his TV and he played Simon & Garfunkle’s “Sounds of Silence” when we studied urban development. His teaching methods were ahead of the time.” A post school cadetship in accountancy with Touche Ross Associates also helped convince Campbell that teaching was a better option than accountancy and he resigned his cadetship and headed off to Otago University.

Over the next few years Campbell completed a BCom and a BA at Otago, where he found time to work in The Captain Cook Tavern. He then completed a post graduate teaching diploma from Massey. His first teaching post was at Hillcrest High School, Hamilton where, having completed a post graduate diploma in School Management, he worked his way through the ranks, becoming Assistant Principal before leaving to take up his current position of Deputy Rector at Lindisfarne.

In the very rare down-time at a busy school like Lindisfarne, Campbell likes to play the ukulele. He was introduced to the instrument on a geography trip to Fiji in 2005, bought one at the airport and now owns nine of the instruments. He frequently plays in concerts and gigs and in 2009 was involved in a world record attempt for the most ukuleles playing at once at the Hastings Opera House. Campbell has also maintained his life long involvement in football. After playing for the first XI at Lindisfarne, he became involved with the official side of the game and was a New Zealand Football Referee from 2001 - 2007, an assistant referee on the New Zealand National League from 2001 -2003 and a New Zealand Football Referee Inspector from 2007 to 2008.

Campbell readily concedes that he wasn’t the most studious of boys at school. In fact his mother confessed when he got his first degree that she had doubted whether he would pass School Certificate! In spite of this, or perhaps because of this, he has very happy memories of Lindisfarne, culminating in being made Head Prefect of Oswald and Prefect in Charge of Music in his final year. Also in that year was the infamous bread van heist in which Campbell and his friends barricaded the driveway into school and relieved the bread delivery van of a good portion of its load before it could make it to the kitchen. His other memory of school food is that absolutely everything was fried, even the roasts.

Campbell recognises the important lessons he learnt at Lindisfarne: “It’s about making an honest effort, giving things a go and being accountable to yourself. It’s important to have personal integrity and to make sure that your words are reflected by your actions. I really appreciate the fact that the top award at Lindisfarne, The Herrick Cup, is about good character, about being a good man.” His advice to our current students would be “Be true to yourself”. When asked about his proudest moments Campbell was quick to respond: “That would have to be related to my family, getting married to Sandie, having two children and seeing them grow and develop into the wonderful young adults that they are today."

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Article added: Wednesday 06 November 2019