Russell Fowler

Russell Fowler was born in the little town of Hemelhemstead, just outside London, and it was not until he was a lad of 10 years that he first saw Western Australia. Here he attended Perth Boys’ whence he passed into Modern School. At the early age of 14, whilst monitoring, Mr. Fowler commenced his studies for the Bachelor of Science degree, a title he now holds.

His teaching career was interrupted for two years during the first world war, when he served as a chemist in the Gretna Green nitro-glycerine factory, Scotland.

Whilst there, he devised a unique graphical method for calculating involved in the acid-making processes.

England honoured his services by making him an associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain (A.R.I.C., G.B.). Since, he has also been made an Associate of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (A.R.A.C.I.).

In 1921 he returned to W.A., but did not start teaching again until 1923, when he recommenced as 1st master at B.H.S. In 1939 he was promoted to his present position of headmaster.

As such he has taught in Geraldton, Albany, and, since 1949, Bunbury. Mr. Fowler’s first long service leave was spent in Japan, where he compared the schooling systems in that country with those here.

He was the first headmaster in this State to introduce our present book scheme, which has proved such an advantage to us.

Under his headmastership we have had a considerably larger amount of freedom than many other schools, and the barriers between staff and student have been broken down somewhat.

Many of the duties and tasks—previously performed by the staff—have been transferred to the hands of the students, who, I think, have risen to the occasion quite admirably, and carried them off very ably indeed.

Many changes have been wrought in our school curriculum by Mr. Fowler, most of which, we are sure are beneficial.

In closing, on behalf of the students of this school, we would like to wish him a very happy and prosperous retirement.

From an article in the December edition of 1923 Kingia magazine.