Anthony Hood Clay
7005 Aged 70
Anthony (Tony) Hood Clay was born in Christchurch on 16 July 1946 to Edna and Gerald Clay, and was brother to Henry (6730) and the late Rosemary. Tony attended Redcliffs Primary School and then Christ’s College from 1960 to 1964. On finishing school, Tony attended Canterbury University and gained an MA(Hons) in geography. He initially planned on studying history but found better field trips were to be had in the geography department. He attended Teachers College in Christchurch and gained his first teaching job at Burnside High School, where he met his wife Ann, also a first-year teacher at Burnside. In 1973, after two years at Burnside, Tony was granted a leave of absence allowing them both to travel to the UK, via southern Africa, and to work in the United Kingdom for a couple of years. They lived in Shoreham by Sea, on the south coast, and Tony worked as a teacher at Shoreham Grammar School, where he surprised the locals with his short trousers and modern and antipodean methods of teaching. Tony and Ann made the most of their time in the UK and Europe, and took school trips to nearby France. Tony also taught sailing in Shoreham Harbour. Tony and Ann returned to Christchurch in late 1975, via South America - they loved a more adventurous style of travel.
With their new Volkswagen Beetle, they settled in Christchurch, and Tony resumed his teaching position at Burnside High School. They had two daughters in 1979 and 1981 and expanded the house and garden. Tony enjoyed working in his large vegetable garden from these early years until his death. In 1991 Tony undertook a teacher exchange, and exchanged houses, jobs and cars with a teacher from Loughborough in the UK. Tony and the family lived for a year in Quorndon, Leicestershire and taught Geography and Humanities at Burleigh College in Loughborough. It was a fantastic family experience, and every spare second was spent sightseeing and travelling. In 2006, Tony was awarded a Royal Society of New Zealand Teacher Fellowship, and enjoyed a very positive year in the Geography Department at Canterbury University. He carried out research on the Christchurch Estuary, and assisted where he could in research, labs and field trips. Tony taught at Burnside High School for 38 years, mostly as the Head of Department for Geography and Tourism, and in that time was the main proponent of many Geography and Tourism field trips to the Gold Coast. He also enjoyed taking students to Oaro, Kaikoura and Cass. He wrote two geography textbooks about natural hazards. The omission of earthquakes from his teaching of hazards pertaining to Christchurch, caused him some mirth after his retirement – one month before the quake of 2010.
Chronicle 2017
26
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online