Geelong Grammar girls pay tribute to their benefactor
"I'M wearing the purple," Elisabeth Murdoch told the girls assembled for the boarding house named in her honour in 2010.
"I'M wearing the purple," Elisabeth Murdoch told the girls assembled in their Murdoch tartan-inspired purple house blazers for the opening of the boarding house named in her honour at Geelong Grammar in 2010.
She had been intending to leave the speech to her grandson Paddy Handbury, telling him, "Speak up, grandson", but the then 101-year-old insisted on saying a few words at the last minute.
Yesterday, Elisabeth Murdoch House, middle school and senior school, gathered for minutes of silence at separate assemblies to remember their benefactor.
Dame Elisabeth graduated from the Clyde School at Woodend in 1926, 50 years before it amalgamated with Geelong Grammar and The Hermitage to form a co-educational school in 1976.
A long list of her descendants, including son Rupert, have attended Geelong Grammar since.
Geelong Grammar School curator Michael Collins Persse first met Dame Elisabeth when she was in London for the Queen's coronation in 1953.
"She has always had a special relationship with the school," he said.
"She brought the best out of people, she had very good judgment, and she had the sort of wisdom that includes restraint.
"She lived in so many worlds and embraced so many communities."
He said it was fitting that when the school completed building Elisabeth Murdoch House to even up the numbers of boarding places for girls in 2010, it chose her as its namesake.
"She was the outstanding product of the world that had amalgamated as Geelong Grammar in 76 when the three schools became one," he said.
"But it wasn't just that. She was so much a contributor to the community and exemplified so much of what we believe in. She contributed to improvements of many buildings, but a lot of her generosity was slightly hidden."
Head of Elisabeth Murdoch House Christine Howes said the boarding house's namesake had given them "a sense of someone who's living history".
"For them to have known and met her and understood that she embodied a life of respect, dignity, and contribution to community has been a most important thing," she said.
Elisabeth Murdoch House captain Gemma Sullivan said she had the pleasure of meeting Dame Elisabeth at her home, Cruden Farm, for the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute fundraising day, at which students volunteer each year.
"She was such a lovely lady - very inspirational," Gemma said.
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