President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was the chief guest at the 60th anniversary celebration of Marist Brothers High School, stated an article published by The Fiji Times on Monday, December 1, 1997.
Ratu Sir Kamisese proposed the establishment of the Brothers Trust Fund to assist the Marist Brothers in the event they were unable to continue serving the community as teachers.
As approved by the board of trustees, the fund would assist in covering unforeseen medical expenses for elderly Brothers and support the Marist Brothers’ operations in Fiji.
The fund was managed by a group that was to report directly to the board of trustees and consisted of five members.
Ratu Sir Kamisese declared he fully approved of the trust fund idea and thought it was an excellent method to honour the efforts and contributions of the previous generation of Marist Brothers.
“For those of us who have passed through its doors, Marist school will always occupy a special and unique place in our lives,” he said.
“For many like myself, the experience of being educated by the Marist Brothers changed our life for the good and the better.”
Ratu Sir Kamisese said the amazing school environment, where faculty members were more like friends than professors, was one of the things that led him to convert to Roman Catholicism.
“The Marist Brothers fund is a microcosm of multiracialism and I look back on that period as one of the formative episodes in my own multiracialist philosophy.
“I was the only Fijian in a school of 33, seven were of a group later to be called the general electors and the rest were Indians,” he said.
The brothers had given a lot, and Ratu Sir Kamisese said the trust fund gave them a chance to get a little something back.
