Br Pat Lynch- NZ Knight: “Taking Opportunities, Getting Things Done”

Growing up in hand-me-down trousers , running around in bare feet, was the lot of many children of working- class Catholic families in the 1940’s and 50’s. Pat Lynch, Brother and Knight of New Zealand, born in 1942, never dreamed of a life in the highest echelons of Aotearoa education. The family of five boys and one girl grew up in the working-class Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe.

Pat’s father James, one of nine, who left school at 12 to work as a labourer to support the family, is remembered by his second eldest as a good man, an avid reader, but someone with few other opportunities. His mother Mavis came from a Scottish background, fostered, and by 19 had married James, of solid Irish Catholic stock, who ensured his offspring went to Catholic primary schools. The family of eight lived in a Papatoetoe state house, and delighted in trips to grandparents at Cockle Bay, where the kids collected cockles, pippis and fished regularly.

The infant De La Salle Mangere opened in 1953 . The young Pat spent his secondary years there: “it was a pretty narrow education but I had plenty of opportunities.” These resulted in his putting up his hand to join the Brothers after a Br Recruiter’s talk. Being a politician, he says, was also in his thoughts. His astute father, working in Dominion Breweries, and feeding a family of eight, said: “I hope you are serious about that, because otherwise you have to go out and earn some money.” It meant leaving for Australia at just 17, with both his mum and dad telling him to come home immediately if he didn’t like it.

In 1959, with his School Certificate, he entered the Brothers’ training program in the Oakhill Training College, Sydney, completing four years of spiritual and teacher education, before returning home to New Zealand and being assigned to the small primary school of St Mary’s in Blenheim, which the Brothers had administered since 1953.

“I learnt a lot there, including if you want to get kids to do anything, then you should do it with them,” as he observed a College teacher next door, picking up papers with his teenage pupils. University studies took second place to biking to Picton, cod-fishing, and taking groups of kids tramping in the hills.

Growth In A Bigger World

Br Pat’s style of teaching was maturing. He saw, he remembers, that the Brothers’ founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle taught about engagement with one’s students, and a very human side to education that was revolutionary in 17th century France. By 1968, he was back at De La Salle Mangere, where for 6 years he taught and lived with another Brother, and senior student aspirants, who were looking at the life of the Brother. He completed his B.A. at Auckland University, fulltime for two years; this expanded his horizons greatly.  

Superiors thought it wise, to broaden his experience further, and for two years Br Pat was Community Director and a teacher at the Oakhill Boarding College in Castle Hill NSW. In 1976, there was the opportunity from the District, to participate in a semester course of spiritual/human formation at the Brothers’ Sangre de Cristo Center in New Mexico. Br Pat saw this as a “watershed experience, and enabled me to open a raft of opportunities in my life.”

Six plus months followed, exploring through the USA and Europe educational practices that would groom him, as one of the senior Kiwi Brothers, to take over the principalship of DLS Mangere in January 1979, after 2 years as its Deputy.  It was to last for fifteen fruitful years.

Change And Broader Leadership – NZ Education

Change and modernity emerged on his timetable. The young 36-year-old Principal cleaned up the school’s premises, learnt every student’s name, stressed expectations and excellence, and visited wayward students’ families. He networked in the community, and became involved in restorative justice. A school of 400 grew to 870 under his leadership. “I made it my business to know the name of every student in the school” of initially 400 youth. Each boy was brought into his office on his birthday for congratulations. The wayward ones were often given their legal 40-hours community service in the College itself.

Br Pat, like many others, was also serendipitously availing of the winds of change coursing through the Catholic Church, with the Second Vatican Council. With a keen sense of zeroing in on the essential, and using common language he believed:

“Christianity in essence is about liberation, not control. It’s about the freedom of the children of God – that’s been one of my lodestars.”

By the 1980’s, too, the ethnic profile of Aotearoa was rapidly changing. The Pakeha (white) population of De La Salle initially 50%, dropped by 1993 to 20% as Pasifika and Maori made up 80%. Br Pat, believing in “shaking the cages,” tackled racism, ensured Maori language was promoted in the school. His averred belief in a very clear values system, relevance to students’ lives, and community and cultural openness led to a broader vision:  “Shoot for the stars youz fellas!” was one of his catch-cries.

Thus began the first of two extraordinary periods of educational leadership, not only in Auckland, but nationwide. What was it in his character and educational philosophy that supported and enabled this ascension? Certainly, one factor was doing what he always did – seizing the opportunities offered. Another was his admiration, seen firsthand in the USA, of American outward-looking, adventurous and energetic spirit. He got in, and got things done.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s Catholic school ‘systems’ on both sides of the Tasman Sea were the Cinderellas of education. Norman Kirk’s government of 1972 and the State Aid Conference were catalysts for change. The Private Schools Conditional Integration Act of 1975 led to full integration, case-by-case,  by 1982. It was a critical time in New Zealand education for Catholic leaders, as they steered through the shoals of legality and regulation that would ensure the ownership and future of religious schooling.

Br Pat was becoming involved politically, as Principal of Mangere De La Salle, and beyond. By the later 1980’s he was president of the Auckland Secondary Principals Association, and then the national body -SPANZ in 1990 - this latter, a first for a Catholic principal.

A Leader of NZ Catholic Education

There was involvement in a slew of educational forums, reviews, a scholarship to the USA, business-education partnership conferences. Br Pat’s leadership was recognised in a slew of various Catholic and national councils, boards, and consultative groups. It demanded relationships with ministers of education, Prime Ministers, and the raft of departmental and union groups.

A few examples of roles are:

• Chairman of the NZ Council of Proprietors of Catholic Integrated Schools (1986-93)

• Schools Consultative Committee of Educational Sector Leaders (1991-2008);

• Member of NZ Government Industry Training Task Force – Skill New Zealand (1994-1999);

• New Zealand Qualifications Authority, National Standards Body formulating the National Certificate in Educational Achievement and National Diploma in Education  Achievement (1996-2016).

In 1994, at 62 years of age, Br Pat was invited by the Catholic bishops to take on a truly national role- Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office in Wellington. He held this position from 1994 till 2016.

This demanded long hours over the working week, and returning home to the Brothers’ Mangere community for weekends. A past Provincial of the Brothers remembers his homely talents – cooking the weekend baked lamb dinner over 20 years, as well as his flower garden cultivation. His membership of the NZ Brothers’ Trust Board was a constant role too.

Apparently, Br Pat was readily recognised by Air New Zealand stewards as he shuttled from Auckland to Wellington on a weekly basis. But over two decades, he saw his home as the Brothers’ community in Mangere, supporting a Brother with a bi-polar condition. Br Pat maintained he was “an Aucklander living in Wellington.”

Achievements

As CEO, he could point to changes in status and operation of NZ Catholic education:

• As state money and resources flowed Catholic schools lifted their reputation and the confidence of their personnel to a high level;

• His national Catholic Special Character review process was supported and enhanced;

• Promotion of a sense of a vibrant national network of schools through conventions, a national newsletter sharing resources and communicating best practice;

• Negotiation in 1998 with Government for regular maintenance funding of Integrated Schools equivalent to state schools, as well as capital expenditure for new infrastructure and schools.

• In the 1990’s various other private sector schools came under the Integration umbrella – Adventists, Rudolf Steiner, Evangelical Christian etc.

As for satisfactions, the primary one for Pat has been “to see young people become agents for good in their lives, and seeking to making the world a better place…particularly with Maori and Pacific young people and their families.” Linked to this, seemingly, is his avowal of the core values of Lasallian education – “ Faith, Community, Service, Excellence,” as he says.

How  does one fill in time after 30-odd years on the national stage? He is “one of the best-known names in NZ education,” says Helen Clark, ex-Prime Minister She sees him as “one of the most significant leaders in education.” A great honour was Br Pat’s 2015 New Year award as Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

From 2016 to the present, Br Pat is the Trustee of three Boards, and a member of five entities, four being Lasallian schools, two in NZ and two in Australia. He has published his memoirs “Sir Brother Patrick Lynch” (2018), and keeps his hand in cooking and gardening, as he negotiates senior years.

To an outsider from New Zealand, Br Patrick had a swathe of political nous, much common sense, and fine communication skills. He is a politic man who could comprehend the Geist, choose his language with precision, and express it for the politician, the media, and the common man.

“One of us is never as strong as all of us” “Without a vision the people perish”

Source: Br Gary Wilson FSC