Cedric Oorloff and his stature

 By M.V. Muhsin

Forty-nine years ago, Principal Cedric Oorloff took time while on a visit to Africa to write a four page letter to me. It arrived just as I was, as Senior Prefect, preparing for the Vote of Thanks and speech I would make on Prize Day.

He commenced his letter with: “On Friday this week you will be making your first public appearance. I hope it will be a very successful one. I hope also that your period of office will not merely be effective but that it will set a standard.”

He went on to recount his experience in Africa, its beauty, its landscape, its people and its natural wonders. He mentioned the names of Old Trinitians he met who included Rugger Lion Kisosonkole (1920-1925), Clifford Little and Norman Campbell’s son. He ended his letter with the salutation: With Salaams, Yours very sincerely, Cedric Oorloff.”  Reading through it as I write, the Salaams salutation is not lost on me as it represents the inclusive thinking of Trinity.

When a Principal takes time to “connect” with his charges and pose challenges as he did in his letter, it creates a bond that is unbreakable and remains memorable. The letter is a treasure!

CJO, as Cedric Oorloff was affectionately referred to, was a classics scholar, a respected Civil Servant and a former Principal of Wesley College. He was a Royalist by upbringing. In his spare time he would hike the mountains and soak in the beauty of the hills and valleys of Sri Lanka. When he would take a group of students and teachers with him on such expeditions, they would gasp for breath to keep up with him! This included ruggerites and athletes as well.

In every situation that he confronted CJO would see poetry in it. In the letter he wrote me he refers to and I quote:  “dreadfully monotonous country — flat, flat, flat as far as the eye can see with occasional clusters of trees. But there is one feature which atones for all this tedious sameness — and that is the Victoria Falls in Rhodesia. They are the sort of things that makes you want to burst into poetry. If you are not a poet all you can do is to get back the Psalms and say with the psalmist: ‘How wonderful are thy works, O Lord!’”  This is how Cedric Oorloff felt of Trinity as well.

One of his strengths as an effective Principal was that he was able to attract and work with excellent staff that he moulded into an effective team, which complemented and reinforced each others’ talents. The picture, taken at the Farm half a century ago, attests to that.

Jim Wirasinha (extreme left) was an outstanding boarding house master who in my time took charge of Alison House where he introduced the finer art of appreciating the nuances in the cadences of Beethoven, Bach or Mozart; of the subtleties of painting by Renoir or Leonardo Da Vinci or Pablo Picasso.

Sam Elhart (second from left) was the best administrator Trinity has had in generations if not in its entire history. Sam had an incisive mind perhaps from his mastery of bridge and poker; he was super efficient and had a firm grip of the running of the school, and working in the office next door to the Principal he was one of CJO’s trusted advisers. Every letter would be answered within a deadline of one day and school records, certificates and transcripts would be neatly filed and accessible in those days when computers did not exist; and he was obsessed with accountability and so he saw to it that all donations and scholarships were properly reported on.

Bill Sinnathamby (third from left seated next to CJO)  would see life in a blade of grass, a smile on the face of a sunflower and sense a heady aroma exuded by ginger roots, he would delight in the intense colour of a beetroot that he would extract from terra firma with his bare hands. Above all he was a proud agriculturalist. As he took us on field trips in the Farm he would speak so affectionately. For a moment we would think he was conversing with us as we trailed behind him, only to realise that he was in deep conversation with flora and fauna, with trees, chicken, goats and pigs as we passed them. No wonder that this Oxford educated Botanist and brilliant teacher was regarded as a lovable eccentric, only for us to realise later in life that he was God’s gift to Trinity.

Many are the stories that come to mind of Oorloff. A parent who was an Alumnus of Trinity challenged CJO. It was against the non award of a Rugger Lion to his son who was nonetheless an excellent ruggerite. There was a series of letters that got into the Old Boys’ public domain.

CJO had stated that the decisions made by the Lions Award Committee were final and binding and that the School would not entertain challenges. The debate continued for a while. With his characteristic flair to draw a line when things got of hand, CJO replied with this storied one liner: “Dear Parent, thank you for your letter. Let’s agree to disagree.  Very sincerely, C.J. Oorloff.”

But Mr. Oorloff’s erudition and eloquence was what gripped the attention of the audiences he addressed in his writings and speeches. It demonstrated the deeper values and faith he stood for, the bar that he raised for standards that he wanted Trinitians to aspire to, and a fearlessness with which he took on the authorities on matters that affected the educational system and by implication the running of the country. His Prize Day address in 1961, which was half a century ago, displayed a prescience that is so very relevant to us today – whether it’s the end of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka or the advent of the Arab Spring.

And I quote: “One of the murals in the Chapel depicts our Lord washing his disciples’ feet. The picture has suffered much from the weather and badly needs re-doing. But its message is as clear and as challenging as when the picture was first painted, and a hundred times more relevant. The thirst for power, so deeply instinct in our human nature, has, in the newly liberated areas of the world, received a new and exciting impetus from the surrender of authority by those who had it hitherto; and in the scramble for succession, we have forgotten that the real authority comes only to those who are found willing, nay, wanting to SERVE. Neither Governments nor Churches nor individuals can afford to forget this. They are, none of them, immune from the slow and subtle corruption bred by power.

Tagore has put it very simply:

‘Power said to the world, “You are mine”

The world kept it prisoner on her throne.

Love said to the world, “I am thine.”

The world gave it the freedom of her house.’

Thus the Indian sage echoes the world’s Saviour, ‘What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’

We at Trinity need to remember that as much as anyone else. May we never forget.”

Cedric Oorloff’s concluding prayer, appeal and even his admonition offered 51 years ago draws from the inner character of the School we honour today, and one that should resonate in our generation and among generations to come.