St Peters College, Cranbourne, founding principal Terry Feely died last week.By Bridget Cook
THE St Peter’s College community has remembered former principal Terry Feely as a man of “faith, education and service” after he died last week.
Mr Feely was the Cranbourne college’s founding principal in 1994, and served as principal until 2009.
He has left a lasting impression on the school, having built it up from the early days to a premier education facility.
During his 15-year tenure, Mr Feely took great pride in the development of the school master plan.
The school’s technology centre, library, general classroom complexes and multi-purpose hall were just a few of the facilities constructed under his stewardship.
As a member of the Diocese of Sale Secondary Principals Association, Mr Feely was a great supporter of Catholic education, playing significant roles on the diocesan education and finance committees.
His love of Celtic spirituality and history saw him lead several tours of pilgrims on behalf of the Diocese to Scotland and Ireland.
Mr Feely was also a foundation member of the Southern Independent Schools – an organisation established to foster cultural and sporting activities among its 12 member schools in the area.
St Peter’s College current principal Tim Hogan, who was Mr Feely’s deputy principal for 10 years, said he was a master builder who laid a firm foundation for them.
“He set a direction in 1994 and has held firm never losing his focus on our identity and mission as a Catholic school,” he said.
He said Mr Feely would be remembered for many things.
“His love of literature and history, which was the cornerstone and motivation for his teaching,” he said.
“An inspiring teacher, he continued to share his great gifts and knowledge in the classroom despite the varied responsibilities of principal that consumed his time.
“A dry sense of humour was never too far from the surface and to go away on student retreats or staff conferences was to see another side of Mr Feely.
“As mentor for many teachers who aspired to be leaders within schools, he placed great pride in the fact that a number of those who he had employed or guided in leaderships positions had gone onto principalships in Catholic schools or other senior leadership positions in Catholic education.”
Mr Hogan said Mr Feely had given enormously to Catholic education, in particular to the St Peter’s College community.
“He has lived a life of faith, education and service,” he said.
“As a community, we look to the future with great hope encouraged by our school motto to ‘Be Not Afraid’, as he so often said, reminding us to have faith in ourselves and faith in a God who walks beside us every step of the way.”
Mr Hogan said he extended his deepest sympathies to Mr Feely’s wife Dorothy and three children, Siobhan, Terry and Brendan.
Mr Feely’s funeral will be held today (Thursday) at St Brigid’s Church, 520 Main Street, Mordialloc at 1pm.
