THE Munro College Old Boys’ Association (MCOBA) recently staged their annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, and one of the things about the event that raised a few surprised eyebrows was the fact that (in a context, of course, where Munro College is an all-boys’ institution) a woman was on the list of inductees.

“One is a girl!” exclaimed award-winning blogger Emma Lewis in response to a flyer advertising the event posted on Twitter.

“I quite like the fact that an all-boys’ school is honouring a female!” proclaimed Bank of Jamaica Deputy Governor Natalie Haynes, also responding to promotional material on Twitter.

The lady in question is the late Sonia Hayden, an old girl of St Andrew High School, and members of the St Andrew High School Old Girls’ Association attended the function to lend support. Her son, JN Fund Managers Managing Director Brando Hayden, accepted the posthumous citation on her behalf, and there is a lot more to this story than immediately meets the eye.

First of all, perhaps because previous editions of the event were not advertised as widely, those outside Munro circles would not be aware that Sonia is not the first woman inducted into the MCOBA Hall of Fame. She is in fact the third.

In what was described by the Jamaica Observer as “a bit of feminist history” at the time, the first was former school matron and matriarch, the late Edith “Shottie” Wright, who was inducted in 2016, the year when Munro College celebrated its 160th anniversary, so a special Hall of Fame ceremony that year saw 16 persons inducted. Wright, in addition to being a beloved mother figure to generations of boys in the late 1800s into the early 1900s (she became matron in 1895), was pivotal in the construction of the picturesque Munro College chapel, which is now a national heritage building. A plaque in her honour adorns her usual seat on one of the chapel benches, and she was buried on the Munro College campus after 40 years of service to the school.

Academics aside, men who attended boarding school will tell you that the most important thing in their lives during school was food, as it is almost impossible to satiate the furnace-like appetite of growing teenage boys. It is little surprise therefore that the second female inductee, one year later and again posthumously, was beloved catering matron Mary Keane, known to generations of Munro boys as “Miss Mary”.

Miss Mary worked her way up in the Munro College kitchen after starting as a pastry chef, then served as matron until her retirement at age 69 in 1986. The legion of old boys who benefited from her gastronomic care includes several who accompany her in the Hall of Fame, notably former chief justice the late Ira Rowe, OJ, and former prime minister the late Sir Donald Sangster, ON.

The second notable thing about Sonia’s induction is that hers is a unique award.

MCOBA Hall of Fame eligibility is restricted to Munro College old boys and persons who have been employed to the school, and Sonia obviously didn’t attend the school and also did not work there at any time.

Such was her contribution, however, that a group of old boys lobbied for her inclusion, and the MCOBA executive agreed, naming her the group’s first honorary inductee.

What was this extraordinary contribution? In addition to being a supportive parent while her son attended the school, assisting with fund-raising for school events and providing logistic and moral support whenever school teams of any kind visited Kingston, the former banking executive quietly took it upon herself to start helping senior Munro College students find holiday jobs, and helping old boys find permanent jobs after leaving Munro or university. She did it without seeking attention or recognition, so nobody knows exactly how many old boys she helped in this way, but remarkably, a conservative estimate is in the region of 200, not counting holiday jobs, and not counting her sometimes arranging employment for the wives of some old boys as well.

Parents helping Munro or Munro students is not at all uncommon, but no other parent on record assisted in this particular way, to this extent, or for such an extended period. New Munro College Parent Teacher’s Association president and old boy Cohan Baker, who attended the event, says he’d love to find a way of using Sonia’s example to inspire current and future Munro parents.

According to Munro College old boy Tony Morrison, former central bank communications director and award-winning journalist, who emceed the event, the MCOBA recognising women in this way is par for the course, and in fact is confident that Mrs Hayden won’t be the last woman inducted.

“Left unchecked,” Morrison notes, “the high-testosterone environment of a boys boarding school could easily have become a bastion of chauvinism, but that was never the Munro way; the Munro culture is all about producing gentlemen, and a large part of being a gentleman is respecting women. That is simply how we were raised.”

Morrison cites the example of his late Headmaster Richard Roper, also a Hall of Fame member, who, in addition to maintaining an egalitarian ethos at Munro College, also maintained a strong culture of respect and high regard for women.

“It was a great example to us all,” Morrison reminisces, “that as a legendary leader in his own right, he had the utter lack of insecurity to marry the kind of woman who would intimidate ordinary men, one who was as strong, intelligent and opinionated as she was pretty!”