St Paul's Collegiate School remembers the life and service of Victor (Vic) Charles Matthews, whose life combined excellence as an Olympian, educator, and craftsman.

Alongside his work in the workshop, Vic became one of St Paul's defining sporting figures. A gifted athletics coach, he was known for many years as "Mr Athletics", helping generations of young athletes develop both their skills and their discipline.

After training as a woodwork teacher at Loughborough University, Vic established himself as one of Britain's leading hurdlers and decathletes, representing Great Britain at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, where he reached the quarterfinals of the 110 metres hurdles.

In 1963, Vic and his wife, Hilary, emigrated to New Zealand, where he joined the staff of St Paul's Collegiate School.  For more than twenty years, he taught woodwork, but his influence extended well beyond the workshop.  He instilled in generations of students an appreciation for thoughtful design, skilled craftsmanship, patience and the belief that anything worth doing was worth doing properly.  Hopefully, those lessons stayed with his students long after they left the School.

Never content to stop learning, Vic returned to Loughborough University in 1975–76 to further his studies in design.  Then, on his fiftieth birthday in 1984, he retired from teaching and began a new career as a full-time furniture designer and maker.

Working initially in Hamilton and later from his workshop at Te Kouma on the Coromandel Peninsula, Vic became recognised as one of New Zealand's leading designer-craftsmen.  His work found its way into galleries, public collections, and private homes. In 1988, he was commissioned by the New Zealand Government to design and build the Distinguished Visitors' Chair, New Zealand's official gift to Australia for the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra.  Crafted from New Zealand kohekohe and upholstered in ox blood leather, it remains on the central dais in the Australian Senate Chamber.

While his furniture earned national recognition, Vic's legacy at St Paul's is both personal and enduring.  He will continue to be remembered through the generations of young men whose lives he influenced as a teacher and mentor, and through the sanctuary furniture he designed and crafted for the School Chapel - a lasting expression of the skill, care and integrity that characterised all of his work. He led students on pioneering conservation and track-building expeditions through the Ureweras and Tongariro National Park, established the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme at St Paul's, and helped foster a spirit of adventure.

Vic's wife, Hilary, predeceased him in February this year after almost sixty-eight years of marriage.

The St Paul's family extends its sincere condolences to Vic's family, colleagues, friends, and to all who had the privilege of knowing him.  His was a life of quiet achievement, dedicated service, and exceptional craftsmanship, and his contribution to St Paul's will continue to be appreciated for generations to come.