Otaki Scholar/Sander Scholar/Everiss Scholar

2020 saw the fruition of a plan to hand over the mantle (or in this case korowai) of the Sander Scholar.  The College owes huge thanks to Sander Ties for single handedly funding the scholarship for eight years.  It was agreed by all parties, however, that a more sustainable plan was necessary to ensure the continuation of the scholarship into the future. 

To this end Ōtaki College Principal, Andy Fraser, worked with ex British Diplomat, George “Raukawa” Fergusson, the Principal of Robert Gordon’s College, and several ex Otaki Scholars to set up a trust fund, the interest from which would continue into the future to fund a scholarship for an Ōtaki College student to travel to Robert Gordon’s College in Scotland each year. 

It was decided to name this scholarship after Carlyle Gray Everiss in honour of his heroism in WWII and strengthen our links with Scotland.

Carlyle Gray Everiss was born in Gisborne on 3 December 1914. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and began pilot training in January 1941. After gaining his pilot’s wings in Canada, Everiss was sent to the United Kingdom and was posted to No. 58 Operational Training Unit at Grangemouth, beside the Firth of Forth in central Scotland.

Everiss, with another pilot, was returning from an air combat exercise on 2 October 1941 when the engine of his Spitfire stalled over the mining village of Cowie, about 10 km from Grangemouth. With his crippled plane heading straight for a tightly packed row of houses, Everiss refused to bail out and made a desperate attempt to gain altitude. While he managed to clear the village his plane was thrown into an uncontrollable tailspin and crashed into railway sidings at a nearby coal mine. Villagers were able to pull Everiss from the burning wreckage but the young pilot died shortly afterwards and was buried in Grangemouth (Grandsable) Cemetery.

Exerpt from 'New Zealand pilot saves Scottish village', (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 19-Jan-2017

2021 will be the first year in which Everiss Scholarship is presented.                                

It is hoped that the Everiss Scholarship will also allow an expansion of the Sander Scholarship through its links with the British Royal Air Force, the town of Cowie and the Stirling region including Bannockburn College and Stirling Castle.

In 2013 Ōtaki College, with funding from local business, The Sander Tie Company, set up its own scholarship to send a Head Student to Scotland in the December holidays.  This Scholarship is one of the College’s premier awards and each of the students to whom it has been awarded has come away better for their experience.  It has inspired them to pursue their life goals and given them a determination to travel and grow their understanding of the world around them.