Birthday message for MH: ‘RIDE THROUGH THE STORM’

In his last message to me and my situation, Rev. David G. Stewart, our beloved Principal who passed away in December 2014, advised me:  “Ride Through The Storm.”

I believe that his advice is not only applicable to me but also to our beloved alma mater, which is passing through perhaps the worst period ever since its birth on March 11, 1895.

So, my fellow Hermonites, and to our beloved MH:  no matter what you are facing and the situation you are in just remember what Mr. Stewart said, “Ride through the storm.”

Mrs. Welthy Honsinger Fisher, wife of one of our Founders, Bishop Frederick Bohn Fisher, during her Speech Day address in MH in mid-’60s reminded us: “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

MH’s history right from the very beginning was a tough one. Just a few years after it began in a cottage near Chowrasta in Darjeeling on March 11, 1895 a number of its students died when the school building collapsed in the 1898’s disastrous earthquake. The school was then called ‘Arcadia’.

But our Founder Miss Emma Knowles did not give up. With God on her side and with a firm determination to continue her mission she began the Queen’s Hill School just above the railway station in Darjeeling.

By 1920s the school was growing and expanding and needed a bigger place. Miss Knowles, assisted by Miss CJ Stahl, shifted the school to the present location. In 1929 the school was renamed Mount Hermon School.

Mt. Hermon went through a difficult phase after the 1935 earthquake and during the IInd World War. But somehow MH pulled through and it was Rev. Stewart (Principal 1953-1963), who made MH one of the top boarding schools in India.

Mr. GA Murray, Rev. JA Johnston and later Mr. Jeff Gardner, assisted by loyal, able and dedicated staff, kept MH’s flag flying high.

Hermonites all over the world know that our school is passing through a tough time. When the going gets tough the tough gets going. MH was born tough. On its 121^st birthday let us all wish her the very best and remind her to “Ride through the storm.”

Hail Mt. Hermon!

March 11, 2016