Maurice Dullard, S. J. (1929 - 2013)

(Principal Jun 1965 – Jun 1968)   

         Fr. Maurice Dullard, also known as “Maurie”, was born in Echuca, Victoria, Australia, on 8 May 1929. He had  three brothers and three sisters.He passed his matriculation in 1947 and in February 1948 he joined the Society  in Melbourne. Among his novitiate companions were Bill Dwyer who joined on the same day as Maurie, and later  Ken McNamara.

       After Philosophy and a successful degree course at the University of Melbourne he was appointed to Hazaribag in January 1956. , immediately joining the staff of St Xavier’s Hazaribag. He joined just when the school’s first exam batch of four boys got the news of their success in the Senior Cambridge exam. He joined a dynamic team of young Jesuits which included Frs. Ken McNamara, Michael Doyle, and so on. Fr Dullard stayed for two years in the post of Prefect of Studies and already the boys got a taste of an energetic administrator, a meticulous teacher and a firm disciplinarian, qualities which later generations of boys were to experience and admire when he was appointed to succeed Fr John Moore as Rector and Principal in June 1965. r.

        He was to remain in the post of Rector and Principal for just three years, until he was appointed the Superior of  the Jesuit Region of Hazaribag and Palamau. But during his relatively short tenure, as remarked by his successor, ‘he showed an extraordinary capacity for work, a high sense of duty, and an extreme sense of charity and respect for others’. He was able to steer the school through a time of crises in education when criticisms were often leveled at the type of school St Xavier’s had become. He spoke eloquently in his annual reports on the state of the school defending its record. He even envisaged a time when a Hindi stream might develop along with the Senior Cambridge system, a vision which ten years later was realised with the development of a sister institution, the Hindi medium St Robert’s High School, which was housed for some years in the same campus as St Xavier’s, and shared some of its facilities. 

        He held various important posts both in the Church and the Society of Jesus during the remaining four and a half decades of his life both as administrator and teacher.His end came quickly. On June 25th evening he was unable to eat and was clearly very weak and disorientated. His companions remained with him throughout the night. He breathed his last at 3.15 a.m. on 26 June 2013. He is remembered not only for his administrative acumen but also for his superior intellect, phenomenal memory, tremendous hard work as well as remarkable humility and charity,