John Hore has recently joined the ranks of our Student Support Fund benefactors. Each year, he will contribute to the fund to ensure boys facing financial hardship can still access the full range of opportunities Otago Boys’ has to offer. The fund helps level the playing field - opening doors for young men who might otherwise miss out.
John Hore has recently joined the ranks of our Student Support Fund benefactors. Each year, he will contribute to the fund to ensure boys facing financial hardship can still access the full range of opportunities Otago Boys’ has to offer. The fund helps level the playing field - opening doors for young men who might otherwise miss out.
When John looks back on his years at Otago Boys’ High School, he doesn’t just remember classrooms and rugby fields. He remembers having to findgrit and determination - qualities that shaped the man he would become.
John grew up in Milton, his dad worked at the freezing works and his mother was a nurse. After his parents separated, he and his brother Andrew moved with their mother to a tiny 75-square-metre house in South Dunedin - right next door to King’s High School. His mother, “an OG’s girl,” was determined her sons would attend Otago Boys’. “It was considered a pinnacle boys’ school with strong traditions and turning out good men,” John says.
But living beside King’s created a daily challenge. Each morning, the brothers “walked against the tide” of King’s students to reach their bus stop. “We would literally have to fight our way through a torrent of abuse,” he recalls. Reaching the bus stop, they’d join other OBHS boys, sharing an unspoken grin that said they’d survived yet another morning.
Life at home was tough. The house was cold, uninsulated, and crowded - his mother took in boarders to help pay the bills, including one who shared John’s room, and a three-year-old foster child who shared with his brother. “We had no money. Things were always getting broken among the rough and tumble of rugby or wrestling.” When the house was severely damaged by fire, they lived in a hotel unit for around six months.
Like many students under financial pressure, John says a lot weighs on a young person’s mind. “You’re constantly worried: how am I going to ask to go on that school trip? Can I afford to play in that team?"
The OBHS Siga Siga Scholarship changed that. “I just remember being so thankful. It saved me so much embarrassment by not having to pull out of things because we couldn’t afford it.”
Although things were difficult at home, John wasn’t without support. He was incredibly fortunate to have the parents of his mates looking out for him. Unbeknown to the Finnies, the Evans, the Storys, and a few others, their subtle advice - “or the occasional kick up the backside” - helped keep him on track and played a real part in shaping the person he became. “I’ve never forgotten that. If I had one wish, it would be that others do the same for kids who need a hand. It’s not just financial support that makes a difference; sometimes it’s the everyday guidance from caring adults that has the greatest impact.”
Midway through sixth form, overwhelmed by the chaos at home, John moved in with his grandparents. His grandfather was strict - “he probably went too far at times” - but John knew it came from love. By seventh form he was flatting, juggling school with paid work. “It forces you to grow up very quickly.”
While others were going home to talk with their parents about university plans, John was simply trying to get through each day. Yet he and Andrew became the first generation in their family to gain university entrance. “I remember thinking, how the heck did I do that?”
His first attempt at university didn’t go to plan - working so many hours at DB that he failed seven papers and was kicked out. But he fought his way back in. “I was terrified of going back to that life I had come from. I just knew I needed to work hard, and I believed university was my ticket out of there.”
In 1997, with just three papers left before graduating, DB offered him a full-time job. “The job market was pretty tough back then so if you got an opportunity you took it. But not completing my degree is something that’s always panicked me. I finally let that panic go about five years ago.”
That opportunity opened the door to a global career. After seven years with DB, John moved to Sydney to work in FMCG, before joining a start-up in consumer research. Over 15 years he established offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, India, Thailand and Indonesia. After selling his shares, John and his wife Leeane returned to New Zealand. They now live on a lifestyle property in Clevedon, where he invests in start-ups and serves on multiple boards.
Through all his success, the memory of the support he once received at Otago Boys’ has stayed with him.
“Leeane and I have been looking for worthy charitable organisations to donate to for a while. I chose the Student Support Fund at OBHS because I feel such a strong link to the boys this fund helps. I met with Des (Smith) and he shared with me a bit about the fund and what it does for the boys. He cares so much about this school - you really are so lucky to have him.
“I know with this fund there’s no middle man, and I know the school holds the boys accountable. If they receive this money, it’s because they genuinely deserve it and appreciate it.
“It’s a fund I’ll donate to every year, and I’m proud to stand by that,” he said.
