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100 years of stories.
Below are stories and memories from past students. If you have a story you would like to share please follow this link to fill out a questionnaire.
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Annie Jane Grantham (“Gran”)
1922-1946 / NZBTI Housekeeper, Matron (Hopetoun Street, Queen Street) One of the unheralded people in this College’s history is a woman...
Barry Doig
1958-1959 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) The two years I had at NZBTI were some of the most formative years of my life. I...
Bennett (Ben) Dickson
1950-1951 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) The second in a family of nine sons, Ben left school at age 12 to work for his father on...
Charles (Charlie) Bennet, MBE
1935-1936 / NZBTI (Queen Street Campus) At age 23 Charlie was working on a farm in Gore when he was persuaded to hear the Irish...
Cliff Mitchell
1927-1928 (Hopetoun Street/Queen Street Campuses) When George Clifford Mitchell was born his parents named him after a great Baptist...
Cyril Edwin Taylor
1940-1941 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) Cyril had worked for three years as a shop assistant in the clothing trade in...
Donald (Don) Forrest Bullin
1952-1953 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street campus) Don entered the NZ Bible Training Institute as a 20-year-old to train for missionary...
Professor Edward Musgrave Blaiklock, OBE
Lecturer in NT Greek, 1927-1975 Board Member (1939-1964), Board Chair and President (1965-1975) As a trainee teacher in 1921 Ted...
Rev. Gillian Orpin (née Eland-Stewart)
1957-1958 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) Born and raised in England, 22-year-old Gillian Eland-Stewart sailed to New Zealand in...
Graham Roy Orpin
1957-1958 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) Roy had been working on a dairy farm in Morrinsville for four years, and another year on...
Hendrika Hermina (Minka) Hanskamp
1957 / NZBTI Certificate in Lieu of Diploma (Queen Street Campus) Born in Holland in 1922, Minka was a year old when she moved with her...
Henry Yolland
1927-1960 Lecturer and Dean of NZ Bible Training Institute (Queen Street Campus) Born in August 1883, Henry Yolland was brought up in...
Hessell Troughton
1930-1931, NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street campus) Hessell William Forster Troughton was born in Thames in 1907 and grew up on dairy farms in...
Hilda Griffin (née Allen)
1939 – 1940 / NZBTI Diploma (Queen Street Campus) Hilda was the 8th of 10 children, and one of the few among her peers who attended high...
Jean Annie Jaggers
1949 – 1971 NZBTI Matron (Queen Street Campus, Henderson Campus) “How rich am I to have shared the lives of 1,250 dedicated young people...
Rev. John Henry Deane
1946-1959 / Principal, NZ Bible Training Institute (Queen Street Campus) The squeak of a caliper signalled the approach of Principal John...
John Ferguson
1987 – / Property Assistant, Property Manager (Henderson Campus) I was involved in musicals through Source Theatre with BCNZ’s Property...
John Oswald Sanders
John Oswald Sanders’ studies at the NZ Bible Training Institute in 1924 were cut short after six months when his father’s illness...
Leslie William (Les) Rushbrook
1934-1935 / NZBTI Diploma, Queen Street Campus, 1936-1981 / Secretary-Treasurer/Registrar At only 18 years of age, Les began studies at...
Margaret McGregor
1928-1929 - Queen Street Campus Secondary school teacher, Margaret McGregor entered the NZ Bible Training Institute in 1928 having...
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