Life before St Michael’s
Simon sent me this extraordinary letter he has received from Omar Holcomb and wondered if it would interest OM’s. It makes fascinating reading.
Dear Mr. Simon Pott,
Please permit me to introduce myself and, at the same time, apologize for this abrupt intrusion. I am Omar Holcomb, of Fremont, California. The occasion for this intrusion is that I searched the Internet earlier this evening for the name "Roger Percival Pott" and was taken to the web site for St. Michael's School. There I learned that the Reverend Canon Roger Percival Pott, of fond memory (mine), had passed away in December 1992.
The Reverend Mr. Pott was my headmaster in 1937 and 1938 at the Yokohama International School in Japan. At the web site, I found a group photograph which included his likeness and which verified to me that the St. Michael’s Mr. Pott was the selfsame person as the Yokohama International School's Mr. Pott. At that time, I was in what in America would be the second and third years of high school there.
Through the years I have thought often of him, for he was a remarkable man. At the time, he still was unmarried and had his quarters in the same dormitory as the students. We had meals with him in the dormitory and at the school. During the luncheons in the school gymnasium, he played classical music on the phonograph and compelled silence among the students so that they could experience the full effect of the music. That experience laid the foundation for my life-long appreciation of the classics. He was a tall and handsome man and often walked in the mornings along the Bluff in Yokohama from the dormitory to the school. To say that he walked at a rapid pace would be an understatement. We boys walked along with him much of the time and tried to match his pace. Inevitably we were left behind. All my life since, though, until the present, I too have been a rapid walker - and I attribute my good health to that exercise and to Mr. Pott.
My school friends and I were with him in the summers of 1937 and 1938 when he ran the school's summer hostel near Karuizawa, in the Japan Alps. There I benefited from the fencing and tennis lessons which he provided, as well as the exercise occasioned by the long bicycle ride between the hostel and the town of Karuizawa.
Those days under the supervision of Mr. Pott were the happiest of my adolescence. Having found the information about his passing, and that he had a son, Simon Pott, I felt the urge to send you a few words of my memories of him. He must have had a rich and worthy career between 1938 and 1992. If you should feel inclined to send me an email sketch of his career after I knew him, I would indeed welcome it.
Sincerely yours, Omar Holcomb.
