Everard was treasurer from 2010 to 2016
Everard Hoo was born in Chapelton, Clarendon. His parents owned and operated a wholesale and retail grocery with haberdashery and hardware. It was near to the Ivy Store railway station.
The family moved to Kingston when he was 9 years old. They operated a laundry on East Queen Streret. Then they bought Melbourne Grocery on Upper Elletson Road, just below K.C’s. present Melbourne campus.
His schooling started at the Chinese Public School and at Alpha Elementary School. Then through the good offices of Mr. Mortimer Geddes – a customer of the grocery and a teacher at KC – he entered K.C. in 1947. He was awe-struck by the Clovelly campus and was curious about the vintage Hardie House; also, why were some bigger boys wearing ties?
He participated in all the after-class form sports, but also hurried home to work in the shop.
In fourth form, he decided to try out for the School’s swimming g team – a sport dominated by their friends across the street, St Georges College – Bishop Gibson’s alma mater. This entailed busing to Bournemouth Gardens swimming pool at least twice weekly. KCOB L.A. Henriques (Jnr) was the coach.
It was in Form 5B that Everard and his cohorts gained recognition (or notoriety?) They called themselves, “The Commonwealth.” They challenged – and DEFEATED the Manning Cup squad!
After he migrated to Canada in 1978, he got more involved with his Milliken Mills community. He organized and promoted an annual lawn and garden competition, garnering beautiful challenge trophies and prizes: it received the full support of Markham’s politicians. As president of the Milliken Mills Community Association, he organized an annual Summerfest for the different ethnic and cultural groups, which was still going on after he moved from Markham.
When he moved to Ajax, he volunteered to teach English as a Second Language to adult students. With the OK of the designated teacher, Everard brought in music on audio-cassettes and lyrics on hand-out sheets to complement the curriculum - he was sure one can learn a different language easier by singing it. He downloaded the songs from his l/p’s. This innovation was a big hit. He made many good friends with some of the students.
He joined the KCOBA when Hugh Marshall was the president, and was fully active in the era of Lance Seymour’s presidency when he was also the coordinator of the souvenir magazine of the annual reunion dinners. It was an arduous task selling the advertisements, but a very profitable one.
Everard is married to Nolia, an Alpha Academy alumna: they are on the verge of celebrating their diamond anniversary. They have three children, four grandchildren and one great granddaughter. In the leap year of 2016, they lost their youngest grandson who died tragically at age 22.