A Tribute to Reverend Canon Len Nairn OAM
This week's Saints Alive is my personal tribute to Reverend Canon Leonard Hilton Nairn OAM, our Foundation Headmaster, who passed away on Friday 25 April 2026. In preparing it, I have had the great pleasure of re-reading his book On the Shoulders of Others, published in September 2001 during Len's final term at All Saints, written by All Saints parent and journalist Drena Partington. I have also drawn on my own conversations with and time spent with Len since joining All Saints as Principal at the beginning of 2025.
Reverend Canon Len Nairn OAM Foundation Headmaster, All Saints Anglican School
It is with deep sadness, and with profound gratitude, that the All Saints Anglican School community acknowledges the passing of our Foundation Headmaster, Reverend Canon Len Nairn OAM. He was the man who called this school into being, and in many ways, it never stopped being his.
Canon Nairn laid the foundation stone of All Saints in 1986 and opened its doors to students in January 1987, guiding the School through 15 years of extraordinary growth before retiring at the end of Term 4, 2001. What he built was never simply a collection of buildings and programs. It was a community shaped by a clear and deeply held vision, one rooted in truth, faith and compassion. For Len, faith was never a matter of tradition or routine. He was determined that the Gospel would be lived and taught, not merely observed.
A School Born of Faith and Determination
The story of All Saints' founding is, in many respects, the story of one man's extraordinary capacity for belief in things not yet seen. Canon Nairn received the offer of the foundation headmastership via a telephone call during Holy Week 1986. What greeted him was not a school. It was an idea, an uncompleted land contract, and two $500 donations in the kitty.
He later recalled standing on a milk crate in the Mudgeeraba Village square on Saturday mornings, telling passers-by of "the wonderful school we were going to build." It is a story that has become part of the folklore of our community, and it captures him perfectly. Against all expectations, All Saints opened on schedule in January 1987 with 179 foundation students, eight teachers and eight fully-equipped classrooms.
A Philosophy Written in Compassion
Canon Nairn was a man of strong educational convictions. He deliberately avoided the word 'excellence,' believing it sent the wrong message.
"Excellence is an almost unattainable ideal; quality is achievable," he said. It was also at his personal insistence that the word compassion was included on the School crest, "the cornerstone of a caring, inclusive community whose collective strength is built on individual respect and trust ... precisely the community we wanted to create here at All Saints."
These were not simply words. They were the architecture of everything he built.
The Entrepreneur Who Built a Culture
Len Nairn was, at his core, an entrepreneur. He had the defining traits of one: clear vision, tenacity, high standards, drive and seemingly boundless energy. Those who knew him in his years as Headmaster will recognise that combination immediately. Many of our students, now adults, and some who are now my colleagues here at All Saints, speak of the particular mixture of respect and slight apprehension that came with seeing Len move through the playground. Standards were not merely expected, they were noticed. A sock that needed pulling up or a shirt that needed tucking in would not go unremarked.
But entrepreneurial energy of that kind does not stay contained within a school gate. The traits Len brought to All Saints have woven themselves into the identity of this school, into the fabric of the Gold Coast community, and into many of the families who have been part of our story across the decades. I noticed it from my very first encounters with our students, their confidence, their willingness to communicate, the ease with which they carry themselves. These are not accidental qualities. They are, in no small part, the inheritance of a founding culture shaped by a man who believed deeply in what young people could become.
A Personal Reflection
I feel deeply fortunate to have met and spent time with Len since joining All Saints at the beginning of 2025. What struck me from that first meeting was the passion and emotion he still carried for this place. Any story about All Saints would cause his eyes to well with pride. It was at the very core of who he was.
I treasure the framed photograph I have of Len alongside Patrick Wallas, the School's second Headmaster, and myself as the third. All Saints is, in so many ways, a product of continuity, each chapter building on what came before, the founding vision carried forward and renewed. That unbroken thread is one of the great advantages our community has been given, and it begins with Len.
I carry a wonderful memory of sitting in Len's living room early in 2025, listening as he regaled me with the founding stories of All Saints with a zest and pride that made them feel as vivid as if they had happened yesterday. I was also particularly heartened during the early development of our Blueprint 2026+ by his warm endorsement of our values, vision and mission. For Len, the thread between what he had built and what we were striving toward was unbroken.
The last time I saw him was at the staff and student cricket match in Term 4 last year, a fixture Len loved dearly. As we looked up to acknowledge him, I have a vivid image of him looking down upon us, tears in his eyes and that warm smile on his face. The school was still as much a part of Len as he is a part of us.
Every student who has passed through these gates, every family, every staff member, we are all beneficiaries of what Len Nairn dared to imagine and had the faith to build. He believed that education of the heart is the heart of education. The soul of All Saints bears his fingerprints, and always will.
In the closing pages of On the Shoulders of Others, Len reflected that he had been able to do what he did because he had been carried on the shoulders of others. It is a characteristically humble note on which to end 15 years of visionary, tireless transformative leadership. All Saints Anglican School is his legacy, and we are all the richer for it.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Vada, Len's beloved wife, and the Nairn family.
Matt Corbett
Principal
