Chrissie Dodds

Christina ‘Chrissie’ Nisbet Dods (1920)

Founding student 1915-1920

Left: Christina ‘Chrissie’ Nisbet Dods (1920) at PLC in 1919, aged 16.

Right: Chrissie Dods as president of the 1969 building appeal, aged 66.

Chrissie was the only daughter of PLC Founder Rev George Nisbet Dods. She was one of our School’s first students in 1915, aged 12, until 1920 when she went on to study at UWA. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1924 – the third PLC Old Girl to do so – she taught English Literature at Princess May’s in Fremantle. In 1935 Chrissie was President of the OCA and, in 1945, she and Margaret Stewart (1922), daughter of PLC benefactor John Stewart, were the second and third females appointed as the OCA’s representatives on PLC Council, and served until 1959.

Princess May’s had become what is now John Curtin School of the Arts in 1956, and by the time Chrissie retired in 1968, she had been deputy principal for many decades.

In 1969 Chrissie was president of our appeal which successfully raised the finances to build the south and west arms of the Senior School still in use today. She fought to have the library named for her father and decades of determined campaigning finally came to fruition with the naming of the Rev George Nisbet Dods Memorial Library on 22 September 1972, when the buildings for which she’d led the 1969 appeal were proudly opened.

Chrissie never married or had children, but lived with, and cared for her mother and her younger brother George (who was not able to live independently) at their home in Renown Avenue, Claremont. After a lifetime dedicated to her family, education and PLC, Chrissie died at home on 19 February 1987, aged 83.

In 2014 Dods, in honour of Chrissie and Rev George, was top of the list of potential new House names. The girls, given the choice, decided Dods sounded too much like ‘duds’ and sadly, Dods House was not established at that time.