A portrait honouring former Knox College master and former University of Otago pro-chancellor Bruce Aitken has been unveiled at the college.
At the unveiling on Thursday, several speakers, including former Otago University vice-chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg, praised Mr Aitken's extensive contribution to both the college and wider university life during his 17 years as Knox master.
Prof Skegg, a life fellow of the college, said Mr Aitken's many contributions had included "strengthening college life'', particularly in respect of music, and improving the college's physical environment, such as through the Ross Chapel redevelopment.
In an address, Mr Aitken joked that the painting, which depicts him dressed in a kilt, was a "frightening addition to the rogues' gallery'' of former college masters displayed in the college's Great Hall.
He thanked college fellows, who had financed the portrait, and more than 50 people, including university chancellor John Ward, who attended the unveiling.
Mr Aitken left his master's role, after about six months of paid leave, in 2012, after a commission appointed by the Presbyterian Church assumed governance.
The commission overhauled some of the church-owned college's long-standing traditions and tightened rules governing alcohol consumption.
At the ceremony, Mr Aitken also thanked "good friends'' who were "so supportive of and to me, and so kind, during those dark days in 2012''.
He thanked his family and wife Wendy, without whom he "could not have survived the ordeal''.
"I still think that I had the best job in the university.''
He had been "very, very fortunate to have held this position, to have lived here, to have led this community, and to have met, lived and worked with so, so many of the best people''.
But he was "still at a complete loss to understand why and how this all happened the way it did''.
Discussing the "elephant in the room'', the end of his mastership, he said a "strange thing'' had happened in 2012.
The commission had "prohibited me from setting foot on the college property beyond the lodge after the end of January 2012''.
Finally, he had later been told to vacate the college lodge by October 30 and that day he had been allowed to come over to the college to "clear out'' his study.
He been "enormously touched'' by a "huge groundswell of current and former residents'', almost 1200 of them, who had became part of the "Calling All Ex-Knox College Students'' Facebook activity, he said.
Many friends had encouraged him to write his memoirs of his Knox days, and he had many "wonderful tales to tell''.
Previously, he could not even start to think about this "while I harboured such bitterness as a result of my exit'', but those matters were now past.
And he intended to start writing a memoir, probably this winter.
