In 1903, after a brilliant scholastic career at Prince Alfred College and the Adelaide University, R. A. West joined the staff of the Pupil Teachers School, which was in charge of his father, Mr. W. A. West, who subsequently became Chief Inspector of Schools, and was wideley known as a wise, just and strong administrator. When in 1908 the Adelaide High School was established Mr. West became an Assistant Master on the staff of the new school. He was then quite young, but his influence as a class teacher won him a name even in his earliest teaching years. Subsequently he became a Senior Master, then Vice-Principal, and in 1920, when Mr. Adey left to take up his duties as Superintendent of Secondary Education Mr. West succeeded him as Principal.

In 1933 he made history by winning an election for membership of the University Council, and has had no trouble in retaining his seat ever since. On three occasions, 1928, 1931 and 1939, he was President of the Teachers Union in which primary teachers are a majority. He has since been made a Life Member of that body in recognition of his services. In 1947 the school was jubilant to hear that His Majesty the King had conferred on Mr. West the distinction of O.B.E.

These honours were never sought by Mr. West; they caught up with him. Nobody ever advertised himself less, but somehow or other Mr. West has been found out for what he is and what he has done. I believe that, although he has had to overcome a disposition to fight shy of such honours carry responsibilities, for which his appetite is voracious.

Mr. West's natural endowment of intellect and disposition gave him a better start in life gave him a better start in life than is given to most men. He would be the first to be thankful for this inheritance and for the home-training that set on the right track a whole family distinguished for attainment and character. He would give full credit also to the teachers responsible for his education. Nevertheless, we who know Mr. West are inclined to attach more importance to the way in which he has built reserves of power for himself. By self-discipline he has developed an outstanding capacity for facing any task with a smile, and a smile, and a moral fibre that can take every strain. He sees clearly whether faced by an academic problem or a mass of administrative detail. In discussion he is not usually the first to talk. But his ideas are mostly some jumps ahead of those of others more vocal; and indeed they are a jump ahead of his own speech. But speech at last comes; and when it does it invariably claims attention. Moral questions, too, he sees clearly; and though tolerant and kindly in his judgment of others, he admits for himself no blurred edge between right and wrong.

His curiosity ranges over a wide field from the philosophic to the mundane. His unflagging zeal for knowing what's what and who's who in the school is one of his great assets, and goes hand in hand with his deep concerns for the school's welfare.

It is in dealing with people that Mr. West shows perhaps his most marked power. He has no theatrical tricks, no posing, no raising of the voice or thumping of the table, no impassioned rhetoric, no snap judgments made with a false air of decisiveness. His strength is not of the kind that makes an assault on the senses; rather it is a steady surge of power from  the very core of his being, and it becomes more and more apparent to any who have dealings with him.

He has had the courage to allow scope for that kind of freedom about which many educationalists talk loudly and extravagantly. Freedom with no nonsense, and within a broad framework of wise policy, has been one of the features of Mr. West's administration. No one could show more consideration for the individuality of both teachers and students. He has never circumscribed them with a mass of petty rules to be constantly policed. In a happy atmosphere free from repression, with no absurd barriers between staff and students, and with flourishing extra-school activities managed to a great extent by the students themselves, self-discipline has thrived along with sound work. Nobody ever did more to demonstrate that there can be greater efficiency without the goose-step than with it; and the tone of the school is a monument to Mr. West's prudent and at the same time enterprising administration.