Edward James RODD

RODD, EDWARD JAMES (b. London, England, 1848, d. Sydney, NSW, 7 Nov 1933). Methodist minister and theological educator.

E J Rodd entered the Methodist ministry in England in 1868 and trained under Dr W F Moulton at Richmond College. He arrived in Sydney in 1871 and served in Methodist circuits in NSW and Qld. In 1900 he was appointed clerical president of Newington College, the Methodist boys' school, and theological tutor at the Theological Institution attached to the College known as the Hermitage. At the same time he was appointed as principal of the Methodist Ladies' College at Burwood, where he also resided. During his period at MLC he secured the registration of the school under the Education Act of 1912 which allowed the introduction of the Leaving Certificate and opened the way to university studies for the school's graduates. He was president of the NSW Methodist Conference in 1899 and retired in 1914.

Rodd's ministry was described on his retirement as marked by 'wise administration, sympathetic visitation and especially by cultured and effective preaching'. At MLC, however, he was described as being distant and aloof, not understanding girls as well as his predecessor the Rev Dr C J Prescott. A literal and factual man, moral direction was for him more important than information and intellectual training.

Methodist Conference, NSW, Minutes (Sydney, 1914); C J Prescott, 'The evolution of Leigh College', J & P Aust Meth Hist Soc 49 (1946): 680-82; MLC Burwood, Jubilee Souvenir (Sydney, 1936); S & R Coupe, Walk in the Light (Sydney, 1986)

MICHAEL HORSBURGH