The spirit of a courageous young sportsman now welcomes visitors into the John McGlashan College gymnasium.
The Dion Latta Foyer was unveiled in an emotional lunchtime dedication at the school yesterday.
The 15-year-old died on January 2 last year, despite a three-hour rescue operation, after he was trapped under a waterfall in the Motatapu Gorge, near Wanaka.
Otago-Southland coroner David Crerar later described the tragedy as ''the most harrowing'' he had read in his career.
Principal Mike Corkery said dedicating the entranceway of the new $4 million Davies Gymnasium to Dion was the idea of his schoolmates, who organised work days to finance the memorial.
''They made it clear to me they needed to do something significant and lasting for Dion. It will stand as a memorial, as much as an entranceway. It will stand long after every one of us is forgotten.''
Dion was a multi-talented sportsman who represented Otago at age-group rugby and coached intellectually handicapped children.
The 30-minute lunchtime dedication featured readings of his poetry by schoolmates, a musical tribute and mass haka. Other former pupils who had their lives cut short were also remembered.
Mr Corkery recalled a popular pupil and boarder who was ''cheeky, fun-loving and energetic'' and he reminded the assembly that ''death is part of life''.
Dion's parents, Logan and Sue Latta, of Nenthorn Valley, near Palmerston, unveiled the plaque, while his brother, Cody, thanked the school for the tribute.
The memorial noted Dion's death ''after an heroic struggle in the Motutapu Gorge''.
''He never yielded,'' Mr Corkery said.
''He fought his last battle against the waterfall and he lost; which is a tragedy.''
The final line on the plaque is an inscription from Shakespeare's Macbeth: ''I will not yield.''
