The long-serving teacher was one of the special guests at the Alexandra Primary and Alexandra Districts High School's 150th jubilee at the weekend.
''I was just in my element as a teacher, '' she recalled.
Mrs Ferguson's link to the school spanned many decades. She first taught in a permanent teaching role and then spent the final 15 years of her career as a relieving teacher, finishing in 1992, when she was 69.
''I loved teaching and still have former pupils that ring me up or come and visit when they're in Alexandra.''
Her work outside the classroom - coaching boys' rugby and cricket in the early 1980s - thrust her into the spotlight several times but she preferred to keep behind the scenes, she said.
''I enjoyed the rugby and had lots of help from the boys' fathers. It was unusual for a woman to coach those sports but I couldn't see what all the fuss was about.''
A young Mark Ranby, who later became an All Black, was one of the pupils who shone at schoolboy rugby in one of the teams she coached.
''He was 9 then, and if he was in the team, we usually had a good chance at a win,'' she said.
Mrs Ferguson was ''so pleased'' to have left teaching by the time computers were introduced.
''I wouldn't have wanted to use computers for teaching. I like working out things for myself.''
Jubilee chairman Rory McLellan said about 300 people attended the formal assembly on Saturday, which included performances by the school choir and Kapa Haka group, the cake-cutting and commemorative tree planting.
A function on Saturday night completed the jubilee celebrations.
''Everyone seems to have had a good weekend catching up with old school mates and we've had lots of people saying they were pleased we made the effort and organised the jubilee.''
Two of the present pupils, Ryley (10) and Claudia (8) Park have links to the school going back five generations and 11 pupils can trace their connection to it back for four generations.
The school was granted district high school status in 1912 and by 1961 it was one of the biggest schools in Otago, with 600 primary and 230 secondary school pupils, as well as 25 teachers.
