 Dubber (appointed 3 April 1968), the school's principal teacher of English since 1956, and acting rector since retirement of Edwin Macnaughton in September 1967.Rector Dubber was an authority on the English language and literature and author of school text books, and on his sudden death at the school's Christmas Dance on 16 December 1971, Mr. A. M. Robertson, depute-Rector and Head of Classics, was appointed Acting Rector (Mr. James Morris being then appointed Head of Classics) prior to the abolition of selective schools (cemented in the 1976 Education Act) such as Hamilton Academy, introduction of comprehensive schooling and the merging of the Hamilton Academy campus and that of nearby St. Johns Grammar School to form a new school called Hamilton Grammar School, which draws its students from its immediate surroundings.Hamilton Academy's last Head of Music, the late Peter Mooney, was conductor of the Glasgow Phoenix Choir (continuing from the iconic Glasgow Orpheus Choir) which choir established in his memory the Peter Mooney Scholarship in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.