Interview with Pam Groenewald – Staff 1998 Pam came to St David’s in 1998 to work as the prep school headmaster, Rick Wilson’s PA. She found Rick to be an unbelievably, kind and well organised boss and really enjoyed working for him. He was incredibly ... »
Interview with Pam Groenewald – Staff 1998 Pam came to St David’s in 1998 to work as the prep school headmaster, Rick Wilson’s PA. She found Rick to be an unbelievably, kind and well organised boss and really enjoyed working for him. He was incredibly supportive and was amazing when Pam went through her battle with cancer five months after joining the staff. Pam is a very focused, well organised individual who believes in doing everything correctly and has been involved with schools for some time. Her parents were part of the struggle, a strong Methodist family and they often had black ministers and ANC members stay with them which has given her a great insight and empathy with people. This is essential as part of Pam’s job has always been to calm parents down when necessary. She remembers her first day very well and couldn’t believe her office, which was originally the brothers’ toilet and wondered if she would cope. To gain access she had to walk through Rick’s office and on one occasion when he had a number of visitors and she urgently needed to get out of her office, Cheryl helped her squeeze though a tiny window in order not to disturb Rick. Pam got on very well with Rick, Cheryl King and Robbie Orr, they all had a good sense of humour and to this day Rick will still mischievously hide the mouse to Pam’s PC. Pam did all the admissions to the prep school which was a heavy load but she coped. Unfortunately Pam needed to earn more money and left after 5 years only to return again after 3 months in 2003 to work as PA for Malcolm Williams, the headmaster of the high school. Pam coped well with Malcolm and his flamboyant style of leadership and found him to be a very private person. She found him to be highly intelligent with a very good brain and good heart and has a lot of respect for him. Pam’s children have also been associated with St David’s, Craig has been involved as swimming coach for the past 15 years and Cathy worked in the pre-primary for 10 years until last year. JE September 2003
