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Willem
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, the Marist Brothers who are present here, Mr
Greeff, Mr Wilson, Mr Williams, members of the board and PTA, staff, Vaughan and
Matthew (Willem’s sons and other family members) and all the friends of Willem J van
der Merwe. In Marist school culture there is a Marist style based on presence,
simplicity, family spirit, love of work and Mary’s way. Willem’s love for the Marist
Brothers is evident with their presence here and he really appreciates you coming to
share this occasion with him. Willem was born in Cape Town and went to school at
Northlea in Rhodesia and he is the only South African citizen that I know that has two ID
books with different dates of birth and I leave it up to your imagination as to what he
uses them for.
How do you summarise a lifetime? Well, it will take a while so I suggest you make
yourselves comfortable and pay attention.
Willem arrived at St David’s 32 years ago and I still recall my first meeting with him
when Brother Anthony introduced me to a Texan smoking, ex-Zimbabwean soldier,
cement factory builder, farmer, handyman, steel worker, grass grower, builder, plumber,
welder and fixer of anything but unfortunately Willem couldn’t swim. Willem and I took
swimming lessons at the Eskom swimming pool and I had to pretend that I couldn’t
swim so as not to embarrass him as he was training for Iron Man.
When Willem first arrived at St David’s it was very simple, there was no tractor, there
was no bakkie, no tools and there was definitely no golf cart. There were no fences
around St David’s and keeping people off the property was a huge nightmare. Pupils on
motor bikes were the worst especially when they chose to ride on the cricket pitches.
One such person, who shall remain nameless proceeded to do a victory lap down
Rivonia Rd after destroying one of the pitches and with the help of Brother Aidan’s X-ray
vision, we got his number plate and the rest was history.
Years ago the school still owned the four bottom rugby fields and additional oval that
bordered on Rivonia Road and on one of our excursions down there to see what was
happening, we found a shebeen buried in the ground. On one cold morning we had to
remove a dead body. This person had obviously succumbed to the cold weather. The
police were called and order was restored.
One weekend, on a trip to the Rugani farm, we brought the old tractor back to St
David’s where Willem fixed up Rugani 1 and that is the red tractor that you still see
driving around the school nowadays.
I see Louis, Willem’s brother, John Williamson and Alex Chemaly and a few other
friends here who attended a bachelor party at John’s grandmother’s house where we
needed to bring in a full cleaning company to restore the house to it’s former glory, after
the party. I still think Louis and Willem are traumatised by that event as they had just
arrived from calm Zimbabwe.
We all remember Willem’s big foot Ford bakkie that was used for pulling the
lawnmower, carrying building supplies from the hardware, and giving kid’s rides on their
birthday parties. Willem loved custom made vehicles and fast bikes. Every three
months the latest, fastest motor bike was heard driving out of his house on Sunday
mornings to the breakfast run.
My first recollection of Willem’s sporting ability was when we were sitting in Willem’s
lounge in January 1980 and we were watching television and Willem said how great it
would be to run the Comrades marathon that was advertised on TV. My immediate
comment was to tell him that the first thing he needed to do was to stop smoking. He
then picked up the last pack of Texan Plain and threw it in the rubbish bin and the next
10 Comrades were history.
Willem has toured the world and been to places that we would only dream of. After
returning one holiday from a trip to Tokyo and having arrived at home at 2 in the
morning, he was rudely awakened by Tom McFadden and I as we had not yet qualified
for Comrades and had to run the Benoni Marathon that morning to qualify.
Willem’s claim to fame after Comrades races was that he was always dehydrated and
had to be taken every year to hospital to have drips put into him to rehydrate him. Two
incidents that really stand out were on one of our Comrades races, at 62km, I was going
to stop with ITB. Needless to say, on sitting down on the pavement, I received a quick
smack on the side of the head and was told to get my A into G and reminded that this
was my fault and he would be dragging me all the way to Durban.
Another incident I recall was on a flight to Two Oceans with George Ndlovu, Willem’s 2
IC on the support staff. There was a bomb scare over Bloemfontein. The plane
dropped out of the sky, the chutes came out, and Willem and George had to run from
the runway to the airport. He did have quite a job to get George back into the plane to
get down to Cape Town as George had never flown before.
I’m sure Willem remembers these trips to Cape Town where we used to sleep in the
sick bay at St Joseph’s and our long chats with Bro. Benedict and Brother Lawrence in
the evenings.
Willem has, apart from Comrades, Two Oceans and Iron Man also completed numerous
94.7 and Argus Cycle races, Fish Canoe Marathons and over 20 Duzi’s. I will never
forget the day when he asked me to second him on one of his Iron Man escapades.
Needless to say that, I was more broken than he was at the end of the event.
One night when Willem and I were on a training run down Fricker Rd. All the cars were
parked on the pavement for the cricket test at the Wanderers. On running past one of
the cars, we noticed someone lying on the front seat. We decided to turn back and see
what was happening. Someone was trying to steal a radio out of the car so we decided
to play policeman and immediately hauled the chap out of the car. We managed to get
some wire and tie him up to the door until the police arrived to take him away.
When Willem arrived at St David’s, his first workshop was part of the old stables which
also doubled up as a shebeen for Osborne, next to what today is the Astro. His love of
work was pushed to the limit as the area adjacent to his workshop, the present car park,
was a huge hole where parents would drop and fetch their kids. Willem went about
filling the hole turning it into a prep school playground with grass and irrigation. It took
over 200 loads of sand to level that area.
In his first few years at St David’s, Willem’s love for family was demonstrated by
extending his involvement in school activities. Willem used to help coach rugby and
accompanied tours especially our trips down to East London where he had a fine
reputation of dancing all night in the Numbers Discotheque. He then started the canoe
club which went from strength to strength and a number of boys that he coached have
represented the country and our boys have done exceptionally well in SA championship
races particularly our prep team who, for the last three years have won the South
African prep school championship sprint awards.
If it wasn’t for Willem, I would probably not still be at St David’s, so you can blame him
for me still being here. He built my house on the property from scratch and he also built
the swimming pool roof with help and prayers from Father Brewer that makes our pool
the best school pool in South Africa. Not many of you know that Willem laid out the
piping for the clinic in Slough that Brother Anthony was building. He assembled it on
the service road and then took it apart and took it to Slough to fit into the new clinic.
Our prep pavilion was also one of Willem’s building projects. When Mr Royce, Willem
and I decided to build this we had no permission from the brothers or school to build this
facility. We had trucks delivering in the middle of the night and laid the roof between 2
and 4 in the morning so when Brother Timothy saw this building going up, he
immediately challenged us and some very smooth talking took place to allow us to
complete this building. Willem also revamped his present house which was the old
brothers quarters and sick bay and was also our fourth pub on the property on our pub
crawls. At this point the usual procedure was to drink out of the ladies shoes before
heading off to the next house. No more will be said about these escapades.
The Roxy Rhythm Bar in Melville with Brother Vincent as our handbrake often turned
into very late nights and very quiet Friday mornings.
I remember having tickets for the Michael Jackson concert and the only one I could
force to come with me was Willem. What are friends for? Willem also went to see ZZ
Top but didn’t like them too much! He was jealous of their beards.
Willem loves animals and Socks and Megan were always part of the school and
everyone on campus knew who their boss was.
At the end of each term, we always used to have fantastic staff parties and on one of
these occasions, at Glenda Anderson’s house, Willem and I managed to put a huge
rock in the passenger side of Carol Ansell’s box Renault. The car immediately tilted to
the left. After the party, we all stood and watched Carol Ansell drive home sideways
without even noticing that her car was at an acute slant and how she got home we still
wonder to this day.
Willem and I used to have great fun on evenings when Mr Paul Davies, the then
headmaster, when he would entertain and we would sit in The prep school playground
with a six pack and keep switching the lights off in his house periodically. Needless to
say, Willem was called to his office the next morning to get an electrician in to sort out
these power surges.
Our fields, buildings, gardens, swimming pool, cricket pitches hold testament to Willem’s
huge contribution in maintaining our facilities which no other school can match.
We wish Willem good luck, good health and our thanks go with him in the next stage of
his life. We are really going to miss you.
Please charge your glasses as we propose a toast to the super man of St David’s
Marist Inanda.

Interview with Timothy Marsay – 1970
In the November of 1963 Tim moved with his 8 brothers and sisters from Leeds in the UK to South Africa,
as his father had been offered a position with Crossley Carpets as marketing manager.
Tim began his career at St David’s in 1964 aged 10 coming from a Catholic family. The family initially lived
in Fourways on a guest farm before moving to Houghton.
In those days there was an A and B stream and Tim was initially relegated to the B stream moving up to the
A stream in standard 5. It was a complete culture change with a different climate and he had to learn
another type of History and Geography plus another language, Afrikaans. Tim was third in line with six
brothers of whom 5 attended St David’s the younger one going elsewhere. Three of his brothers eventually
matriculated at De La Salle the family was then living in Ferndale.
Br Anthony (Oanges) was the headmaster and Tim remembers struggling to adapt through standard 4 until
standard 5. He participated in soccer and athletics and eventually made some friends which made life
much easier.
His teacher in standard 4 was Mrs Dunsford-White, standard 5, Mrs Kenesovich, a lovely lady but a battleaxe
and Mrs Kempster. Tim’s mother also taught at St David’s for a while. Willy Castle was age 11 in
standard 6, far too young for his class, however he had a strong personality and after his matric in 1968 he
went into the air force and repeated matric in 1970.
In the high school from standard 6 there were two classes for each standard. Tim got very involved with
running formerly a timid child in the prep school he became more confident as he achieved on the sports
field. There was a big race against Marist Observatory and although U13 he ran in the U15 mile and won
the race with his older brother Andrew coming in second. The following Monday, at assembly Br Anthony
announced his achievement which put Tim on the map. He was so successful with his running that he was
prevented from playing rugby in case he was injured. In standard 7 at an athletics meet at Jeppe wearing
borrowed spikes he was observed by a Springbok runner who advised him to rather run barefoot than in illfitting
shoes. Tim then started running at club athletics and inter-provincial events. He was bottom of the
league in club running but eventually represented the province from the age of 16 onwards and Southern
Transvaal in cross country.
He ran for Diggers an Afrikaans speaking club. This improved his Afrikaans but not quite in the way that his
teacher Mr Malan would have liked. He was called out and asked if he was mixing with Afrikaans boys and
it was pointed out to him that certain words were not quite the adjectives to be used in polite conversation!
In 1970 Tim broke the record for the 800m at 2 mins 02.3 secs and the 1500m at 4 mins 17.3 secs. These
records still stand today.
Tim didn’t enjoy cadets and used the excuse of his athletics training to get out of it.
Tim remembered that when he was in standard 6 in 1966 the boys were each given a medal by some
military persona to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Republic of South Africa. He also recalled President
Verwoed being stabbed that year.
In standard 8 a new young priest, Father Tony Bailey came to the Rosebank parish and decided to make a
facility available to the boys from St David’s and the girls from Rosebank Convent. A disco room with a
coffee bar was built as a venue. This was fantastic for the parents as well as the young people who were
dropped off on a Friday night at 6pm and collected at 10.30pm. They were in a safe and supervised
environment and many marriages subsequently followed as a result.
Academically Tim did well and achieved a first class matric he wasn’t a prefect but was vice-house captain
of The Bishops and captain of the athletics team. He was awarded an honours blazer for athletics and
studies, received scrolls for merit, studies and athletics, was a member of the senior Christian life group
and in standard 9 received a prize for Latin.
After matriculating, Tim went into the air force for a year and then went onto RAU where he received a
bursary for his first year. In his second year he was awarded a sports bursary, the first ever. He studied for
a BComm Industrial Psychology but joined his father as a holiday job and is still working for the same
company W Marsay & Sons now known as Marsay Equipment. Tim got on well with his father and enjoyed
working with him.
Tim has two sons, Michael who matriculated at St David’s in 1999 and Chris in 2003. When his son Chris
was in grade 11 and fund raising for the matric dance, Tim participated in an evening when the fathers got
together and put on a show performing stage acts including excerpts from Swan Lake, The Full Monty and
the Rocky Horror Show. They sold tables and made R70 000 in one evening. Everyone involved thoroughly
enjoyed the event and Tim recalls being thrown out of Swan Lake as he couldn’t learn the routine.
Tim is a member of MOBS and is still involved with the school.
JLE March 2014

Interview with Teresa Voorendyk - Staff – 1997 to date
Teresa joined the staff of St David’s in 1997 together with Dave Smith and Stuart Foulds. She was
appointed as librarian and English teacher by Paul Edey, the same position she had with her former
employer KES. She recalled being interviewed by Paul Edey, Gary Norton and the head of English, Richard
Girdwood.
In her first year she taught two English classes and MUG (media user guidance) to the grade 8’s and 9’s.
Teresa shared the library facility together with the prep school librarian, Mary Clover. With the different
teaching hours and timetables, the conditions were not ideal however she enjoyed the freedom to buy
books and encouraged her library monitors to select books within an allocated budget she set them.
Teresa eventually moved into teaching English full-time and was peripatetic for a few years until she
inherited her present classroom from Liz Sheratt.
Teresa has filled a number of roles in her time with the school being, head of English, housemistress of
Benedict, mentor to the matric group and now being head of Life Orientation, she has enthusiastically run
the long distance running activity at the school and also takes the boys on corporate relays and other runs
outside of school.
She has seen people come and go with many changes some good some not so good. She has so many
memories of events, individuals, matric groups, and the long distance runners and now some of the pupils
she taught are colleagues such as Matthew Schneider, Richard Carey and Kyle Biller. She recalls the
matric group of 2005 as being very special, they were an odd ball bunch of characters but she had a close
bond with them. She still sees some of “her” runners, many of whom have continued to compete after
leaving school.
Teresa has been very happy at St David’s. It has become a very busy school and initially she and other
colleagues were able to attend all the events and functions but now there are too many to cope with. In
1997 there were 42 boys in matric which are now 112 and with 610 in the school. Previously there was time
to talk to each other and the boys, now it is not quite the close knit community it used to be. The school is
competent in so many areas and so many things. Teresa knew not only the names of the boys she taught
but of all the boys in the high school, now there are far too many. She realises that St David’s has to move
with the times and has to compete with other schools.
Teresa prides herself on being the only high school teacher who still has a blackboard in her classroom.
This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t use technology and is not IT illiterate but she prefers the old way of
teaching.
For sometime Teresa was responsible for the school’s trophies, taking over from Father Brewer when he
became ill. This has now been taken over by Karina George and Teresa is grateful that she no longer has
to track down and ensure the return of the many trophies, ensuring they were in good condition and
engraved every year in time for prize giving.
Teresa always enjoys seeing the old boys and there are very few of whom she has negative memories.
She helped many of the boys without charge, some appreciated this and others took it for granted.
Of her colleagues she remembers Paul Edey who made people believe in themselves, he was warm and
kind and made her feel special and she valued that she mattered. Although she initially didn’t get on with
him, she ended up teaching grade 10’s with Rod Smith and he was immensely supportive when she was
made housemaster. She regards Willy Castle as very special and she would run through a brick wall for
him. During her bleakest year in 2005, he encouraged her to run the Comrades marathon and she hasn’t
looked back since. He has been her mentor, friend, running partner and has the ability to make people
believe in themselves.
Teresa has changed direction in her career and is happy to remain at St David’s until she retires; she
regards St David’s as her home. St David’s is a special place and the pride and tradition doesn’t just belong
to the men and the boys and old boys. She was greatly affected by the “bus incident” and how it impacted
on the school and finds it difficult to understand the mentality of the matrics and their expectations of how
they want to treat the grade 8’s.
Teresa believes that the school needs staff that understands and relate to what the staff actually do here
and are prepared to contribute. One has to believe in what one is doing and that not every day is going to
be fun.
JLE February 2014

Interview with Rick Wilson – 2013– Farewell speech by Willy Castle
Mr Rick Wilson a summary of 18 years.
I am one of those(probably unusual) people whose favourite part of any function is the speeches.
Normal conversation ceases, times becomes momentarily suspended and people are joined together
to listen, laugh, cry and share in a personal story.
I have 3 goals for this speech
1 Not to cry
2 Make Mr Wilson cry
3 Make sure all of you know how important Mr Rick Wilson’s contribution of 18 years at St David’s
Marist Preparatory School has been.
How do you condense 18 years not easily so sit back and relax because it is going to take a while.
Mr Warwick BruceWilson was born in Zimbabwe......Married to Gerry and has two grown up sons,
Bruce and Andrew. We all know that Mr Wilson is a lover of dogs and now has two dogs, he loves
the Kruger Park and we have some great days in the park together, a brilliant golfer and now a keen
mountain bike fanatic. Oh yes and Pizza and chilli are Mr Wilson’s favourite food, just ask Col Chetio
at Blue Bird shopping centre.
Good evening to all you special guests who have gathered here to celebrate the life of a man who
has had a remarkable influence on all, our lives not to mention 18 years as headmaster of this
wonderful preparatory school which would equate to teaching approximately 1500 new pupils
entering St David’s.
To try and find out what Mr Wilson headmaster does all day we hired the heavies from Gr0 and
asked them what Mr Wilson does all day and here are some of the answers...
“He works on his computer all day and drinks tea”
“He’s ticking work”
“He watches the children on camera”
“He does gymnastics in his office”
Just before leaving my house this evening I phoned Linda who unfortunately cannot be here as she
is in America and said to her “Lin did you ever think in your wildest dreams that I’d be standing
before hundreds of people making a speech” and I could hear a giggle and she said “Wily you don’t
appear in my wildest dreams”
It was on a chilly day in August 1995 when we were busy with our annual inter-house cross country
on the College rugby fields when Mr Edey came down the dreaded First rugby team stairs with a
gentleman in tow wearing a green jacket. We all thought he was going to introduce us to the recent
winner of the Masters in Augusta but no such luck, we were introduced to Mr Rick Wilson our new
headmaster.
My first memory of Rick was on the side of the football flled in East London when he was teaching
and coaching St Stithian’s . Little did he know that he would still go on football tour to East London
for another 21 years and fall among thieves on and off the train. Mr Sinclair or Captain Morgan as he
was known on these trips will remember them as the highlight of the year. What happens on tour
stays on tour.
It is not widely known that on Saturdays Mr Wilson wears red underpants not in case he has a bad
golf game but o support his favourite football team which at the moment the name escapes me. Rick
also, unbeknown to most people won the “Cow and Gate Beautiful Baby Competition”, when he was
months old. I leave it to your imagination whether he looked like the cow or the gate! By the way it
was the girls’ category!
In no time at all we were as staff introduced to SWOT analysis, new strategies and the effective use
of technology in education. During this time we embraced technology, our teaching methods
changed and we came to understand that schools don’t in fact exist for the sake of teaching, but for
the sake of learning.
During this time Rick guided us through this most exciting phase of growth and development. Rick
has assembled a great team of professionals and sees hi srole as one of servant leadership where we
are rigorous, but not ruthless.
Rick’s own claim to technological fame is winning the staff technology award for shredding his tie in
the shredding machine while Mrs Donaldson and Mrs Mackenzie were overcome with emotion.
We all know how important assemblies are to Rick and how without fail, a dog comes into the story
– which reminds me of a story....
One evening after Mass a priest was just about to leave the church, noticed a man with a dog. He
went up to the man and asked him “What are you doing here with a dog?” The man replied “The
dog has come to pray”. “Dogs don’t pray” said the priest. “This one does” said Rick. “I don’t believe
you” said the priest, “It’s absolutely true” said Rick. “OK” said the priest, “Then show me what the
dog can do”. “OK” said Rick and the dog got into the pew, knelt down, took a Missal from under his
collar and started praying. The priest shocked listened for a full 15 minutes, speechless and so
impressed with the dog and the quality of the prayer. When he regained composure the priest said
to Rick “I have never seen anything like it; do you think your dog would consider joining the
seminary?” Rick, throwing his hands up in disgust said “You talk to him, he wants to be a doctor”.
We all know Mr Wilson is a prankster of some note – always interfering in equipment and switching
off sound systems and hiding diaries, keys and anything just to stir with someone.
He has however been caught out himself. A few weeks after Rick and Gerry had moved onto the
school property, Linda and I were walking past Rick’s driveway next to the back of the Music room.
They had just come back to the house because they had left something behind and needed to get it.
Their car was parked outside the gate with the keys in the ignition – what an opportunity! I climbed
into the car and drove it around the front of the now Music room. We waited until Rick came out of
the house and then it started: “Gerry the car is gone! I told you we are now living in Gauteng!! Beep,
beep, beep!” Rick ran up to the gate to speak to the guard to see if he had seen his car drive out. The
guard looked at Rick as if he were on drugs. By this time we could not be quiet and Rick heard us
laughing and discovered his car parked own by the tennis courts.
On another occasion Rick had just lit his Weber braai and put the meat on when I happened to pass
the gate. I saw that it was unattended and nipped in and wheeled his braai out to the road and
waited for him to go crazy when he came out to turn the meat.
When my Combi was stolen during Mass at Rosebank one Sunday, I walked back from church
straight to Rick’s house and said to him “Okay where’s my Combi?” I am still looking for it.
Gerry you took the pranks in your stride and also gave us Rick whenever we needed him at school
functions. We thank you for giving up your family time and sharing the many school occasions with
Rick and supporting all the different activities including feeding the geese, ducks and birds. We
would like you to accept this small token of appreciation from all of us.
We would also like to thank Rick’s school wife , tea girl, file finder, and someone who helped us on
many occasions into getting off campus when we needed to get him away. Mrs Coleen Donaldson,
please come and receive a gift on behalf of Rick and all of us. Good luck, for I believe the headmaster
for next year is quite a difficult pain in the neck!
We all know Rick enjoys a good party, loves his music and is very knowledgeable about different
genre of music. After one of our pub crawls through the property (we used to start at the pavilion
and then go to Mac’s flat, then Fr Brewer’s and a few other houses), on returning home after a pizza
fight at my house, Rick slipped and fell in his house. Gerry called me and off we went to Sandton
Clinic for Rick to have 38 stitches in his head. The next morning when Rick went into a Grade 5 class
one of the boys said “Good morning Sir, you look like a baseball”.
Rick is well known for his assemblies, Grade 7 luncheon speeches are legendary and each year the
boys look forward to him including all of them in his story.
Mr Wilson has given unselfishly of his time to support the boys and parents in all the activities in
which they participate, namely academics, cultural and sporting. Your presence has really been
appreciated by all of us.
On behalf of the pupils, parents and staff, we would like to thank you for your commitment and
dedication to St David’s Marist Inanda.
We all say thank you and wish you a fantastic retirement until you get bored and start the next stage
of your life. Our prayers go with you and Gerry. We are really going to miss you. Thank you.
Please will you all stand and join me in a toast to Rick and Gerry.
Willy Castle 2013