1950 St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook
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1950 St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook
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St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1960
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Record of the school's activities 1960
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1962
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Record of the school's activities 1962
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1965
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Record of the school's activities 1965
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1979
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Record of the school's activities 1979
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1980
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Record of the school's activities 1980
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1982
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Record of the school's activities 1982
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1987
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Record of the school's activities 1987
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1991
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Record of the school's activities 1991
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1995
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Record of the school's activities 1995
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1997
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Record of the school's activities 1997
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2001
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Record of the school's activities 2001
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2002
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Record of the school's activities 2002
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2003
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Record of the school's activities 2003
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2012
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Record of the school's activities 2012
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2014
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Record of the school's activities 2014
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1944
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Record of the school's activities 1944. Originally published as "The Maristonian" then changing name until St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook.
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1945
Parte de St David's Marist Inanda Yearbooks
Record of the school's activities 1945. Originally published as "The Maristonian" then changing name until St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook.
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 1948
Parte de St David's Marist Inanda Yearbooks
Record of the school's activities 1948. Originally published as "The Maristonian" then changing name until St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook.
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2017
Parte de St David's Marist Inanda Yearbooks
Record of the school's activities 2017
St David's Marist Inanda
St David's Marist Inanda Yearbook 2018
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Record of the school's activities 2018
St David's Marist Inanda
A Trip Down Memory Lane - 2020 Rugby Tour
A trip down memory Lane by: Gus Garcia – Old Boys St David’s
It is 2020 and I’m feeling totally nostalgic to reflect back on my years at St David’s, which ended 31 years ago, but whose memories remain as vivid as though they were only yesterday. Perhaps this is because my son Kiko is in his Matric year and I have been fortunate enough to relive a second school experience through his journey at St David’s. I have been frequently struck by the similarities of the school, then and now, in terms of the fundamental ethos and values, which have not deviated nor been altered in any way. St Davids has steadfastly refused to change its core character in a fast changing environment and results orientated world. The School has suffered and faced many challenges over the years, only to re-emerge stronger, brighter and wiser for having withstood these headwinds.The Marist Brothers ethos of family, community, simplicity, humility and reflection through prayer and mass, are ubiquitous in all aspects of school life. Whilst these values are not always apparent in ones early years, these essential truths reveal themselves as one progresses in age and consciousness. How amazing was it to discover that my son was being taught by 4 teachers who taught me. How satisfying to watch the accepting demeanour of our boys, truly representing our cosmopolitan nation, roaming the school and the playground.Walking the corridors after so many years brought in a rush of memories both good and bad. The laughs, the tears and the shared hopes and fears of my fellow brothers. Some have passed on, others are in far away lands and yet others remain close at hand, but all are remembered and loved. St Davids was never considered a top sporting school and yet every age group punched well above their weight in all categories. In fact being the perennial underdog resulted in a tighter knit group and forged friendships and brotherhoods for life. Representing the St David’s first team for rugby was a cherished moment for me and one I could share joyfully with my son when he was asked to join the touring team in 2020. It has been 18 years of wonder and joy watching you develop into a wonderful young man. I am excited for Kiko and his band of brothers who will embark on a fantastic adventure, irrespective of whether they win, lose or draw, so long as they cherish the endeavour and the journey and most importantly take courage to be men of virtue and value.
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with John Peel – 1970
John joined St David’s in grade 1, 1958 and was a day boy which meant he had more of a
family life and time with his brothers and sisters which he felt was important to him, although, if
he had been a boarder he would have been able to participate in more sport. On his first day he
recalled the smell of lead pencil and erasers shavings and sitting next to his friends Adrienne
Tygh and Antoinne Simaan.
The teachers he remembers are Brothers Anthony (Ounges), Andrew (Drac), Bosco (Boing) and
Br Sean in standard 6. He recalled being caught smoking on rugby tour twice by Drac; being
caught pinching orange juice out of the store room together with Willy Castle; being sent out and
standing in the corridor and hearing the click of “Ounges” fingers and “to my office boy”.
He really enjoyed the sport and was a member of the 1st rugby team, 1st cricket team, tennis
2nds, athletics team, golf and swimming. He entered into every heat to get out of school but
couldn’t swim a stroke. He was selected for the 1971 hockey, SADF; 1990 – 2005 Mpumalanga
Masters Hockey; 1974 Transvaal cricket; 1972 rugby U/20 Transvaal.
The friends he had and with who he is still in contact are Willy Castle, Keith Shaw, Dan Toner,
Phillip Karakashin, Errol Macaulay and Johnny Williams.
He recalls being a prefect and not particularly enjoying catching fellow smokers.
His last day he remembers sitting at the Rosebank Hotel (not in uniform) and having a beer.
On leaving school he went to Wits Technical College and Pretoria Technical College and is
currently employed as an ecologist.
John last visited the school in 2001
2010
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Cynthia Hildyard 1970 - 1985 Staff
Interview with Cynthia Hildyard - Staff 1970 – 1985
Cynthia taught grade 2 while at St D’s. Those were the days of ITA spelling which did not work
well and was later dropped. It was a very different school while boarders were here. Lunches
consisted mainly of roasts and vegetables. Matron Buckley-Jones had her room next to the old
library (now the Music centre).
Brothers she knew whilst she was teaching were Br Anthony the headmaster, Br Bosco (Mario),
Br Aidan, the bursar, a very quiet man, Br Andrew (Dracula), Br Bernard – excellent at
photography and art, Br Ronald who left very quietly, Br Mario a Mexican brother taught Maths
but the boys found it very difficult to understand him.
Old Boys she remembered were Kevin Carter who was with Ken Oostebroek when he was
killed while photographing the riots, Alexis Apostolides who had growth behind the eye and went
to America for treatment, the Slaven brothers Andrew, John and Jeffrey.
Cynthia has two sons who attended St David’s. John matriculated in 1974 and Mark in 1978.
Interview: Monday 11 October 2010 GA
Anderson, Glenda
Interview with Cecil Thokoane 1985
Interview with Cecil Thokoane – 1985
Cecil came to St David’s in June 1982 at the age of 12 into standard 7 and matriculated in 1985
age 16. Cecil was born in Soweto and went to a government school for his primary schooling. In
standard 3 his teacher thought he was too smart and he was promoted to standard 4. Cecil’s
mother wanted him to go to a Catholic school either Holy Cross or St Matthews, run by the
nuns. In May 1982 Sister Michael gave him a letter in which he was awarded a scholarship by
British Petroleum for tuition at St David’s. Fortunately his school colours were the same and he
got the rest of his school uniform from the swop shop. It was quite an experience, not knowing
who, where or what but he was made to feel welcome and at home. Even so it was quite a
transition and, since his mother had taken him to school by tram which stopped at Dunkeld he
had to find his own way home and got lost walking back. Eventually he used to ride in a Combi
with much younger boys to school but as he had to stay later for sport he had to use public
transport to get home. He used to have to get up at 5.00am and spend an hour travelling to
school and when he had sport it would take him even longer to get home.
He remembers meeting Mr Murphy and being mobbed the first lunch hour and given a crash
course in rugby. He went into Osmond house and when he finally settled in was able to excel
academically. He learnt to play rugby, becoming quite a good player making the A team. He
also performed well at athletics and collected a number of accolades including being awarded
the Sandton Mayorial Trophy two years in a row and breaking the record for the 800m.
Cecil was not a member of the swimming team and tells the story of how he nearly drowned
earning the wrath of Willy Castle. He had been at the school a couple of months, it was the
beginning of the summer/spring season and PT shifted to the swimming pool where the boys
were going to play water-polo. Being just 12 he thought he could just swim and got into the pool
at the deep end and promptly proceeded to sink. Fortunately one of his class mates, Steve the
American, spotted him and rescued him. By lunch time the whole school knew that he had
nearly drowned and he only started taking lessons two years ago in 2009 overcoming his fear.
Cecil enjoyed playing rugby and gradually improved becoming quite a good kicker. His first
rugby game was quite funny as he had literally been given a week’s classroom tutorial about the
game. He went in as a sub and when he first saw this mean faced, spitting, fuming guy from
Parktown Boys barrelling down on him and, even though it was his first game ever, he sensed
that if he were to let him go past he would score and right royally embarrass him. He caught him
with a high tackle, he didn’t score, they were penalised but didn’t lose any points. This was his
debut into 4 years of sweat, pain and fun as well.
He remembered a particular rugby game. It was during an U14 game and St David’s was trailing
9-11. He thought they had lost the game, in front of a full crowd waiting to watch the 1st team
match against Marist Observatory, the match of the season and compulsory. There were literally
a few minutes left to the last whistle and as fullback he was lounging under the poles and then
they were awarded a penalty 10 or so metres into their half. He thought that the front would run
the ball and attempt a try. Next thing he heard his name being called, the team wanted him to
kick for goal and earn 3 points. He told them it was too far and they shouted that he had made
those kind of kicks during practise. So all of a sudden everyone was looking at him, the whole
place was quiet. He went up, made a nice sand mound and started taking his back-step, only
this time he went back at least 20 metres; all the while saying his Hail Marys. He took what felt
like a long slow motion run and kicked that ball with all his might. His kick was dead straight
and, from his vantage point it looked as if the ball had fallen short. Next thing the whole stadium
erupted with jubilation. It took seconds for him to realise that he had scored the penalty from
that distance and had also won the school the game. His moment of glory! The first team went
on to win their match and on monday he had the pleasure of the whole episode being recounted
to the school at assembly.
Another game he remembered was an U14 away game at Parktown Boys, the ref was a 1st year
student from Wits and half the guys were bigger than Cecil. They had been having a bad
season so the game deteriorated pretty quickly and the ref completely lost control with full on
brawls on the field. The game was abandoned and Cecil was in a bit of a fix because he
planned to walk from Parktown Boys into town to catch his bus home. After the fight he was the
only blue and yellow rugby shirt in a sea of black and red. In the spirit of sportsmanship they
chuckled about the fights during the game as he made his way to the gate – the year of living
dangerously.
Most rugby games were a mixture of excitement and fear. There simply weren’t many black
children playing rugby and a lot of times Cecil could see the other team marking him up as he
got off the bus in all cases to try and make his game a misery. However he was lightning fast
and they couldn’t catch him most of the time and his Marist brothers and team mates were
always close by to bring woe unto whoever felt the urge to harm him outside the normal rules of
the game. Unfortunately because the riots were so bad, he stopped playing rugby in Matric and
he didn’t make the 1st team.
The teachers he remembered were Mrs Evans for making him feel welcome when he first
arrived at St David’s. Mrs Evans caused an explosion during a Chemistry class. She was
showing how sodium, he thought, reacted with water. The boys started to urge her to throw in
larger chunks and a large explosion followed which the boys thought was awesome but left Mrs
Evans very red-faced.
Mr Boswell understood where he came from and found a family, the Hoffmeyers for him to stay
with during the Matric exams literally saving his life as the Combi he normally travelled in was
attacked and he would have been targeted. Mr Colia was always cold and hard but made him
want to really prove himself at Maths. Mr Farrel,for enabling him to enjoy History, his only
distinction in Matric and Mrs Elliot for teaching him to love Shakespeare. He shocked her by
getting a first class English pass for Matric, so much so that she wrote him a card expressing
her joy.
Cecil was awarded scrolls for History and Biology. He couldn’t participate in school plays etc
because the travelling was so difficult. He used to get nervous doing orals in front of the class
and remembers talking about his then hobby ballroom dancing which caused some hilarity. On
his last day he wrote Afrikaans and stayed with the Hoffmeyers going home the following
weekend. He was sad to leave St David’s where he had grown up intellectually and as a person.
He had an awesome time and came into an environment where he became good at sport and
was given the opportunity to reach new heights.
After school Cecil went to Wits to study mining engineering which was a disaster as he realised
he was not mechanically inclined. He then went to the University of the Western Cape where he
studied for a BSc majoring in Maths and Physics and his minors were in Computer Science and
Applied Maths with dreams of working as a nuclear physicist. Later he also completed an MBL
through Unisa. Although he was sponsored by BP he was recruited by Engen when his career
in IT began. He also worked for the stock exchange, IBM and a start up company for 3 years
which failed. He then went on to Dimension Data and worked with Jason Goodall, an Old Boy of
the same year, as chief technical officer for Middle and East Africa. Jason is currently the MD of
Dimension Data. Cecil is now running his own company; Galeboe Professional Services which
has grown 300 – 400%.He is a finalist in the Finance Week competition for entrepreneurs.
Cecil is also vice-chairperson of the Unisa Alumni Committee and a non-executive director of
the Unisa School of Business Leadership. He has three daughters Jade 13, Tyler 11 and Eisha
6 all pupils at St Teresa’s where his wife went to school.
He is a member of MOBS and is in touch with a number of old boys such as Jason Goodall,
Branden Aab, Solly Maponya, Walter Cronje, Jeremy Franklin, Eugene Taylor, Paul Johnston
and Rees Carr.
JLE June 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Clare Hedding 1996 - 2014 Staff
Interview with Clare Hedding Staff – 1996
Clare started teaching at St David’s in the middle of the first term in 1996 when she took over
Glenda Burn’s class whilst she travelled to New Zealand.
Apart from the usual curriculum, Clare also taught Religious Instruction throughout the term
which was new as no-one had been teaching the subject at the time. After being at the school
for only two weeks, and having been approached by parents who were unhappy about their
children not being taught RI, Clare attended an executive meeting and presented her point of
view.
The following term, Rick Wilson phoned her as Yvonne Sandie the grade 4 teacher had had a
stroke following an attack on her son. Clare ended up teaching until the end of that year but, as
her children were still quite small she normally preferred to do relief teaching.
Mitzi Claasen, together with Sandra Tarlie, was the remedial teachers and Mitzi asked if Clare
would join the remedial team teaching remedial Maths. She remembers teaching in what is now
Magda Ceruti’s office for 4 years, mornings only.
During this time she had thought that maybe her son James could attend the school but was
rebuffed rather rudely by the then prep headmaster’s secretary.
Willy Castle then approached her and asked if she could supervise the retreats for each class,
holding them in the brother’s chapel. Then Marilyn Middlewick the Music teacher resigned, she
also taught Religion to grade 7 and Clare was asked if she would cover that too. Shortly
afterwards Father Brewer was diagnosed with cancer and struggled to say Mass. Clare then
assisted him in distributing the communion. Father Brewer subsequently retired in 1998 and
died in June1999.
Once again Rick Wilson called her in and asked if she would consider becoming the RE coordinator
when, at the time she was not even a member of staff! Darryl Webb joined St David’s
and, together with Glenda Anderson wanted to start a bridging class. Clare then started a grade
3 and 4 bridging class and went to have a look at the way the Ridge school organised theirs.
The classes began in 2002 and two years later reverted to grade 2 and 3. Clare was also
teaching RE to grade 7 and was running the chapel. Cindy Cronje eventually joined the staff,
teaching the grade 2 bridging class followed by Helen Mills.
In 2004 Clare had a break from St David’s and went to Grahamstown to support her son whilst
he was studying for Matric. She returned to St David’s again the following year and retired at the
end of 2011, her position being taken by Libby Hill. However Clare was not allowed to languish
long as a retiree and Rick called her the following year, 2012 and asked if she could possibly
teach Afrikaans to the grade 4 and 6 classes. She found this hard in the beginning but now
loves every minute of it.
The amazing thing about Clare’s career at St David’s is that she didn’t actually ever apply for
any post but was always asked to step into the breach and she felt that God just wanted her to
be there.
Clare had strong links with St David’s as a child. Her brother John was a pupil at CBC in
Kimberly 1949 -50 but was expelled and eventually became a boarder at St David’s as transport
was a problem. Clare remembers the dormitories as being huge with so many beds in them.
She also remembers an occasion when she was very young and she came to the school, John
took her to his classroom holding her hand. The brother asked her some questions and then
proceeded to pick her up and placed her on a desk, she then recited “Mary had a little lamb”,
the boys all cheered, which pleased her no end.
John was a very good sportsman, superb runner and top of his league for many years. In his
Matric year, 1954 he played the role of the admiral in the “Pirates of Penzance” and was
awarded the victor ludorum. John was very much a people person and became a prefect. His
nickname was “Doc” after his surname Livingstone.
The bell in the Chapel of Mary is there because of John. The nuns of the Carmelite Convent in
Wynberg gave him their chapel bell when the convent closed down.
Clare’s younger brother Brian, matriculated at St David’s in 1959 beginning his career there in
standard 2. In 1954 their parents went overseas for 3 months; Brian became a boarder and so
enjoyed the experience that he stayed on. Brian had a friend Derry Moore of an Irish catholic
family and Clare was introduced to Derry’s sister Coleen which was the beginning of a firm
friendship which continued until Coleen became a nun with her brother Derry taking up the
Marist Brotherhood. Derry did his training in Melbourne, Australia and taught at St Charles for
many years.
Clare’s mother was very involved with the ladies committee and organised fetes as a fund
raiser. She also supervised the matric dance and the catering. Clare remembers accompanying
her mother during school holidays and recalls that Piet the cook gave her biscuits. Her mother
was a keen gardener and used to take slips for Brother Pius and helped him to build the rockery
by reception. Clare’s father retired in his 50’s and used to “consult” with Brother Edwin regarding
maintenance and building for St David’s.
When the school needed some stalls for a fete, Clare’s father built them on the back lawn at
home and the school uses the same design to this day. Clare’s mother ran the handicraft and
needlework stall and made fairy dolls.
JE August 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Brian Kirschman 1958
Interview with Brian Kirchmann – 1958
Brian was enrolled as a pupil at St David’s in standard 3 in 1950. Both he and his brother had
attended Craighall Primary and when his brother was due to go into the high school at St
David’s it was decided that Brian should go too. Both of them were day boys and Brian
remembers the quad and playing soccer there at break. He had played rugby at Craighall and
had to learn to play soccer on arrival at St David’s.
He recalls his mother used to pack extra sandwiches or tuck for the boarders.
His best year in primary school was standard 4 with Mrs Kempster, he got straight A’s. She was
very strict but a very good teacher and had good and bad dress days. She was followed by Mr
Bishop who was not as strong and the boys used to take advantage as he was not strict
enough. Brian’s marks went down to B’s from standard 6.
There were never more than 20 – 27 in a class and there was one class per standard. It was
tough playing rugby against bigger schools such as KES. The academic side of school took
second place to sport which Brian loved. He played cricket, rugby and participated in swimming
and athletics but not in tennis.
He enjoyed the brothers, they were committed and open to talk to the boys at any time. In
standard 8 he wanted to convert to Catholicism and then go into the brotherhood. Br Ralph
talked to him and told him to think carefully about this, he said that Catholicism was a hard and
strict discipline and to become a brother meant one had to be married to the brotherhood and to
the Catholic church. Br Ralph could see the kind of person Brian would become and Brian later
realized that Br Ralph was right.
Brian remembered Br Edwin (Jack) walked with a stoop following a back injury after a rugby
accident, other brothers were Br Gerald, Br Bonaventure and Br Anthony. They were good
guys, strict but fair and the younger brothers, who weren’t much older than the boys they taught,
used to coach rugby.
He recalled an incident when Br Edwin had previously warned the boys not to play near the
parked cars, a ball rolled under a car and Brian went to get it out from under it, the next moment
he saw a large pair of black shoes and heard Br Edwin telling him to come to his office. He got
six of the best for that However, he felt that the strictness and discipline was good and feels
sorry that his grandchildren no longer experience that kind of discipline. He feels that children
should be given boundaries.
Another time Br Bonaventure had a Science class and some of the boys had concocted an evil
smelling potion in a phial and had broken it filling the classroom with the disgusting smell. Br
Bonaventure calmly told them to close the windows, gave them work to do and went outside
and watched them suffer. The instigators had to run the gauntlet afterwards during break.
During their matric year Br Edwin insisted that the boys still play rugby and cricket after school.
He felt they should have an hour’s sport and then they could continue working, he made them
make time.
In standard 9 Brian went overseas to a scout jamboree during July, August and September
travelling there and back on the “Sterling Castle”. On his return he just managed to scrape
through the exams and because of this didn’t get a very good matric and he rewrote the
following year at Damelin.
His parents had said they would either pay for the overseas trip or for university so he didn’t go
to varsity but underwent a marketing course at the Institute of Marketing Management. He didn’t
regret the experience he had had touring the UK and France with other like minded boys but,
with hindsight he should have repeated standard 9. Overall he really enjoyed his time at St
David’s but his son wanted to go to St Stithians as he had been at Craighall primary and many
of his pals were going there. St David’s was going through a bad patch at the time which also
influenced the decision.
Work wise he started off with an auctioneering and property company with Richard Currie, he
then went on into the plastics industry becoming sales director for Omega Plastics. He was then
head-hunted by Brian Pffaf, joined Southern Sun and was their national sales manager from
1978-83. All the travelling and time away from home created a strain on his married life so he
left and joined a steel furniture manufacturing company for about 7 years. For the latter part of
his working life he was the CEO for Sapoa (South African Property Owners Association) dealing
with commercial property development for 16 years and retired in 2005. Whilst he was with
Sapoa he was responsible for setting up an education programme for the property industry.
Brian and his wife Gail are committed Christians, members of the Bryanston Methodist Church
and do some marriage counselling.
Other contemporaries: Frank Mills – member Parkview Golf Club; John Rushton living in
Pietermaritzburg.
JLE April 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Greg Royce 1989 - 1995 Staff
Greg Royce 1989 to 1995 Greg was deputy head at St Martin’s until March 1989 before being appointed as
prep headmaster at St David’s. He and his wife Pam were very touched as staff held a welcome lunch at the
tennis courts.
Greg stated that the school was running well despite the lack of a headmaster for so many years. The only
problem he found was that each person was doing their own thing instead of sharing ideas with each other.
His first task was to formalise things and found that he got on well with the staff and that they accepted him.
He always got on very well with Willy Castle and, on one particular occasion Willy wanted a meeting with Greg.
A date and time was duly arranged but Willy didn’t pitch, Greg found out later that Willy and Carol Ansell were
having lunch together and that Willy had forgotten about the meeting!
Greg worked well with his deputy, David Spence. David had a flair for implementing Greg’s many ideas and
worked hard to implement the thinking skills and helped arrange for Dr Edward de Bono to visit St David’s.
Under Greg’s guidance St David’s became the first school to introduce Kumon in South Africa. The nursery
schools were also asked not to concentrate on table top activities but rather to concentrate on gross and fine
motor activities. Greg was also instrumental in introducing remedial therapy, occupational therapy and speech
therapy into the school. He also encouraged the reintroduction of music into the curriculum. Working with Paul
Davies proved difficult at times due to Paul being very dogmatic but on the whole they worked well together.
Paul introduced the house system and he brought more formality to proceedings. Greg felt that the prep
should be represented on the board and wrote a letter requesting prep representation. This was a slow
process and took about 2 years before Greg was allowed to attend and address prep issues.
Greg always found the parents warm and supportive but unfortunately they always compared St David’s to St
John’s or St Stithian’s. The one thing the parents didn’t take into account was that the fees were substantially
lower than these other schools so the school didn’t have the funds and thus it was difficult to compete with
them. The prep pavilion was built during Greg’s stay at St David’s. Greg had budgeted for a double garage to
be built to house equipment but once the parents saw the building in progress, they willing gave money and so
the whole project expanded and a concrete slab was laid to provide for a first floor. The school expanded into
3 streams per grade, which made St David’s more competitive and also provided more capital for projects.
As regards the board, Greg felt that Terrence Wilkinson was an excellent chairman. He brought
professionalism into the board and the school started to flourish under his guidance. The PTA also played a
huge part in school life. One major project was when they erected the roof over the stands surrounding the
pool under the chairmanship of Mike O’Shea. Greg decided to leave St David’s in March 1995 because he
was offered a very good package from St Peter’s and with a growing family this was important as was the fact
that Greg was an anglican and of course St David’s was a catholic school.
Greg has fond memories of St David’s as their third child, Liam, was born while Greg was headmaster here.
Liam enjoyed the life at school and a familiar sight was Liam being pushed around the campus in his pram.
Greg loved his time at St David’s where he worked hard and played hard! He started the potjiekos competition
which still takes place, as well as the staff christmas ‘thank you’ party. Greg enjoyed his wine but also loved
the bush and nature. He encouraged the school to plant indigenous trees and also took groups of boys on
camps into the bush. Greg loved animals and encouraged the staff to look after the birds and animals in the
birdcage in the prep playground. The guinea fowl on the property had chicks but one got isolated and was
struggling to survive so Greg put it in the birdcage for protection because he felt it would not survive outside.
He, unfortunately, had to release the bird due to huge pressure, but as suspected, the bird was killed on the
first day that it was released!
In closing Greg stated that he enjoyed his time at St David’s and has fond memories. He also enjoyed working
with the Brothers and meeting the other Marist Heads. January 2011
Anderson, Glenda
Interview with Bonny Pooley - Parent 1996-2005
Interview with Bonny Pooley 1996 – 2005
Bonny first became involved with St David’s when her son Gilbert started high school in grade 8
in 1996, and she continued to be so for about ten years even after Gilbert had left.
Bonny assisted in reviving MOBS and established the first contact lists. She was very involved
with the MOBs aspect of the PTA golf day and organised the MOBS annual dinner for two
years.
She also played a big role in the teaching of Religious Education in the high school and helped
Rev Bruce until he left and took over in the interim until Br Mario joined the staff. Whilst Gilbert
was still at the school, she also assisted with the teaching of RE in the prep school for at least
one term.
Bonny also worked for four years with the boys towards their confirmation. Bonny organised the
boys’ retreat hiring a bus to take them to their destination in the Hartbeespoort dam area
together with Father Michael and another teacher. Working together with Chris Busschau she
was responsible for the fact that St David’s ran the programme for the Catholic schools in the
area.
Bonny recalled a special Mass when Father Paul Saggie, a young priest celebrated the Mass in
the middle of Champagnat hall. This had a tremendous impact on the boys and gave them their
first taste of a modern celebration of Mass. Bonny felt that the time she spent with Father
Saggie was very special.
Belinda Marais assisted with the SMILE programme and with a trip to the Baragwanath
oncology unit.
Bonny was class mother all the time Gilbert was at St David’s and helped with the organisation
of various functions especially the school plays when she was in charge of front of house. In
addition she was very involved with the tuck shop helping Mary von Guilliame. She was on the
ladies committee organising the annual mothers’ luncheon at the Bryanston Country Club and
was in charge of the rosta list. For sporting events such as hockey, Bonny was responsible for
the catering for both home and away matches and the annual dinners.
Bonny’s husband Gil was also active within the school and helped with chess as an extra-mural
together with Martie Andrew.
Bonny felt that Paul Edey brought out the best in her son and in fact all the boys during his time
at St David’s winning their admiration and respect.
Some of her son Gilbert’s contemporaries were Damien Tucker; Michael Rands who is currently
in Japan and has published two books; Brendan Murray and his brother Michael who resides in
Australia; Gareth Reece; Paul Slabolepski; Ashton Hayes, David Dias.
Other families Bonny felt made a mark on the school and should be contacted were:
Marsay family
Wharton-Hood
Kevin Brewer and his son Craig “84
The Busschau family
Chemaly
Flascannaro – Luke’98
Giuricich
Gonsalves’ 2002
Gore Vincent and Kevin one is a member of parliament and disabled – the 90’s
Maraschin family
Mitri – the father organised the firework display for Bonfire Night
Peel – 3 brothers ’66, ’70 and ’78 – John, Kevin and Michael- they were farmers in Mpumalanga
Rugani, Vito – son Ivor’ 76 together with Darko and the older Von Guilleame was responsible fot
the MOBS bursary
Schoombie family – Mark, Paul and Sean
Simaan, Andrew, Antoine and Gaby
JE March 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Geoffrey Sater 1949
Interview with Geoffrey Sater – 1949 23 May 2011
Geoffrey and his wife Sandra are friends of Tony Chappel, former chair of the board of
governors
Geoffrey came to St David’s in 1943 from Saxonwold Primary and went into Std 4. He was a
day boy living near the Zoo opposite the Westwater family. Johnny Westwater was a jockey and
a Catholic and his boys went to St David’s. Geoffrey’s parents decided it would be a good idea
to send their son there too even though they weren’t catholic. They used to catch a bus to
Dunkeld and the school transport (Chevrolet?) picked them up from there. Eventually he used to
cycle via Fricker Road.
Br Urban was the headmaster, Br Celestine taught him Latin and Maths, Br Alban – Afrikaans.
Geoff remembers him getting rather inebriated at the matric dance!
Pupils he remembers:
Malcolm Rowe whose father was principal of the Technical College in Johannesburg., retired to
a farm in Mooi River;Mark Madeyski – reugees from Eastern Europe, his father was a coal
miner and became a mining engineer in SA; Hugh Gearing - his grandfather developed
windmills to draw water. Lived in Northcliff and came to school on a motorbike;
Harry Grisdale – studied medicine and worked at Marianhill Mission station all his life;
Socrates Vartos – Greek whose parents ran a tearoom in Rosebank corner of Tyrwhitt and
Oxford; Terence Smyth (Deceased)– lived in Sunninghill , all fruit farms, they were in contact
with Sally Smyth; Boris Babaya – parents ran a butchery north of Johannesburg station;
Core Seeling – parents had a seedling business. Sandra is in touch with the family.
Stan Barale (Deceased) - was head prefect and rugby captain
The following boys came from Portugese East Africa and used to get the train to Joubert Park
and walk to Koch St. Where they would get transport to the school by Chevrolet. Carlos
Almeida, Louis Da Cruz, Danta de Nobrega
There were some Lebanese boys who were refugees from Lebanon. They didn’t play rugby or
football, were very restrained, had been persecuted. One of them he remembers is Assad.
Parents:
Asher Swede– Bookmaker who donated trophy and equipment
Awards: He was awarded a prefects scroll and was the school Dux.
Sport: He was a in the rugby 1st 1V, swam in swimming galas, played cricket 1st II, although he
didn’t regard himself as being particularly good. The sports fields were being laid out at the time
and boxing with Harry Best as Coach, was popular.
Career:
He studied Mining Geology at Wits where he met his wife. He worked in the then Northern
Rhodesia, where David Livingstone died. He went onto Canada working for the Quebec
Geological Survey having studied French at Wits. Then went onto McGill University where he
did his MSc. Came back to SA and to his future wife and eventually worked for Alcan Aluminium
in Maritzburg. Later he joined the government who sent him to London as the Minerals and
Energy representative for SA. His children, two sons and a daughter spent some time growing
up there and are all now living in the UK
JE May 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Michael Wickins 1994
Interview with Michael Wickins – 1994
Michael began his career at St David’s in grade1, 1983 and recalls how proud he was of his
brown suitcase.
The teachers he remembers are Mr Kotze standard 5, Mrs Marais, Afrikaans, high school and
Mr Girdwood standard 8 -10.
Michael loved the camaraderie, especially on the sports field, the pride in the school and
knowing how fortunate we were to be Marist boys, to be part of that family and culture. One
thing he did not enjoy was being made to swim in his jocks by Mr Castle!
He has good memories and every day was a good laugh at some point but he specifically
remembers the tours and “veld schools” as being particularly amusing. On one particular tour
they were staying at a place called Moholoholo (which due to its appalling conditions they soon
dubbed “Shitoholoholo) which had 5 open air toilets lined up in the bush. One of them had
literally spawned on its own eco-sysytem in the bowl, so one of his classmates lit and threw a
cherry bomb into it. The toilet was blown to smithereens. His abiding memory is of the whole
class lined up to get jacked as a result but it was really worth it!
Michael captained the 2nd XI cricket, with occasional guest appearances in the 1st XI and 1st
team hockey.
Michael remembered the valedictory mass and being made a prefect but probably more than
any other event he remembers his father presenting him with the same honours blazer that he
had worn some thirty years before
On his last day the boys tried, unsuccessfully to throw Mr Girdwood into the pool and he recalls
looking at his classmates and believing beyond any shadow of doubt that they would be friends
forever. He is still in touch with Rakesh Parbhoo and Simon Denny and is a member of MOBS.
After leaving school, Michael gained a BComm and LLB from Wits University and an H.Dip Tax
from RAU.
He is currently principal, investment banking at Nedbank Capital specialising in renewable
energy project finance.
Michael has a stepson Thomas Weeden in grade 5 and his son Luke is enrolled for 2016 and
visits the school on a regular basis.
2010
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Beverly Geldenhuys
Interview - Beverly Geldenhuys – Staff
Bev is the third generation of her family to be linked to St David’s. Her grandmother, Beryl Smith
taught grade 1 at Koch Street, moving to Marion College when Koch Street closed. Bev’s
mother, Rosalyn Quillian, also worked at Marion College as a secretary. Bev started her
teaching career with two years at Marion College before joining the staff of St David’ in 1976.
She later took a break when her children were born but taught an hour a day at R20 per lesson
and came back to teaching full-time in 1984.
She views her time at St David’s as pieces of a jig-saw puzzle of stories. For example bumping
into a past pupil now aged 36, in a shopping centre and being told that Bev’s mantra, when she
taught him in standard 4, was one that he lived by; at the wedding of a past pupil when he broke
their walk up the aisle to introduce his bride to his former teacher, these are all pieces making
up the whole picture and the happiness and fulfilment she has had whilst working at St David’s.
She felt that when one followed the careers of many past pupils and knowing that one has had a
part to play it made it all so worthwhile.
She recalled that when she first joined St David’s, at first break, tea and cakes were served and
at second break, a three course meal which left everyone mellow and chilled and gave them
energy for the remainder of the day. Now she and many other members staff phone out to
Fabianos or Thrupps to get their food preferring freshly made fare to that which the school tuck
shop offers.
She enjoyed working with Paul Edey as headmaster, liked George Manolios and Greg Royce
but did not like Paul Davies. Greg Royce used to call her the R11 note – rare!
She remembers an occasion when she was part-time, substituting for a standard 2 class. The
children were being very naughty and on the second day they asked her why she didn’t throw
the blackboard duster at them as their teacher normally did! Bev had a style of teaching which
often saw her standing on a desk which usually grabbed the attention of all the pupils and
enabled them to remember the concepts being taught. She often thought that they were all
waiting with bated breath to see if she would fall, hence the concentration.
After her recent illness, many of her pupils ran up and hugged her on her return to school and
made her promise never to leave them again. In fact, the mother of one of her young pupils
insisted on being taken to visit her in hospital to make sure that she was still alive.
Both Bev’s sons went to St David’s and have retained friends from their days at school and her
grandson Riley will also follow in his father’s footsteps. Her son Gary didn’t miss one day of
school from grade 0 to matric and was presented with a special award by Paul Edey.
JE August 2011
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Kevin Wallace 1984
Interview with Kevin Wallace - 1984
Kevin was born in the Drakensburg and attended nursery school there. The family moved to
Gauteng in 1975 and he and his brother Gary were enrolled at St David’s and were quickly
absorbed by the heritage of the school and the ethos. Kevin was then in standard 1.
Kevin was a sports fanatic and not really interested in academics. He enjoyed school but thrived
on the sports field. He can remember having great respect for the prefects when he was in the
prep. He also feels that the school produces a good quality human being who will be useful in
society.
As regards staff, Kevin remembers Mr Kotze, Mrs Napier, Ms Joseph and Br Ephrem in the
prep. In the college two teachers he remembers well are Mr Colia and Mrs Elliott. Mr Murphy
he remembers as telling the boys that he was always 100% fair and 200% ruthless! He was the
headmaster who brought back the wearing of the academic gowns. Mr Frielich was not a
dynamic headmaster but Br Anthony was an icon. Other brothers he remembers are Br Bernard
and Br Mario who did an experiment with happy gas after a soccer match which they all
enjoyed.
Nick Prium was head boy in his matric year and he remembers Rhys Carr and Gregory
McLeroth who now owns a restaurant in Johannesburg. Brian Muller and Brett Airey have both
done very well since leaving school. Peter Sapseid is a brilliant teacher in the UK but first taught
in Zimbabwe.
Kevin is married with 2 daughters and lives in Cape Town.
13 October 2010
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Gilbert Pooley 2001
Interview with Gilbert Pooley – 2001
Gilbert came to St David’s in standard 6 and stayed until he wrote his matric in standard 10.
This was the time when Paul Edey was headmaster. Paul had a real presence and influence in
the school and Gilbert was a big fan of his, he was a traditional, charismatic leader and put his
stamp on the school. He built a personal relationship with the boys and still taught History, his
passion was clearly teaching and education and he was an inspiring teacher. He had a way of
making a boy feel as if he were the centre of attention. Both positively and negatively he used
this technique in the classroom turning every lesson it into an engaging performance. The
school was still relatively small in 2001 with a matric group of 75 boys.
During Gilbert’s tenure the school underwent a massive transformation with the new
Champagnat hall, the high school pavilion (before this was built the boys had to change for
sport’s practice on the side of the field) and library.
On his first day he recalls lining up on the basketball courts (currently the amphitheatre) in front
of Paul Edey and head boy, Adriano Iorio, who was wearing his honours blazer, Gilbert was so
struck by Adriano in his techno-coloured formal attire that he was unsure whether Adriano was a
radical, teacher or well awarded pupil But there was no doubt that this young man in his odd
uniform was an adult, and one’s time at St David’s would change one from being the little boy
entering standard 6 (grade 8) into a man.
Gilbert played hockey and cricket and valued the enforced culture of all boys participating,
which was healthy and assisted in the development of many personal relationships.
Gilbert participated in drama performing in one-act plays as well as the school’s annual
productions. He was also very involved in debating, public speaking and chess, as the school
grew it became more competitive in those areas. He really enjoyed the cultural aspect although
it was perceived as a sideline to sport and, nerdy. There was still no high school choir or Music
department. He feels that many of those cultural activities formed him even though today he
works in business; it gave him self-confidence and the ability to present himself in a positive
light. He is very grateful for that and proud that it has developed within the school and believes
that it is a huge differentiator in later life.
The staff who made a special contribution to the cultural aspects of the school during his period
were Mr Foulds, Mrs Cameron and Ms Voorendyck (then Ms Vroom).
Opportunities to meet girls in the school environment rarely presented themselves. One such
opportunity was the first dramatic collaboration with neighbouring girls’ school Brecia House
(“The Boyfriend” in 2000 and “As You Like It” in 2001). This started the trend towards more
accessible and popular school plays, which continues today.
As at many boys’ schools he recalls the desire to meet girls was matched only by rampant
homophobia. The fact that several of his contemporaries later “came out of the closet” once they
had matriculated from St David’s is not missed.
Reverend Bruce, more than most teachers, characterised his time at St David’s, Gilbert was a
member of Bishops and the Rev was appointed his class tutor. Rev had a different philosophy
and approach. Gilbert, as all boys from his era, recalls being scolded by Rev for inappropriate
use of the word “sorry”. He brought a brand of pastoral care which was firm but comical and his
departure from the school to New Zealand was a loss.
Gilbert’s mother Bonny was involved in the tuck shop, hockey and many parent committees and
events. She was close to stalwarts such as matron, Mary Ryan, Mary von Guilleaume and
Father Michael. She taught Religious Education briefly, preparing boys for their confirmation, as
well as helping with MOBS.
There was another not so positive aspect of St David’s life at the time - the influence of a group
of boys in the 2000 matric group. They were seen as a little “Mafia”. They caused plenty of
internal trouble and had an unfortunate effect on the school’s reputation. Their little rule of terror
bred an unhealthy rivalry with other boys’ schools during this period.
Gilbert participated in the co-workers which was run by Rev Bruce and joined in the collections
for the old age home, planted a park in Soweto and was involved in civies days raising money.
This set a trend in Gilbert’s life of getting involved with social development. Whilst he was at
UCT he volunteered for SHAWCO and currently, together with Andrew Levy he runs “Umuzi
Photo Club” a youth development organisation which focuses on using the creative arts to
engage young people and to raise awareness with a goal of effecting positive change in
communities such as Diepsloot, Alexandra and Hillbrow. Umuzi pairs the young people and
media professionals with the aim of creating active compelling media for change. They will be
hosting an exhibition in Braamfontein from 29 March 2012 entitled “I am an Activist” focusing on
three communities and their problems.
Gilbert feels that the war cry reflects the sentiment of Marist Inanda –
Matrics : Kalamazumba
School: WA WA
M: Kalamazumba
S: CHA CHA
M: SEMISAKA WAKA WA
S: SEMISAKA WAKA WA
M: CHA WA
All: M.A.R.I.S.T. MARIST INANDA!
Gilbert left St David’s to study at UCT, and completed 4 years Business Science, he then went
to Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland where he completed his Masters in Economics. He joined the
Boston Consulting Group in London as a management consultant which included working for
some SA clients. He was instrumental in opening a BCG office in Johannesburg in 2011 but he
left BCG in 2011 and is now running his own company offering strategy consulting to clients in
resources (mining, oil and gas).
He sees a positive change in expectations at the school; in his time he felt less pressure to
strive for excellence and in academics, which now appears to be more important. There is more
of a performance culture at the school today.
In 2003 Gilbert had the opportunity while holidaying with his family in Rome. Gilbert had the
opportunity to attend the canonization of Marcellin Champagnat, it gave him a sense of the
international presence of Marist schools. He reflects that there appears to be no opportunities
for greater inter-action between Marist schools in South Africa.
JE February 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Dennis Adams – 1959
With a great start to his school career Dennis missed the first day of school in 1948 as his
mother was mixed up about the dates. His father was a KES old boy but as the family lived
down the road from the school it was an obvious choice. Initially he was taken to school but later
rode his bicycle for most of his school life – up what is now Rivonia Road – the school being
7/10 of a mile away! The family had many friends with children at the school and his mother
served on the ladies committee for most of his school life.
The school had expansive grounds, but was running out of space and Dennis remembers that
the big break for the school was acquiring the neighbouring land from the McGill-Love’s on their
deaths. He recalled McGill-Love driving a rather large and expensive black car, an Armstrong
Sidley (he thinks), which impressed him no end.
Dennis enjoyed the junior school and the teachers included Mrs Brophy, Mrs Stirton and Mrs
Batten, none of whom took any nonsense from the boys in their charge. One, they nicknamed
“turtle dove.” In his opinion Mrs Kempster who was his teacher in standard 4, was the best
teacher, very strict with a pen in one hand and a strap in the other. However, she got the best
results and paved the way for high school for Dennis and many of the boys. The brothers took
over from standard 6. He remembers (could he ever forget!) Br Urban, Br Edwin, Br Benedict,
Br Gerald, Br Anthony who taught Maths and Br Bonaventure who was a fun guy who loved
sport. The best was Brother James who had just arrived after teaching for 20 years in China
and, if any lesson became boring, the boys just had to ask a question on China and the time
flew!
Dennis was mostly involved with swimming and life-saving which was introduced in 1958. He
avoided rugby by becoming a linesman. He remembers many trips in Gertie, the school bus,
which accommodated one team at a time - no seat belts in those days!
Dennis recalled the polio epidemic in the early 1950’s. School continued there was at lot of
pressure about all children being inoculated but a number of children including Dennis and his
siblings were not inoculated.
On the cultural front, he was part of the chorus in “HMS Pinafore” and the “Pirates of
Penzance”.In 1953 he was in the choir that went to Selbourne Hall where they were the first
boys’ school to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” with Mr Drummond-Bell conducting.
Dennis achieved a high academic standard throughout and was first each year until standard 4
when he slipped back a bit. From standard 7 until standard 9, competing with other Marist
schools, he won prizes for Scripture and a few other subjects. In 1958 the matric results had
been very poor, no-one really knew why but it was endemic in many of the private schools.
Because of that, Dennis studied Bookkeeping at home as a 7th subject to clinch the first class
matric which he achieved with a distinction in Maths. The minimum marks required were 1250
for 6 subjects and 1350 for 7. Dennis’s brother and sister didn’t fare too well academically and
were transferred to Damelin to complete their matric.
Dennis became a prefect, captained Osmond and was awarded full colours.
Dennis remembered his matric dance which was held in the boarders’ dining room, the boys
wearing their school blazers and the boys had decorated the room themselves. He had an
arrangement with a girl he swam with and they used to accompany each other to various school
functions. There was a band and punch which he recalls (or probably hoped) was laced. It was
good fun.
Dennis didn’t really expect too much out of school, it was something that one just had to do. The
best thing is that you were all in it together, there were small classes and he was unaware of
any bullying but teasing, yes. The most important thing that he was aware of was that if you
didn’t do it yourself then it didn’t get done. There was no special motivation and one stuck to the
syllabus and text book without any huge incentives, but “we all seemed to do OK in later life”
On leaving St David’s, Dennis went to Rhodes where he studied for a B Com CTA. Afterwards
he completed 9 months in the army and then went on to complete his CA(SA) and was articled
with Whiteley Brothers which is now part of Deloittes. He ended up with Barclays in 1968 then
Nedbank from 1970, initially in their investment bank, Nefic and later in Nedbank Group as chief
accountant and from 1997 he became the financial controller. At retirement he was then
involved with the restructuring of the group’s pension funds and is still a trustee. He, Peter
Loffell and David Hartman (MOBS) all worked for Nedbank and retired on the same day.
Dennis’s grandson is a pupil at Hyde Park High, his granddaughters are at De La Salle and
Parkview Senior. He is in close contact with a number of people he met whilst at Rhodes. He
met his wife, Jenny there. They were in adjacent residences, Botha and Olive Schreiner and his
mother and Jenny’s aunt were good friends. After a six year courtship and 46 years’ of marriage
by 2012.They are still going strong.
Dennis has been actively involved with the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust since 1984. He
gave up History in standard 5 as he found it boring, but eventually woke up to the fact that
having lost 3 parents in 2 years he had missed all the history he could have gleaned from them.
He started joining some tours of the area, which awakened an interest in the history of his part
of Johannesburg. He became a guide and researcher and has published a couple of books on
the subject and is involved with a weekly radio programme, together with Flo Bird on Radio
Today.
JLE 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with George Daras 1980
Interview with George Daras – 1980
George was initially a pupil at Yeoville Boys Primary and came to St David’s in standard 1. His
brother Chris was 4 years ahead of him and a boarder whereas George was a day boarder. At
the time there were a lot of pupils who came from Zaire, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and from
outlying areas of South Africa and, as a result the school was very strong in sport, sadly when
the boarding closed this was no longer true.
Mrs Watson was his first teacher in the primary school and in the high school he remembers
Mrs Elliott the English teacher who was involved in the running of the school and the matrics. In
standard 6 and 7 he had Mr Maritz who taught History, everyone was terrified of him and didn’t
dare talk in his class. Other teachers were too soft and the boys took advantage were very
naughty and used to chase teachers into a corner with their desks. Mrs Richardson was very
attractive and everyone wanted to be in her class. The teachers were generally very good and
the boys learnt a lot, in fact Damelin poached many of the teachers from St David’s. Damelin
had a good reputation and was renowned for getting good marks. Mr Lipschitz who was a
superb Maths teacher eventually went to Damelin, he was so good that even boys who didn’t
like the subject grew to love it and many ended up as engineers. Mr Lipshitz introduced
basketball to the school as he was a former Springbok. There were few Brothers still at the
school, Br Bernard who was still teaching, Br Aidan the bursar and Br Timothy the headmaster.
George recalls that only one boy at the time wanted to become a Brother.
St David’s was the first school to admit black children in 1975, this was previously unheard of.
George enjoyed sport at the school, it was compulsory in the high school but not so rigorously
enforced in the prep. In the winter the sport was rugby and in the summer athletics, swimming
and cricket, there was no hockey or soccer in those days. Tennis was an additional sport as
was water polo. In standard 4 the boys started to play rugby and played for the U13’s as the C
team which also helped them integrate with the high school boys. The coach, Mr Stringer was
an Englishman and very strict and, in their first game against KES, St David’s beat them 42-0.
They were a very strong team but when they went into high school things changed as they
didn’t have the coaching required although Br Timothy felt that sport was very important and
good for the school’s reputation.
George was captain of the 1st rugby team, also the 2nd team and led the first team ever to go on
tour to Durban to compete against St Henrys’ and St Charles and was awarded an honours
blazer for rugby, merit and study. One of the boy’s fathers worked for BP and organised an
outside rugby coach, a former Springbok and the boys benefitted from the different mind-set. He
led the first team in 6 or 7 years to win more than 4 games in one year. He recalls that the
traditional rivalry with Obs was very strong.
St David’s battled against the bigger schools especially in rugby and George, as head boy in his
matric year took up the matter with Br Timothy when he returned from Australia. The boys felt
demoralised as they were always losing to the bigger schools. Mrs Elliott got involved and
wanted to establish a kind of students representative council to improve communication
between the boys and staff. During the first 6 months of 1980, whilst Br Timothy was away,
George found it difficult to control the matrics as he didn’t have Br Timothy’s back-up. Br
Timothy used to walk around with a cane but allowed the matric boys for the first time to remove
their ties in the summer.
Traditionally, if you were in trouble you were invited to the prefects tea where they would decide
on the appropriate discipline for the crime. When George first arrived at St David’s the younger
boys were terrified of the prefects and punches were dished out freely by them.
George’s matric dance was the first year that the standards 9’s prepared the decorating of the
hall and were invited to attend. The theme was of a gangster/mafia type. Movies were run on a
Friday night to raise funds for the dance and were very popular. Parents came to collect the
boys after the movies and, whilst they were waiting to be collected they were often quite rowdy
and disturbed the Brothers sleep.
Academically George did well and throughout his school career came first or second in his
class.
George achieved the matric results he was aiming for and was admitted to Wits University
where he studied engineering and graduated with a masters degree in industrial engineering.
He enjoyed working with his father making radios and stayed in the same environment and now
owns his own factory undertaking contract work in aircraft design.
George is the father of 3 daughters who are pupils at the Saheti school. He has not attended
any MOBS events but was a member of the audience of the prep school play covering the
history of St David’s in 2011. His brother Chris’s two sons are pupils at St David’s.
Geoorge remembers that there were a number of big families with children at St David’s, the
Lebos, Kourie and Saad families and contemporaries such as Costa Pantelias now living in
Greece, Mark Nicholas, Robert Hartman of Hartman and Keppler; Garth Japhet who went into
medicine and now heads an NGO in Gauteng; Brian Muller a doctor in Jhb; Enrico Maraschin a
gynaecologist at Morningside Clinic; Peter Wharton-Hood, a director of Standard Bank and a
number of other SA companies and Jeffrey Slavin.
George would definitely buy a copy of the book when it is published and would be willing to
make a pledge towards the cost. He also felt it would be fantastic to have the yearbooks
available on the school’s website.
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Gavin Muller 1987
Interview with Gavin Muller – 1987
Gavin, Billy Forsmann, Jan van den Handel and Jeremy Carr were together in the first grade 0
class. Gavin remembers that on his first day he was very traumatised and cried, wanting to
escape but by the second day he had accepted school as the way it had to be. His classroom
was where the original swimming pool was and where the current after care is now located.
Miss Busschau was his teacher and a relative of his mother who was also a Busschau.
Gavin enjoyed the sport in junior school playing soccer, he was a member of the swimming
team and couldn’t wait to start playing rugby in standard 5.
Academically he was very much middle of the road and the classes were defined by marks but
fortunately for him he made it into the bottom tier of the clever class. He remembered the
pressure and fear every exam time and not wanting to fail and be relegated to the B class. On
the cultural front, Gavin was a member of the cast in the production of Hamlet.
There were only about 300 boys in the school at the time and Mr Manolius was head of the
junior school and Brothers Bernhard and Timothy (who left the brotherhood and married a nun)
were still at the school. A teacher who had a great impact on him was Tim Kotze who taught
English and Afrikaans, he had a particularly high standard with regard to spelling and if you got
less than 15 out of 20 you were caned. Gavin spells well to this day! In standard 6 Mrs
Bulterman was the French teacher, very attractive, quite gorgeous in fact and, before she came
to the school none of the boys chose French. Needless to say that situation changed and whilst
she was there all the boys signed up for French! Cedric Finlayson was a brutal, most violent
man who taught History and Physical Education and was the rugby coach. Gavin was physically
beaten up by him on more than one occasion but he still didn’t mind him that much. Gavin
enjoyed Trudy Elliott, English teacher and recalled that Tom Macfaden taught the wrong History
syllabus in matric and when this was discovered, all the boys had to cram for the last 3 to 4
weeks. There was no control over the teachers, they did what they wanted to and there was no
leadership.
The teaching of Religious Education was split into Catholics and non-Catholics about 50/50.
There was a class every day, mass was held once a week and confessions regularly. The boys
used to make up confessions to check that Father Plestus was still awake. A big scandal at the
time was the non-catholic boys RE retreat to Hartbeespoort was a disaster when the boys
absconded and many were caught with alcohol.
Gavin played 1st team rugby, was captain of the swimming team and played water polo and is
still friends with his team members to this day. The best thing Gavin took from high school was
the camaraderie amongst the boys. They often used to play both A and B team rugby matches
back to back. The bonds were strong between the friends of that era due to the lack of adult
leadership. Gavin became a prefect and Billy Forsmann, head boy.
For the matric dance, which was great fun, the standard 9’s did all the art work and decorations
and were the waiters who used to make money by smuggling alcohol into the venue. On their
last day he recalls that the boys had a big party that night.
It was a disastrous and unstable time for the high school with leadership issues following the
appointment of Mr Murphy as headmaster of the high school followed shortly by Mr Freilick then
Mr Boswell.
Gavin matriculated with a university entrance and studied building science at Wits University.
He then did a post graduate course at the University of Pretoria followed by the UCT Graduate
School of Business but ended up working in the banking environment for 12 years. He then
went into property and has run his own business for the past 3 years.
He is the father of 3 daughters who attended Brescia House.
He hasn’t really kept in touch with the school at all although his father was a member of the
board of governors, and a member of MOBS as were his brothers Brian(80) and Graham (82)
who subsequently emigrated.
Gavin would buy a copy of the book and would be willing to pledge a contribution beforehand.
JLE May 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Greg Boyes-Varley 1973
Interview with Greg Boyes-Varley 1973
Greg and his two brothers were day boys at St David’s living as they did behind the school in
Second Avenue. The family lived in Cape Town and Zimbabwe until 1966 when Greg joined the
school in march in standard 2. Coming from Zimbabwe Greg didn’t understand Afrikaans and
his teacher, Mrs Michael organised extra lessons for Greg with Mrs.Kenesovitch. Brother
Anthony was head of the high school and other Brothers such as Br Andrew, Br Aidan (bursar),
Br Bosco (Mario), Br Timothy, Br Dennis, Br Ronald and Br Ezekiel were still teaching.Br
Ezekiel was a brilliant Maths teacher and taught extra Maths on a Sunday declaring that that
was more important than going to Mass.
Greg had a tough time at school and was teased, because of a speech impediment and injury to
his face. He was playing on a trampoline when his leg got caught and his face was badly
damaged by a broken coke bottle. Mr Owen-Smith a plastic and maxillo- facial surgeon
operated on Greg and due to this he was determined to become a maxillo-facial surgeon
himself. Greg went to the Wits Speech and Hearing Therapy unit and eventually overcame his
speech impediment and now speaks at conventions and deals with patients confidently.
Greg recalled Nassey Simaan, the popular rugby coach who had no favourites and chose his
teams by selecting the boys he felt had guts. To be selected Greg had to tackle one of the boys
and he chose a big boy from standard 5 who always teased him. He flattened him and when
Nassy asked him to show the other boys how to tackle he selected the same boy again and
annihilated him once more. The boy never teased Greg again after that.
Greg’s father was a very active member of the St David’s community, was on the PTA, was
chairman and helped commission the building of the McGregor oval. He also used to organise
all the fathers and sons cricket matches and arranged for some English cricketers, Don Williams
and Peter Stringer to come and coach cricket at the school.
Greg remembered a day at the end of standard 8 during Nuffield week when he was playing at
leg slip and was hit squarely on the head with the cricket ball. The other boys made him get up
and he carried on taking 8 wickets. Patrick Quarmby was particularly kind and supportive.
The new Science lab has just been built and Greg remembers some experiments which blew
holes in the ceiling.
There was an African compound next to the white house where Mr Scott lived and the boys
used to buys cigarettes from the staff.
Anthony Bartlett (now living in Belgium) was the DJ for all the parties they organised with each
boy taking a turn to have a party on saturday night. Legally the boys couldn’t drink, even when
they went to university as they were all 17.
Academically Greg did well, became a prefect, got his university pass for matric and went on to
study Dentistry at Wits University. It was the last year of the JMB matric.
Greg remembers St David’s as being a great school where he made some good friends and in
his subsequent dealings with boys from local schools he thinks the St David’s boys are the most
humble.
He feels that it was a big mistake to close the boarding and then to replace the JMB matric with
the TED version. That was when a large number of boys left the school and went mainly to St
John’s.
Greg would have liked his son to go to St David’s but the family left to go the UK from 1994 until
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Genny Carvalho 1991 - 2007 Staff
Interview with Genny Carvalho – 1991 – 2007
Genny initially worked for Malcolm Smit who was the bursar at that time. Malcolm’s office was
where Rick Wilson’s office is now, Mike Greef’s office was the reception area. The staff working
in the bursar’s office was divorced from the rest of the school dealing only with the accounts.
The staff at the time were Malcolm Smit, Audrey Williams and Genny, they started work at
8.30am and were usually finished by 1.30/2.00pm, as the school was very much smaller then
with fewer accounts.
Genny remembers that, in the early 2000’s the school lost a number of pupils and a teacher to
Crawford College when it opened and also because of the increased traffic on the Nicol
highway.
In those day the school used to take cash payments for fees and the beginning of term was
usually “pay day” and one term an armed robbery took place and R25 000 in cash was taken.
Although no member of staff was badly hurt, they were most definitely shaken.
Once the school started to build up it did so rather quickly especially when Paul Edey was
appointed headmaster in 1995. Paul Edey, together with Kevin Brewer started an extensive
building programme and Paul made the staff feel valued for the first time. Genny also liked Greg
Royce and felt he was an excellent prep school headmaster.
Genny enjoyed working for Malcom Smit, all the books were done in long hand and she used a
manual Underwood typewriter. Malcolm did all the books and wrote out all the cheques for the
staff wages, put them into envelopes and drew a special, appropriate drawing on each one. He
used to draw mushrooms on Genny’s envelope as he said she was completely in the dark about
accounts and what she knew about figures was dangerous. On matron’s envelope he drew a
nurse in uniform.
Willem van der Merwe was very close to Malcolm and viewed him as a father. When Malcolm
wanted tea, in a loud voice he would say “It’s like a desert in here”. He was firm and could be
quite cutting but never rude. Formerly an auditor, he was retired when he came to St David’s.
The offices changed again later when Mike Forder was appointed. Mike’s office was originally
where Dave Smith’s office is now and the main office is where Malcolm Williams now resides
and Genny sat where Pam Groenewald does now. They eventually moved upstairs which was a
much better environment for them all. Di Clark was very kind to Genny and helped her with her
accountancy.
Genny had very little to do with the children and as her job increased in volume, very little to do
with parents unless they had a problem. However she does remember the mother of Steve
Bailey who passed away in his sleep in 2010 and a “Mrs Honeysuckle”, not her real name who
had had three husbands and children from each, her son was the most beautiful boy and she
was quite a stunner too. Her son matriculated in the mid 90’s and she organised a lovely lunch
and mother and son fashion show in what is now the library.
Because of Genny’s involvement with St David’s, her husband Michael got interested in schools
and, together with Mark Henning decided that there was a gap and began publishing
“Independent Education” for the private schools.
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with David Phillips 1960
Interview with David Phillips – 1960
David lived in Hyde Park and started at St David’s in grade 1 in 1948. Hyde Park was very
agricultural in those days and only underwent development from about 1954. He was a day boy
and used to cycle to school on the dirt roads.
David skipped grade 2 but then failed standard 9. He was absolutely devastated to fail but in
retrospect there was good reason for that as there were family problems at the time which he
could not handle.
He recalls Mrs Kempster in standard 4, she was an institution in herself and one didn’t mess
around with her. From then on school became a bit more serious and he remembers the strap
was used in punishment. The brother he remembers as being his favourite was Br.
Bonaventure. He saw Br Anthony at a function at the school about 30 years after he, David had
left and was so impressed that Br Anthony remembered him by name.
If there was any advantage to being a day boy he recalled that the boarders always seemed to
be hungry and were always around when the sandwiches were taken out. He enjoyed being
able to go and talk to the brothers about anything and everything. Coming from a home with an
older father who was 67 when he was born the age gap came into play and he related more to
the brothers especially with matters such as career guidance.
He hated homework with a passion. There was only one negative experience that he could
recall and that was when he was about 13, 14 drinking from one of the water fountains when a
Bulgarian pupil (Thomas Munnick) pushed his head down and he broke his two front teeth with
which he has had problems to this day.
He was an athlete and very much into running and came second in the mile. He has been a
runner ever since until about 2 years ago when his knees started to give him problems. He also
played rugby for the 3rd XV.
He was very happy at school and only cried on the first and last day. The school was a haven to
him, he had no worries and thought that the brothers were really good guys and that had all
come to an end. He then went to Wits to study a BA but ended up studying for an LLB and
became a lawyer specialising in litigation and property. He began his articles in 1964 and retired
in March 2011. When he has the time his hobbies are fishing and hunting and looks forward to
spending quality time with his grandchildren.
He was involved with a class reunion in October 2009. Harry Rosmarin is the one who keeps
them all in touch. He sees Tony McLaughlin who is sadly not interested in the old boys. He is a
member of MOBS and would be willing to participate in any pledges or donations towards the
publication of the history of St David’s.
JE January 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Joe Stravino 1967
Interview with Joe Stravino 1963-67
Joe (Guiseppe) originally came to St David’s from St George’s where he was a boarder in what
was then Rhodesia. When his parents moved to Johannesburg, Joe joined St David’s. He
remembers being very nervous on his first day at the school but always felt comfortable there.
St George’s was a Jesuit College and very strict, St David’s was more relaxed and he made
friends more or less immediately. He did get into trouble sometimes and recalls that his whole
class was once sent to the headmaster’s office, however he felt that the discipline was well
balanced and fair.
Jane Owen was his first teacher who taught a number of subjects and was a good
sportswoman.
Joe was the school cricket captain, played 1st team rugby and was an athlete. He played in the
provincial side - Transvaal Nuffield and was only the second boy from Inanda to do so. He
enjoyed all the sports tours with the school and went on the Marist Cricket Week tours and
rugby tours. He also remembered that he and other pupils planted the cricket pitch under the
supervision of Mrs Simaan.
He remembers Br Bosco, Br Anthony, Br Andrew and the cricket manager and coach Br
Michael.
Sport rather got in the way of academics but Joe managed to be accepted at Wits to study for a
Civil Engineering degree which took him 4 years even though he didn’t get a great matric pass.
Joe is still in the earth moving business, BLC Plant Company specialising in earth moving and
construction equipment which he buys, repairs and sells. He currently has a staff of 300. .He
helped to move the ground for Strevino Park at St David’s and has done some work for the
Alexandra community and the Catholic Lebanese Church free of charge.
Both his two sons came to St David’s during the time of Murphy, Freilick and Davies. The boys
battled and eventually one son went to St John’s and the other to St Andrews. When Paul Edey
was appointed headmaster, things changed and his grandchildren, 3 boys will be attending St
David’s and one Guiseppe, age 6 is currently a pupil.
Joe regularly comes to the school and walks his dogs and has a good feeling coming back. It
was a great thing coming to St David’s and he will treasure this forever.
Some of his contemporaries he remembers are Derek Schombie, Kev Hussey, Len O’Haughey,
Mike Smith. He also remembers Peter Owen – 50’s a Nuffield Cricketer and Luke or Mike
Chandler.
JE September 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with George Manolios 1975 - 1982 Staff
Interview with George Manolios – 1975 – 82 Staff
George Manolios was appointed principal of the St David’s College Junior School in April
1975 after having served as head of department of English at Bryanston High School
It was a huge challenge for him having to deal with primary school boys, his main experience
until then being with only high school boys and girls. The fact that he was a product of
ecclesiastical education himself however did not make the change too difficult.
As with any new member of staff in an established environment, he was regarded with some
scepticism and wary interest, mostly by the teachers.
In his first year at the college and in subsequent years he took the senior boys on History
tours to Natal and showed them places of interest involving the British, the Boers and the
Zulu in conflict with one another. Another highlight was when his under 13 rugby team
played in a curtain raiser for a provincial match involving the Natal provincial rugby team.
Other memories included sleeping under the stars on prefect camps.
The boys themselves, as with pupils in most schools will always be remembered and many
of those featured in the school magazines are today top businessmen, doctors and
physicians. Unfortunately there was also the pupil who featured later, as an adult, in a highly
publicised assault case.
George will always remember teachers and boys who were contemporaries during his years
at the College and he would like to believe that he contributed in some small way to making
St David’s College a college of choice.
JLE July 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Walter Cronje 1985.Board of Governors 2005 - 2010
Interview with Walter Cronje - 1985
Walter started at St David’s in 1977 in standard 2 when his family returned to South Africa from
the UK. Walter’s father worked for BP which involved a lot of travelling which made him more
forward thinking and open to new ideas.
Mr Manolios was then head of the primary school and Br Timothy head of the high school until
Mr Murphy followed by Mr Frielick.
He recalls his first day in standard 2 N with Mrs Napier. He wasn’t used to wearing a cap as he
hadn’t worn one in the UK and was curtly told to take off his cap when a teacher greeted him.
Mrs Napier was scary and had a selection of canes in her office which she used liberally. He
remembered one occasion when Matthew Slavin was standing in line waiting for his book to be
marked and Mrs Napier put a staple straight through his thumb, there was also another incident
involving Ross Alcock. Walter had to write everything in italics with pen and ink and believes
that is why he can actually write well today.
Walter recalled a school trip in 1978 or 9 to the middle of Soweto. The boys visited a school to
hand over donations. Mrs Kenesovitch and HeatherJoseph were involved. He remembers
“Julius Caesar” was the standard 5 school play.
In primary school Walter learnt to play soccer, although he had played club rugby in England
and scored the quickest goal ever. He also played cricket and made the A team. When boys
reached standard 4 and 5 soccer stopped, rugby was introduced and the boys played rugby
U13, C and D teams for the high school. It was a great idea as the boys were introduced to
rugby and became integrated with the high school boys.
In the high school Walter played rugby, which was compulsory and cricket and participated in
athletics inter-school meetings. He was named the cricket 1st team captain in standard 9 and
again in matric. He loved school and became head boy in his matric year. One bad experience
he recalls is being asked to play in the open age group when he was currently playing in the
U14 team and his father refused. He played in the Beckwith week for 3 years and other
tournaments but it was rare in those days for St David’s boys to be selected for provincial
teams. Walter was awarded colours for rugby in standard 9 and used to go to the Wanderers
U20 rugby practise after cricket practise at school. In Craven Week he and Brett Airey were
selected to play together with Sandringham’s forward pack and Sandown’s backs against St
Stithians 1st team and they beat them 55-0. Most of the English speaking schools in
Johannesburg had excellent teams at matric level but very few boys went forward into the sport
as a career unlike James Dalton and Brian Habana.
Mr Murphy was well liked a big strong man, a disciplinarian and very strict. Walter remembered
that it was decided to put on a school musical “Oliver” and Debby Hurley, the primary school
Music teacher was conducting auditions. All the school was herded into the hall and it was
chaos, a free for all, Debby Hurley eventually had enough and walked out and everyone calmed
down. Mr Murphy walked in and blasted them all saying they had no manners, no respect and
shouldn’t treat a female member of staff in such a fashion. He then picked out some boys to go
on stage and audition and they all sang beautifully. Another incident occurred when Nick Pruim
and some of the boys were hoping to go to Argentina and Mr Murphy made them do 1000
squats, in spite of that they never got to Argentina! The boys saw him on tv on a programme
called “Late Nite Owls” showing how people earned a living after hours. Mr Murphy was a
professional wrestler performing under the guise of Sean Reagan and was unmasked. The next
day Br Anthony turned up and Mr Murphy was never seen again at the school.
Walter came second in his class in standard 2 and from then on came first, achieving seven
distinctions in his matric. He remembers “Julius Caesar was the standard 5” school play.
Some of his school mates were Rommel Gobel, Vusi Wandile, Shongwe Moponya – Solly, his
father always wanted his sons to go to a Marist school and Solly’s older brother Isak was also a
pupil.
Teachers - he will never forget Willy Castle! One of the greatest teachers was Tom MacFaden
an ex-Brother who taught History and French, he could get the best out of everybody, was
worldly wise, well travelled, well educated and well read. He taught History from matric essays
not textbooks, his goal was for everyone to pass matric and go on to university. He is now living
in Greece. Trudy Elliot, English teacher who made the boys write a matric essay every weekend
or she took their honours blazer away. Mr Collier, an Obs old boy who taught Maths, Heather
Joseph, Art in primary school. All the teachers were flamboyant and larger than life. Walter had
a number of Biology teachers and remembers that the boys had a record in standard 7 for
getting rid of the highest number of Afrikaans teachers.
Brother Timothy ran the school as an autocracy not a democracy and wasn’t answering to the
voice of the people and if the class didn’t like a particular teacher they just had to put up with it.
Walter believes that there is too much leniency these days rewarding mediocrity and feels
strongly that most especially in a boys school there needs to be a rigid line of discipline. He
recalled Br Bernard caning a boy for accidentally knocking a rubber off his desk, the boys knew
the rules and if they were contravened there were consequences. Walter cannot recall anyone
at school with him having ADD of being hyperactive. The boys started school at 7.15am and
after school there was sport either competitive or practise sessions up until 6.00pm and then
they had to go home and do their homework.
One of the negative things Walter recalls was being told at each assembly of former pupils who
had been killed whilst on border duty. A former pupil Andrew Petit who scored a hole in one
whilst at school winning a car sponsored by Volkswagen was one of those who went to the
border and was killed.
Walter was one of the last young men to do military service after varsity and felt that it had given
him a different perspective and the ability to judge what’s important and what’s not.
In his final matric year, Walter remembered Religious instruction classes were a farce and as a
consequence a decision was made to send all the non-Catholics to a retreat at Hartbeespoort.
Two Computer Science teachers were assigned to supervise the boys. The retreat ended up in
a drunken mess, boys went off in their parent’s boats on the dam and walked out of the camp.
The boys’ honours blazers were taken away and, because of this you won’t find many boys of
that time coming back to St David’s. Sadly of the 30 – 40 matrics who were expected to get the
highest number of distinctions ever, only achieved 13, the timing of the retreat was appalling.
Walter feels that if there should have been a more visible handing over interim phase with the
brothers on hand to instil the Marist ethos and way to the lay teachers and Heads which would
have helped enormously. Unfortunately the brothers seemed to disappear and just hand over to
the lay teachers. In all likelihood the school could not have afforded to entice a top principal at
the time, the school certainly didn’t have the funds to replace the school bus.
Walter is currently with the Jardine Lloyd Group. Walter was chairman of MOBS for 2 years
from 2000 and was on the board of governors from 2005 – 2010 as he felt the need to sustain
the long term stability of the school. If you want continuity and change it is often difficult to get
the right people to serve and a strong board is needed. The Foundation was a concept to raise
enough capital to enable previously disadvantaged and needy boys to be able to attend St
David’s.
JLE May 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Larry Griffiths 1972
Interview with Larry Griffiths – 1972
Larry joined St David’s when he was 8 years old going into standard 2. His father was
transferred to Johannesburg from Port Elizabeth where he was formerly a pupil at St Patrick’s.
He and his younger brother Michael (1973) were day boys.
Br Anthony was the headmaster and Larry thought he was brilliant. He recalled an amusing
story involving him and Br Bosco (Mario). Br Bosco decided that Br Anthony should regain his
red hair and developed a dye which would work on his grey hair. Unfortunately it worked well,
but rather too well and Br Anthony ended up sporting fire engine red hair! This occurred shortly
before the annual prize giving and the dye didn’t wash out therefore Br Anthony had to take the
podium with his brilliant red hair much to Brother Anthony’s embarrassment and everybody
else’s amusement. In September 1979 Larry visited Br Aquinas, a family friend in the Cape and
went to see Br Anthony somewhere in the Cape Flats.
Larry did not particularly like Br Timothy, ‘Tin Man” but the boys were amused by his habit of
combing his hair over his bald patch and when the wind blew it stood straight up then flopped
onto his opposite shoulder. He enjoyed Br Bosco, he was passionate about his subject,
Science. He recalled Br Andrew giving the ’1972 matrics punishment and detention unless they
could recite the first chapter of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. He was a strong disciplinarian but always
fair. Br Aidan the bursar was popular, he was always in control and treated the boys like adults
and they responded accordingly..Larry felt that, in spite of his other problems, Br Bernard was a
good Latin teacher and managed to bring it alive with stories about its background. Father
Bailey trained him as an altar boy. Bob Blythe the Maths teacher could never get Colin
Rezekswick’s name right and called him Da Silva. Mr Zachkarowicz was fluent in English,
Polish, German, Italian and Greek, he had a rough time in Germany but managed to escape
and ended up in South Africa. He was very anti the South African government as he could see
similarities with what he had experienced in Germany. Larry felt that he was an excellent History
teacher. Mrs Janusz taught Latin, and was formidable, she was a Scot and her husband was
Polish.
Larry did well academically until Thomas Rumpelt and Alfred Ghodes came along at the start of
standard 6.They were both academically very strong and also performed well on the sports field.
However Larrry was still awarded the Costa John Memorial Trophy for coming top of the class in
standard 5. He was the first boy to be acknowledged in this way.
Larry was not a great sportsman but played 4th team rugby and, although tennis was not really
encouraged at St David’s both he and his brother played and the team achieved a place in the
premier schools league. In spite of their endeavours none of the 1972 members of the 1st tennis
team were awarded a scroll which they longed for, it was only in 1973 that tennis was
considered moderately acceptable and the school’s tennis champion, Larry’s younger brother
Michael was awarded a tennis scroll. This caused a bit of a problem in that Michael was not the
tennis captain – Michael had defeated Desmond Schatz, the tennis captain, in the final of the
school championships. The school decided to award Desmond Schatz a tennis scroll as well.
No other members of the first team were awarded scrolls.
In 1964, Larry’s first year at St David’s, it snowed and Paul Steinhardt threw a snowball with a
stone in its middle at someone; it missed and smashed the window of one of the teacher’s cars.
In December of the previous year there had been a huge hail storm which caused a lot of
damage, many windows in the school were broken including some stained glass and it took a
few years for them all to be replaced.
Larry’s first experience of being politically aware occurred in the late 1960’s when Marist old
boys, who were members of the visiting New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team came to address
the school at assembly. He remembers wondering why the Maoris could be included in the New
Zealand team and their society and the blacks in South Africa were not.
Larry remembered the victorious rugby team of ’72 and George Nichas missing a goal against
KES even though he was standing right in front of the posts. It was the only match that St
David’s lost that year.
The matric dance was held in the boarders dining room and the after party was held at Carl Ebs
parent’s home in Illovo. It was all very low key and everyone was well behaved.
Of his peers Larry noted that Terry Van Heerden – deputy head boy; Eric Melman; Steve
Goodeye, and his brother Michael (1973) class – all currently living in Australia. Carl Eb lives in
New Zealand as does David von Elling (1971) class. Patrick Esnouf (1973 class) “Mr Mining” in
South America formerly a director of Anglo and now with the Andean Board living in Chile. Tim
Cockerell’s father was a pilot who died of a heart attack and his mother brought the family to
South Africa from the UK, While having the greatest admiration for Betty Cockerell’s pluck in
moving to South Africa and bringing up three sons, all of whom attended St David’s, Larry
believes that she may have been helped by the brothers to enable her to educate her sons.
When he matriculated, Larry went to Wits University and studied Civil Engineering. Afterwards
he did two years national service becoming an officer in the South African engineering corps,
was seconded to the CSIR where he was involved with mine warfare and bridge demolition. He
was in active contact with the Rhodesian Engineers and the Selous Scouts. He then had to fulfil
conditions of his bursary and worked for Grinaker Construction for two years living in Rhodesia
before it became Zimbabwe, before returning to South Africa. He was having so much fun in
Zimbabwe that he stayed in Africa a lot longer than he had originally intended. Larry finally left
for New Zealand in February1994and was transferred to Australia in early 1995. Initially he
settled in Melbourne before moving to Queensland in early 2006. He currently lives in Brisbane
where he works as a traffic engineer in local government.
Larry thinks it is very sad the way things have evolved in South Africa. He feels very strongly
about affirmative action and its related policies, which he believes have had a very negative
effect on the development of the country and on job creation.
JLE November 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Mike Smith 1966
Interview with Mike Smith – 1966
Mike was a day boy at St David’s and lived on a flower farm near Alexandra township. He
remembered his first day in grade 1 in the old grades block, Miss Brick was his teacher and she
used to rap the boys knuckles with her ruler. He and his brother Alf used to arrive at the school
early as their father used to drop them off on his way to market. Mike used to go and sit on the
steps and could see the traffic cops who used to come inside the school grounds to do their
speed trapping of cars on Rivonia Rd. He recalls that one morning Br Edwin the then principal
called him and sent him to tell the police that they could get some coffee from the school
kitchen. Mike was terrified of both the principal and the traffic cops so it was quite nerve
wracking for him.
Br Pius who had taught his father at Koch Street was at the school, although no longer teaching,
his passion was the gardens and he used to give the boys sweets from his lucky packet.
He remembered teachers such as Mrs Martin, Mrs Brophy, Mrs Green and Mrs Humphrey in
whose class the last minutes were dedicated to reading time. The boys really enjoyed this and
you could hear a pin drop during this time.
Mike enjoyed playing cricket from the early days when he used to play with his brother.
Throughout his school career there were always excellent cricketing coaches during the
summer months including the likes of Ken Palmer ( played for England); Jack Bannister; Don
Wilson and Poole. Mike had to choose between swimming or cricket and thoroughly enjoyed the
coaching and practise sessions. The coaches added value to their cricketing performances
which was quite good at the time. The cricket nets were next to where the new chapel now
stands.
The highlight of Mike’s school career occurred during the Michaelmass holidays, the school
then had 4 terms, which was the Marist cricket week and all the Marist schools in the country
competed against each other – St Patrick’s –Walmer; St Joseph’s – Cape Town; St Charle’s –
Pietermaritzburg; St Henry’s – Durban and St David’s – Johannesburg. The week was rotated
between the schools and Mike participated in 3 whilst in standard 8, 9 and 10. When the
matches were completed a Marist cricket 11 was selected and all the players were given a
special blazer, this was regarded as being especially prestigious. This team then played the old
boys team. Mike was selected twice for this team and became the captain in his matric year and
still has the badge given to him. During the week the food was good and the players were taken
to see a movie and a social event together with the local convent school was organised. The
Wilf Isaacs visiting cricket team was also a very special occasion and the Nuffield trials week
when St David’s and Observatory had a combined team against the likes of KES and Parktown
which gave the Marist schools a lot of credos. In those days the boys didn’t wear protective
head gear and he recalls an Obs boy, Brian Norberry being hit by a ball between the eyes. He
fortunately recovered from what was a potentially very dangerous injury.
The school’s swimming team at the time was very good and has been ever since. Athletics was
strong and regarded passionately by the boys and included such names as Terence Lavery,
Chris Terreblanche who were very talented athletes. The inter-catholic high he recalls was held
at a stadium. Rugby featured strongly and the tours were very popular. The rivalry between
Observatory and St David’s was strong and became quite hectic at times.
Academically Mike always did well being in the upper quotient of his year. He was amongst the
first boys to be streamed and studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, English and
Afrikaans.
The school put on a couple of plays and Mike was involved backstage but did not act.
The brothers were amazing and real characters, Br Edwin, Br Anthony, Br Bosco (Mario) and Br
Andrew who was Spanish. The brothers dining room was out of bounds but, through the
occasional glimpse the boys could see that the food was good and that the brothers ate and
drank well.
Mike was caned on a daily basis, it was like an honour and not regarded as a problem. He
recalls an incident when a rather ripe orange that was thrown and just missed Br Andrew (Drac)
and all the boys were caned.
The matric dance in those days was rather different and the matric boys themselves decorated
the dining room, no huge sum of money was spent on the event and there was no before party.
The boarders were a fantastic bunch and made the school to a large extent, coming from all
over -Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique the Lowveld etc. He still remains in touch with Mike
Beaumont, Bart Dorrestein, Peter Gerrard, Jannie Steyn and Eric Ambrosioni. There were many
polio victims in the school at that time and he remembers Mike Nettman who was unable to play
sport and now lives in New Zealand and was one of the “Four Jacks and a Jill” and has had a
successful career as a musician. Mike organised the 40th reunion which was held at the top of
the Michael Angelo Towers in Bart Dorrestein’s suite “The Cupola” in 2006 and with a braai on
Sunday at St David’s high school paviliion
During his matric year there was much talk about military service and Mike was called up. He
remembers lining up for the medical exam in his school uniform in the drill hall. After completing
his military service Mike went on to Wits University to study engineering and until recently ran
his own construction company. His son Robert (2004) followed in the family tradition and was a
pupil at St David’s and Mike’s father Cyprien, who is now 92 was a pupil at Koch Street and
Observatory.
JE March 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Thomas Rumpelt 1972
Interview with Thomas Rumpelt – 1972
Thomas came to St David’s from the German School, Johannesburg when it was still in Edith
Cavell Street, in the German block donated by Paul Kruger, in the original building built in 1893.
Tom wrote an entrance exam at Observatory but eventually went to Inanda for standard 6. The
family lived in Orchards at the time, his grandfather had been a Jesuit priest and his parents
thought it a good idea for both Tom and Martin, his younger brother to attend a Catholic school.
The first year at St David’s was difficult as he had to undertake all his classes in English and
had only started school at the age of 7. He was, therefore always with the older boys when it
came to sport and only learnt how to play rugby on his arrival in standard 6 He was a member of
the swimming team and athletics was compulsory. He had competed as a fencer at the German
School and continued by going to Wanderers every Saturday and duelling with Springboks. He
continued to play until the 90’s and was an inter-varsity fencer.
Academically he did well, was fortunate to have a good memory, a knack for Maths and he was
ambitious. His rival Alf Gohdes was more fastidious in standards 8,9 and 10 and Thomas had a
problem with discipline at the time.
He liked Br Andrew who was the Maths teacher and also coached team rugby. Tom recalls how
Br Mario opened his eyes regarding how critical things really were in South Africa. Br Mario took
the boys to Soweto and gave them a different exposure and perspective on life. Later he found
he couldn’t reconcile his life in South Africa especially when his brother, Martin suggested he
should perhaps get a gun for security reasons.
His worst time at school was when he was suspended for 3 days. Br Mario used to keep a close
eye on things, hence Tom was suspended for calling out “waiter” to Mrs Sacharowitz, Br
Anthony was not impressed. The boys were not allowed to smoke but did during the world C
chess championships when they would meet in the change rooms, Tom had a box of Mills and
they would smoke and play chess. Tom had long hair which he used to grease back with a lot of
Brylcream to avoid the prefects checking.
The boys had a good connection with Rosebank Convent through Steve Goodey who had a
sister there. It was part of their social life,they studied with the girls and even played hockey
against them.
Boys he remembers well are Steven Goodey, Chares and Nigel Mayer, Chris Stanley, Nolan
Springer and Mike Harris.
Tom recalled a classmate Nigel Mayer who wanted to study dentistry and repeated matric to get
better marks, he now practices dentistry in London.
One of his good memories is of a trip in the winter of 1972 with Andre Malan, the Afrikaans
teacher together with Karl Eb and Steven Goodey to Mozambique. Their car was cleaned out
and everything including passports were stolen. The passports were fortunately eventually
found at the Red Cross. He recalls that the car was a green rover and that only one tape was
left of Janice Joplin and whenever he hears that music he remembers the trip. To cap it all, the
ferry didn’t come to collect them on time to return to Lorenzo Marques, quite an experience.
Another occasion that stands out was when the “All Blacks” were in South Africa, some of the
team members including Maoris were Marist old boys, and visited the school and attended
assembly. It made him think that they were racially integrated and why couldn’t it be the same in
South Africa.
The theme of the matric dance was african dawn and Tom helped with the decorations, he was
good at Art and still paints to this day.
Add Maths was his last subject on 24 November and on his last day at St David’s, Tom had a
driving license so was allowed to take a car and packed a number of the guys in it and took
them to the Rosebank Hotel. Sadly he had to stay sober as he was the driver. They didn’t have
a matric holiday in those days just study leave.
When he left St David’s Tom was exempt from military service for medical reasons and studied
architecture but changed to civil engineering. Whilst at university he was involved in visiting
schools in Soweto encouraging the children to study engineering and not necessarily medicine.
He had a bursary from Grinakaer and worked for them but later returned to Wits to do his
masters, he then worked for SRK for 5 years. He went on to Berkley where he did his Phd in
civil engineering. He had in the meantime, married Mary, the Harrywyn’s eldest daughter and
after 4 ½ years in America, they decided not to stay. Mary had family in Belgium but they
eventually ended up in Germany where Tom was offered a job with an apartment nearby in
Stuttgart. They have two daughters and a son. He is currently involved in a lot of work in Israel
but also manages time in Berlin which he believes is the best city in Europe.
Tom feels that a good thing about the educational system in South Africa is the dual function of
many teachers with the coaching of sport. The teachers have more contact with the boys which
is very important as they see another side to a boy.
Tom went to Germany as an exchange student when he was 11 and believes this would be a
good thing for St David’s to do as a Marist exchange programme. At his children’s school in
Germany they are able to go on exchanges to many other countries including India and Mexico.
The school his children attend has a strong emphasis on Music and has an outstanding
orchestra.
Tom believes that if he hadn’t been at a Marist school he wouldn’t have been so critical of what
he saw when he worked for Grinaker in Hoedspruit, the machinists and boilermakers were
earning a lot of money and he learnt from them and the black guys who had little money and
saw how they lived. Matthew Bobett’s mother was an activist and he left in standard 8 to go to
Swaziland to a co-ed multi-racial school.
Tom’s mother is still living in South Africa and is still in touch with Br Mario.
Tom is on the MOBS mailing list and would be interested in a copy of the history of the school
and also would like to be able to access the yearbooks online. He is involved with foundations in
Germany funding the school’s choir, an English society and the Church.
JLE November 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Bobby Forssman 1980
Interview with Bobby Forssman – 1980
Bobby (Luke Alexander) first came to St David’s in grade 1 in 1969 following in his brother Mark’s footsteps
with Andrew arriving 3 years after Bobby. He remembers his father filming the event and that he, Bobby
who was used to running around barefoot and undisciplined, decided to have a wee in the middle of the
dirty, dusty playground on his first day.
Brother Anthony was headmaster of the high school and Mr Manolios of the junior school. Of the early days
he remembers Mrs Schaafsma who taught him in grade 1 and 2, she was a tyrant and all the boys were
terrified of her. If a boy wasn’t paying attention he had to sit under the piano in her classroom during the
lesson.
In the junior school, Bobby went on tour in standard 5 to Fort Mistake in Kwa-Zulu Natal with Mr Manolios
and Heather Joseph. Heather was a young, newly qualified teacher and all the boys were in love with her.
Heather used to apply a very bright lipstick, kiss all the boys leaving lipstick on their cheeks which they
treasured!
At the entrance to the school where the original gates now hang, an ice cream seller used to park his bike
and sell home-made ice lollies. The boys used to pinch the dry ice and then throw it into the fish pond
nearby. Bobby did this once and panicked when he thought he was going to kill the fish. He jumped in, in
full uniform and proceeded to throw out the ice.
Bobby enjoyed the sport the soccer, cricket, sack and potatoes races in the annual athletics. He also
participated in the horse riding which he didn’t really enjoy and they rode at stables in what is now
Pineslopes. School was generally fun although the boys were scared of the teachers as they were often up
to mischief when they had the opportunity. The boys would hang around the tuck shop and wait until break
was over hoping to get discounted or free food. On Champagnat day they would get donuts and a cool
drink.
Bobby and his family lived out at Kyalami at the Kyalami Ranch Hotel and many of the boys came to watch
the Formula 1 events from the hotel. It was a mission to get to school although there was a school bus,
sometimes his father would fetch them in his beach buggy and if they were staying late their mother would
also come to fetch them.
In the high school Bobby had teachers like Trudy Elliott who was the English teacher. They were supposed
to study the Great Gatsby and Hamlet for 3 years from grade 8 which Mrs Elliott didn’t agree with and
suggested that the boys produce a newspaper as an alternative. Bobby and some other boys started a
newsletter which came out once a month for 10 months. Bobby had to do a lot of typing without a computer
although there was at least a typex band in the typewriter.
Bobby had Mr Tony D’Almeida as his Biology teacher who was well built and used static exercise to train
which all the boys had to try out in class! The school had quite a few exchange students and Bobby had to
chaperone a chap from Brazil in standard 8 whose father was head of Castrol. Bobby was with him when
he met up with Reinhard Hartmann who asked “Hi my China, where are you from”, the reply “Not China,
Brazil” as the poor chap could hardly speak any English.
There was a Mr Valney who taught Geography who became quite friendly with some of the boys and
invited some of them to his flat in Illovo one evening. He believed in self hypnosis and demonstrated by
collapsing on the floor after he told the boys to instruct him to do something. The boys were rather taken
aback and tried a few things including sticking a large pin deeply into his arm and then telling him to wake
up. He came to with no memory of what had happened and no physical signs of any sort. The teachers on
the whole were pleasant and engaging.
Bobby enjoyed motor cross racing from standard 7 through to standard 9 with four other St David’s boys
and competed against other schools. Br Bernard attended one of the events and took some photos for the
school magazine. Unfortunately Br Timothy was not aware of the motor cross racing and wasn’t impressed
and basically banned them from participating anymore or said they must find another school. Bobby then
started playing rugby in standard 9, was captain third XV and was a member of the A water polo and B
swimming teams as a summer sport.
Bobby also enjoyed the debating and public speaking which was fairly low key and great fun.
Bobby did well academically and was usually in the top 5 or 10. He was elected a prefect and awarded an
honours blazer, academic tie and scrolls for merit and studies.
In their final year 6 of the boys decided to take a holiday. The Hartmann’s had a flat in Umhlanga and they
asked Bobby’s father if they could borrow one of the cars to go down. Initially the parents said no, but then
Bobby’s father relented and booked them into alternative accommodation and lent them a bus. With
hindsight it was crazy with unlicensed drivers driving all the way to the coast in a bus, but they survived.
After matriculating, Bobby was awarded a bursary by Eskom and studied engineering at Wits University
then UCT. He then went into the air force for two years completing his military service. Whilst in the air
force he met a chap who was into building development and decided to work for himself and started off in
the Cape in the commercial development of shops and warehouses. He would buy the land, design the
structure then rent it out and sell. He often works together with his older brother Mark who is in building and
construction. He was supposed to work for Eskom after his military training and had to reimburse them the
costs of his university education, fortunately they underestimated the costs and he managed to pay them
back.
Bobby has one son Jason who spent 1 year in grade 1 at St David’s before the family moved to Cape Town
and returned 5 years later. Greg Royce was then head of St Peter’s so he became a pupil there going on to
Hilton for high school. Bobby’s two daughters are at DSG in Grahamstown.
Bobby is still in touch with Mark Hindle through his wife Paula and with Reinhard Hartmann and Sven Arp.
He is a member of MOBs and was last at St David’s for the Nite Fever firework show.
JLE November 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Peter Loffell 1960
Interview with Peter Loffell (1960)
Peter first attended St David’s in 1948 in grade 1 as a day boy. He was in a section in the junior
school with four classrooms with two grades within one classroom. This was separate from the
main school which had a series of classrooms in a horse shoe shape facing east, with the
dormitories facing north. The infirmary windows overlooked the swimming pool and McGill
Love’s farm. On the western side was the dining room and on the southern side, downstairs
were the headmaster’s office and about 2 classrooms. Standard 4, 5 and 6 were upstairs and
standard 7, 8, 9 and 10 downstairs. At that time the school had 300 pupils.
Peter used to go to the McGill Love’s place of 50 acres with cows etc after school until his father
came to fetch him until he was old enough to ride his bicycle to school. Mr McGill Love was
Peter’s mother’s uncle and founder of Haggy Rand and African Wire Ropes.
He remembers his first day vividly. His teacher was very strict and used the strap liberally and
Peter to this day still does not understand why she took the strap to him. Happily she didn’t stay
very long and Mrs Vincent took her place. In the first year he skipped a class and went up to
grade 2.
Other members of staff he remembers were Mrs Brophy -standard 1, standard 4 -Mrs Kempster,
standard 5 - Mr Bishop and from standard 6 upwards all the teaching was done by the brothers.
The teachers from the grades up to standard 5 had their own classrooms and taught all subjects
but after standard 6 the brothers taught individual subjects. The brothers he remembers are Br
Benedict, Br Bonaventure who was the rugby coach, Br Walker, Br Ephraim and Br Ralph.
Br Edwin was the headmaster followed by Br Benedict until Peter’s last year when Br Anthony
took his place. He recalls Br Edwin had very bad arthritis and had to take cortisone.
Peter enjoyed sport and played soccer in the junior school followed by rugby and cricket 1st and
2nds in the high school. There were A and B sides from U13, U14, U15 and then the 1st and
2nds. There was great rivalry between St David’s and Observatory who had some very good
players. The year in which he wrote matric St David’s rugby team was soundly beaten by
Observatory who had some great players and athletes in their team.
Peter remembered the tours to other Marist schools and went to Cape Town with the cricket
team in 1959 and in 1960 to St Henry’s and St Charles in Natal.
Culturally, Peter used to attend the debates between other schools but was not a member of the
debating society. A concert was held which he doesn’t remember too much about but he was
involved with two operettas, “HMS Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance” directed by the
Music teacher Mr Drummond Bell.
As his first passion was the sport, Peter didn’t do too well academically and didn’t work very
hard, and although there was no sparing of the rod he wasn’t sufficiently motivated to work.
The matric dance was held in the dining room and he recalls it was agonising to find a girl to
take to the dance, he was only 16 at the time. The boys decorated the dining room themselves
and after the dance went home. In 1959 a party was organised for the end of year exams and
Br Benedict warned them that they wouldn’t be allowed to write the exams if he found them to
be involved in preparations for the party.
After he matriculated, Peter went on to Wits University where he studied for a BSc Engineering
but bombed out and then spent a year in the army after which he joined the Netherlands Bank
which became Nedbank until he retired. Paul Middlewick and Gilbert Pooley were also on the
Nedbank staff.
Peter has a son who after returning to Johannesburg from Natal went to Hyde Park High
School.
Peter attended a school reunion after 25 years and saw one of his contemporaries Clive Nobbs
who became head of Rand Mines and the Chamber of Mines.
JE March 2012
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Brother Vincent 1969, 1987 - 1990
Interview with Brother Vincent – 1969 and 1987-90
Brother Vincent joined the brotherhood in 1965 at the age of 18, based at Hibberdene together with Br
Joseph who is now Brother Provincial.
His Postulancy and Novitiate years were spent close to Stellenbosch in 1967 and 1968 respectively. These
two years are set aside for his receiving the Habit and making First Vows.
In 1969 he came to St David’s and stayed there whilst undergoing a spirituality course called “Fons Vitae”
at the Good Shepherd Centre in Oaklands together with other brothers and nuns. He and Br Joseph went
daily from St David’s. At that stage Br Anthony was headmaster of the high school, V Kempster principal of
the junior school, and Willy Castle was in matric. Willy’s mother Dorothy taught Br Vincent piano. Br Vincent
taught the junior catechism to a standard 4 class. During the holidays he spent a lot of time planting grass
on the field and was involved with a lot of physical work at the school, cutting trees and grass, working
together with Aggie Simaan. He remembers the many regular teas, biscuits and chats with Aggie Simaan in
her little office near the cricket oval at the time when he helped in great measure planting the grass on the
newly-levelled oval and fields. He regularly cut the fields with the old red tractor, which is now in the preschool
playground!
His bedroom in the brothers’ House was upstairs and faced the inner quad above the then bursar’s office.
One of his duties was to ring the bell at 5am every morning to wake the brothers.
Again, whilst he was studying full-time at JCE from 1987 to 1990, he stayed at St David’s and became the
community superior. During this time became very friendly with Willem, the estate manager, whom he
frequently assisted during his holiday breaks. In his third year helped out by teaching Technical Drawing to
two grade 7 classes.
In 1991 he was the asked by the brothers to work in their mission outreach programme, and he went to
Slough in the Kalahari Desert. The St David’s Marist co-workers, run by Tom Oliver, used to come out once
a year bringing mostly clothing and blankets.
Br Vincent enjoyed his time at St David’s and still keeps in touch with many of the current and former staff
members. Past pupils and parents taught by Br Vincent in the other Marist schools and who are currently
associated with St Davids are Bruce Eyles, Franco Guiliardi, Dr Roger Gibson, Chris Elfick, Allan Young
and Marius Khoury.
Brother Vincent has been at Sacred Heart since 2007 and is currently the estates manager.
JE September 2013
Egenrieder, Julie
Interview with Nassey Simaan 1960’s
Nassey was the parent of Gabriel Simaan who matriculated in 1968. He and his wife, Agnes
were heavily involved with the school from 1956 until their son Gabriel matriculated. They were
not officially employed by the school but helped in a voluntary capacity.
His wife was instrumental in the grassing of the rugby fields and later the cricket pitch. Agnes
got some people organised and kikuyu grass was collected from the river in Buccleuch, she also
organised the grassing of the cricket oval. The Wanderers Cricket Club wanted to use the oval
for some important fixtures as theirs was underwater and they regarded St David’s pitch to be
superior, however the brothers would not allow this.
When Nassey coached the rugby team they won all their matches bar one. Sadly he had a
dispute with Brother Anthony when one of the boys was not awarded his colours. He liked Br
Anthony but didn’t always get on with him which resulted in him moving his other son, Andrew to
Observatory.
Shortly before he died Br Anthony asked to see them. They visited him in hospital, he was
happy to see them and apologised to Nassey and died not long afterwards.
Nassey will be 90 on 5 April 2012-01-23
JE January
Egenrieder, Julie