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Interview with Willy Castle 1957 - 1968 Pupil; 1976 -2013 Teacher; Prep Headmaster 2014

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000960
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview with Willy Castle – June 2010
In the original letter requesting the enrolment of Willy as a pupil at St David’s written by his
father, his father said that he wanted any son of his to be a Marist boy. Willy began his
career at St David’s in 1957 beginning as a day boy in grade 1 with Mrs Brick as his first
teacher until grade 5 when, because of sport, Mrs Buckley-Jones recommended that he
become a boarder.
The school hours were 8am until 2.45pm followed by sport. During his first year as a boarder
he was told to go to the chapel, he thought he had done something wrong but, sadly was
told that his father had died.
Eventually, Br Timothy was the only brother teaching at the school. Willy remembers that
Brother Benedict (Beak) was the first headmaster and that Br Bosco changed his name to Br
Mario.
The school was then considered to be out in the sticks, with no fence around it with people
taking short cuts across the school grounds. Willy used to ride his bicycle home on Sunday
with no cars around. He loved the weekends, just played sport and there was always
something on at Wanderers. A burger and a movie was the highlight of the week and it was
26 kms to Little Falls for a day out swimming.
Many boys came from all over Africa and there were 50 boarders allocated to one room –
with four dormitories A, B, C, and D. The food was magnificent with chef Piet, a huge, strong
man. The boarders had 3 meals a day with morning coffee and afternoon tea, and Sunday
roast with cold drinks and ice cream. They had to wear school uniform all the time but,
occasionally were allowed to wear a suit. Br Anthony allowed them access to the pantry but
they had to eat everything there. The boys used to climb out of the dormitories and take food
from the fridge until the brothers padlocked the fridge door, but the boys worked out a way to
lift the door off its hinges helping themselves to food during the night.
The school buildings stopped at the chapel and went down to Rivonia road which was the
Love’s farm. When the owner’s died, the school bought the land right down to the Inandas.
Maryknoll was the original farmhouse and Willy’s house was the family library. The old
workshop was originally the stables.
Because of the boarders, the school had powerful sports teams and the brothers used to
train them hard. The fields were where the current swimming pool and tennis courts are now.
Mrs Kempster, was headmistress of the prep (she retired in 1974). The current high school
library was the dining room and then the hall. The staff room and admin block was formerly a
rose garden.
Marist cricket week, which has since disappeared, was a great event. Rugby matches
against other Marist schools and rugby tours, like the 1967 tour to St Joseph’s when all the
boys were bussed down and back.
Willy recalled some incidents, In 1953 the matric exam papers were stolen, whilst on camp
at Happy Acres, Oliver Green slipped down the river bank and cut himself very badly. Willy
drove him immediately to Sandton Clinic, making the trip in 20 minutes!
There are also some sad stories. Paul Visser and his brother,who was deaf. Paul eventually
shot himself and the other brother got into an argument in a pub, ran outside and was
knocked down and killed.
Another sad event was when Keith Schafer died. Jason Giles, a naughty boy had been
caught smoking and Keith as senior housemaster had to reprimand him and he usually just
whacked the boys. Paul Davies, the then headmaster called Keith to his office and really
dumped on him. Later Keith was marking exams in the staff room and began to shake and
then fell off his chair. Someone ran to get matron who gave him oxygen; the paramedics
came too late as he had died. Keith had a son in grade 0 Andrew Schafer.
Willy also recalled a time when he offered a cash reward to any boys that told him who was
guilty of marking the bathroom tiles with his shoe every day. Willy couldn’t open his office
door because of the number of pieces of paper that had been pushed under it! Hamilton was
the guilty party.
Sean Sandie, grade 9 was walking with his girlfriend by the Braamfontein spruit when
someone grabbed his girlfriend’s handbag and stabbed him. He lost a lot of blood and had
visual damage. It was a miracle that he lived and three years later wrote matric.
Willy matriculated in 1968, came back in 1976 and 1977 as a student teacher and joined the
staff in 1978 for two terms then went off to St Stithians when Murphy was the headmaster. In
2014 Willy was appointed headmaster of the prep achieving a dream. He is currently
chairman of the Marist old boys.
The rest is history!
JE August 2011 – edited 2016

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Timothy Marsay 1970

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000953
  • Item
  • 2014

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Thabo Harmanus 1992

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000947
  • Item
  • 2011

Interview with Thabo Hermanus – 1992
When Thabo matriculated from St David’s, Paul Davies was headmaster, he had come from St
Albans. He remembers that he didn’t resonate with him and his parents only picked this up after
a while. People were pulling out of the school and a lot of black pupils left during Thabo’s high
school years. From standard 7 until his final year he was the only black boy in his class with
another joining in his matric year. One could see the degradation in the high school’s reputation
and what an impact a head has on a school and its teaching staff.
Thabo started school in Alexandra, passed top of the class in each year. When he completed
standard 2 at M.C. Weiller, instead of going to standard 3 remaining in Alexandra, he started at
St David’s going backwards to standard 1 and did marginally well. While at the time this was
difficult for him as he thought he would get left behind by his peers from Alexandra, over time
and, looking back he realised that most of the boys he was at school with in Alex didn’t even
make it to matric. It was a real sacrifice for his parents but it was so far sighted of them. His
mother was a teacher in Alex and his brothers also started at St David’s, although they
completed their matric at Wendywood High. His mother had said to him that if he failed one year
he would be out of St David’s. He worked hard and came third in standard 1 during his first year.
He felt being older helped with his confidence considering the jump in the standard of education
he had to contend with and he mentioned Gladwell’s: The Outliers in this context.. After a year
he had got used to the school and it exposed him to a whole new world. He wasn’t envious or
jealous of the lifestyle he saw that the white children had but it created ambition in terms of
defining what success was, the picture was bigger now and it was no longer necessarily out of
reach.
On his first day he was very nervous, he remembers his cap and thinking that all the boys
looked the same. Miss Keating was his teacher.
There were the odd incidents of naive questions and observations. His father drove an old
beetle and he recalls visiting Mark Pardini’s home and Mark’s little brother asking him why his
father drove a beetle. It was not malicious, just a boy who could not have been older than seven
years old being curious and noticing differences in material wealth. Bullying was normal and
part of the package. On one occasion he went to the tuck shop and bought a toasted sandwich,
another boy told him to give him a bite; he was a large boy, rugby type. Thabo broke a piece off,
gave him the smaller piece. The boy insisted on having the bigger piece and instinctively Thabo
stuffed the bigger piece into his own mouth. The boy punched Thabo for the “offence” which
Thabo could do nothing about given the David and Goliath scenario. He remembers thinking,
“Wait until I get to be your size”.
Even canings hurt but was what they all knew, so it was acceptable. Words can scar a lot more
as far as Thabo is concerned. The worst caning that Thabo remembers was with Mr Webster
and he knew rather to stand at the front of the queue and get it over and done with.
One of the most memorable classroom incidents he remembers involved seeing current in
action. There was a funny incident in the Science lab. Stuart Dickey had a pen set and he stuck
a pen in one plug and then the pencil, mistakenly creating a current, there was a loud bang,
Stuart got the fright of his life and his pen and pencil were welded together. Thabo chirped that
the bang made him feel at home coming from Alex and everyone packed up laughing which
calmed the air a bit from the shock.
He played rugby, basketball and was in the athletics squad in the high school while in the prep
he played soccer. He gained half colours for rugby and basketball.
He is still in touch with Justin van Linden, Yoav van der Heyden, Jeetesh Kathawaroo, Rowan
Brewer to name a few from his year and has contact with pupils from below and above and
recently got in touch with Mike von Guillaeume (2 -3 years behind him).
The teachers he remembers are Willy Castle – “Mr Fruitcake”. In the last soccer season in
standard 5, in a good team playing against a school who went on to win the championship that
year, they lost 1.0 by a silly mistake by Jeffrey Tsatsane. They played defence together and he
can still remember Willy Castle mumbling his disapproval calling out “Tsatsane”. In the high
school he recalled Mr Girdwood – an awesome English teacher, Mr Howarth – History, Mr
Finlayson – Sport and house master and Miss Von Guillaeume whom he is still in touch with
today. There wasn’t a teacher he disliked and he was taught how to think and not just
regurgitate answers, especially by Mr Howarth who spoke to them about the other side of the
story, not written in the matric History books.
He recalled a significant teacher in the prep, Mrs Hurley and a high impact moment whilst in her
class when she had a “throwing her toys” moment with him. He had got 60% for a spot History
test but she still kept him behind after school with boys who had failed. He was supposed to
have read something the day before but hadn’t and it showed. She reprimanded him in front of
his father, saying that his parents were spending all this money on him and he wasn’t working.
He never messed around after that, it was a turning point for him.
Academically he did well, receiving prizes in the prep school. It was a bit different in the high
school. In standard 5 Mr Kotze was the disciplinarian. In standard 6 he messed around a bit and
then in standard 7 he started working hard again.
He feels that a sense of worth helps but most of this comes from the home and parents should
not abdicate responsibility. He believes that boys coming from St David’s are more grounded,
humble.
His last day at school he remembers as being crazy, with everyone signing shirts and letting off
water balloons.
He struggled to get a bursary as he wanted to go to university away from Johannesburg. Justin
van Linden’s father was MD of Customs Plastics, a division of Nampak, had kept an eye on him
through the years unbeknown to him and offered him a bursary. He then went on to UCT, did a
BCom majoring in Accountancy and Economics. He planned to be a CA but hated auditing,
however he went to Nampak where he was a Management Accountant, helped his brothers
through school and university in terms of paying tuition. They are now both CA’s. He left
Nampak and went to Experiaen SA, primarily know as a credit bureau but he wanted to get into
the services industry. In 2008 he was co-founder of Nimble Collection Services and after setting
up the company they sold it. He has been in Cape Town for 4 years now and subsequent to
Nimble, together with his partner Suzanne Capper set up Find Inspired Talent (F.I.T.
Recruitment). Thabo is good with numbers but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he
enjoys doing the most. People development and leadership are his strengths.
He is the father of two daughters aged 10 and 7, who attend the Waldorf School in Constantia,
he is on the school board and is also involved in setting up a trust to enable young black girls to
attend varsity (funding young girls from previously disadvantaged backgrounds).
He would like to keep in touch and would pledge or make a donation to the book. He would love
to participate in any celebration for the 75th. He owes a lot to his experience at the school.
JE October 2011

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Teresa Voorendyk 1999 to date Staff

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000945
  • Item
  • 2014

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

Egenrieder, Julie

Interview with Gregory Murphy 2006

  • ZA ZAR STDS 202000799
  • Item
  • 2013

Interview with Gregory Murphy – 2006
Gregory recalls his first day at St David’s in grade 1,1995 meeting Mr Castle who was a scary
and shouting man. He also remembered Mr Castle screaming “Run fruit salads” during athletics
in the primary school.
Gregory enjoyed his time at St David’s and loved the sports, catholic culture and the high
standard of teaching from the likes of Paul Edey, Stuart Foulds, Julie Roman and Father Brewer
who was an exceptional man. Other teachers who made a lasting impression on him were Mr
Castle, Mrs Ansell, Mr Van den Berg and Mrs Kennedy.
He enjoyed the family aspect of the school and was involved in swimming and was the B team
captain, water polo 2nd team U\14 to |U\16 A’s, he played rugby and was a member of the 2nd
and 3rd teams U\14 – U\16A’s. Sports days were always memorable whether it were an interhouse
or inter-school event. He didn’t enjoy the prevalence of bullying and non-action against
notorious bullies by management and teachers. He also didn’t especially like the heavy parent
presence which he felt influenced the school culture.
He has good memories of the annual fireworks event, receiving his honours blazer in assembly
with Mr Williams and his parents.The final assembly in matric and leading the Kalamazumba
from the front of the hall.
Some unhappy memories were when he got into trouble and had to do detention and losing his
library monitor badge. He was not really a fan of academics although he excelled in spite of the
occasional poor teacher and classes. Despite this, Gregory was awarded an honours blazer for
academics and the Lynn Stuart Memorial Trophy for Academic Achievement and the Gian-
Paolo Pera Accounting Prize..
During the final days of matric he recalled the boys bringing farm animals to roam the squad but
he was very emotional about leaving the school and a large part of his life behind.
After matriculating with distinctions in Maths, Biology, Physical Science, Additional Maths,
Accounting and Advanced Maths, he went on to study at Wits University studying for a Bachelor
of Accounting Science and B Comm. Honours in Finance and went on to complete his
Chartered Accounting qualification. He received entrance into the Golden Key Society at Wits.
He felt that school had prepared him for university with the Additional Maths and Advanced
Maths which really helped with the Maths and Statistics he did in the first year at varsity. The
Accounting he learnt at school also helped him in his first year.
Gregory is currently employed as an accountant at Price Waterhouse Coopers.
He made many friends at St David’s and is in touch with many of them the majority of whom are
members of MOBS.
JLE 2013

Egenrieder, Julie