Interview with Ronnie van’t Hof 1969
Ronnie spent 12 years at St David’s, starting in grade 1 in 1958. He was a day boarder and only
boarded for a short time whilst his parents were overseas and hated it. He lived in Inanda and
cycled to school every day. Br Benedict was headmaster and Br Anthony a teacher at the
school when he started. Br Anthony was transferred to Walmer in 1959 and returned as
headmaster in 1960.
His first day at school was difficult to say the least as he didn’t speak any English, Dutch being
his home language. He was befriended by Glynn O’Leary and Victor Hamilton (now living in
Texas) and he is still in contact with them. In standard 3 he experienced a really hard time as he
was a left hander using a fountain pen was difficult as he had to push rather then pull the pen,
causing far too many ink splashes which messed up his work much to the displeasure of Mrs
Janusch.
Mrs Brick was his first teacher and he remembers she used to smack all the boys with a ruler. In
grade 2, Mrs Brophy, standard 1, Mrs Legatt, standard 2 Mrs Clay, standard 3 , Mrs Janusch
who was a tyrant and used a strap nicknamed “Oom Jaapie”, standard 4 Mrs Kempster,
standard 5, Mrs Kenesovitch.
In high school he remembered Br Bosco (Br Mario) Science, Br Patrick English, Br Michael
Maths, Br Andrew (Drac) who was also a tyrant, so much so that no-one ever fell asleep in his
class!
Academically he did very well in the prep school but his performance petered out in the high
school. On reflection he feels much of this was to do with the streaming that took place in those
days. Because of his good academic record, he received the trophy for being top of the class in
standard 8, he was placed in the so called “A” stream and studied Physics, Chemistry and
Maths instead of choosing languages and History. The wrong criteria were used in his case, he
lost interest and became demotivated, in addition he broke his leg in matric and was out of
school for 6 months.
His sport was tennis and he participated in the Cramer cup against Observatory at the old
Maristonian club near the Johannesburg drive in near the Lebanese Catholic church.
He remembers receiving a medal in 1961 commemorating the occasion of SA becoming a
republic. Andy Morris’s father was then mayor of Johannesburg and presented all the boys with
a medal and made a short presentation to celebrate.
On his last day at school, he was a prefect but missed out on a lot after breaking his leg in the
May and only returning to school in the September, he was unable to attend the matric dance
and many other events. Ronnie has very good and happy memories of the school and his son
was a pupil until the family relocated to Knysna. He recently met up with the head boy for his
year, Keith Shaw in Cape Town at a tennis tournament. Keith is involved with film-making.
Antoine Simaan was also in his matric year.
On leaving St David’s, he studied law and after completing his degree decided to go into
accounting with Deloittes.
He played the tennis circuit after completing his Law degree, qualified for Wimbledon in 1976
and is currently chairman of SA Vets, was ranked number 1 and played for SA in some events.
He was in New Zealand representing SA in the seniors event at the time of the earthquake.
Some players were actually on court at the time and had a very bad experience.
Ronnie was actively involved with MOBS for a number of years before moving to Knysna, and
organised debates with invited speakers. The main organiser was Stephen Miles who
subsequently moved to the UK. Thierry Dalais who was then an accountant at Deloittes was
instrumental in resurrecting MOBS.
Currently he is involved with his financial services company AQB – a question of balance, the
name of which has Marist origins, he was been involved in tennis development in the 80’s, is on
the board of the SA Tennis Association, is involved with SA Tennis Vets, wants to regenerate
tennis in the townships and feels strongly that sport should be compulsory in all schools.
JE February 2012

Interview with Glynn O’Leary 1969 1960 – 1969 Standard 1 to Matric
Glynn did not enjoy the first few days of each school year as the family always went to the coast
for the long holidays and he hated leaving the sea behind (living in Glencairn now he sees the
sea all the time!)
He was a day boy and clearly remembers Mrs Januscz, Mrs Knezovich and Mrs Kempster. His
parents separated when he was in standard 4 and finally divorced in standard 6. His academics
took a dip as a result. Br Anthony sent for him and asked him if he was happy at St David’s to
which he answered yes. His father had contacted the school to withdraw Glynn from the school
stating that he could not afford to keep him at St David’s due to financial reasons. From that day
on his mother never had to pay school fees and he received all his books and school uniform
from the Brothers.
Glynn played 1st Team cricket and played in the 13th Marist cricket week held at St David’s as
wicket keeper. On the very first day of the competition a ball split his lip open while keeping
wicket which put paid to him playing again in the event. He also played 2nd Team rugby.
Brothers were strict and one evening Br Andrew (Dracula) caught the boys painting the other
boys with black boot polish as part of the initiation of new boys. Errol McCawley was caught and
was told to go back and fetch all the other boys who were involved. Errol did not enjoy this as Br
Andrew gave the boys cuts with a chain.
Glynn’s father never watched him play sport at school and that is why he and his wife Gill have
made sure that they have been there to support their 3 children as far as humanly possible.
The Marist Brothers have always played an important part in his life and he was made an
honorary Marist Brother in 2009 which was a great honour for him.
He has been involved with the Marist Brothers since 1957 and was chairman of the Marist old
boys in 1983 and served on the St David’s board of governors from 1985 to 1986. He has been
a member of the Marist School’s Council since 1997 and is chairman of St Joseph’s Marist
College in Rondebosch at present.
While at school Glynn was friendly with Dave Bergman and his brother Clive (better known as
Clive Bruce).
As regards Br Mario – we need to find out from him what happened when Br went horse
racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interview: 13 October 2010