Interview with John Hilton – 1997
John joined St David’s in standard 6, 1993, coming from a government co-ed school, he was at first
overwhelmed by the discipline and having to wear a blazer. The Lacey brothers, Christopher and Alastair
also arrived at the same time.The first few days were interesting and he recalled meeting his best friend
Michael Muller at the pool.
The boys were taught to be men following the school’s motto “Comfortare esto Vir”: take courage and be a
man.
Of the teachers John remembers Gary Norton as being a disciplinarian, Mrs Geldenhuys the Science
teacher, Mrs Marais, Afrikaans and Graeme McMillan who was a good hockey player, Rod Smith
ousemaster of Osmund, Richard Girdwoood, English who was a legend, Neil Mitchell, Religious Education.
John didn’t make life easy for himself, and together with Johnathan Nel wrote a couple of plays for
Osmund, parodies and satires which didn’t please Father Brewer or Paul Edey at all. In his matric year
they wrote “Snow White and the Seven Boers”. They wrote and produced the “SA Natiivity in grade 11 and
were awarded the best play and John the best producer.
The school was relatively small and John remembers the rugby matches against other bigger schools
which were great fun and St David’s always took a beating. Swimming was John’s summer sport and he
umpired cricket and played hockey in the winter. The trip on the train on alternate years to St Andrews,
Bloemfontein must have been a nightmare for the teachers to handle all the boys and the shenanigans they
got up to.
John enjoyed the cultural trip to Europe at the age of 17 with a bunch of his mates touring in a semi Kontiki
style trip.
John was made a prefect halfway through the year, together with Darryl Eames in 1997 and was captain of
1st team hockey in standard 9 and matric and played for the provincial C team. At that time there were only
41 boys in matric. John also participated in public speaking and debating and was a member of parliament
in 1996. He was awarded colours for hockey and a cultural tie for oratory and a scroll for drama. He was
part of a team which won the Microsoft Web Design Competition in 1996
After matriculating, John studied Informatics at RAU working afterwards as an IT consultant for a long time.
However, he is now working for a conservation trust, the Wild Bird Trust on a project in the Okavango,
Botswana. He is also very involved with an Eastern Cape project growing and planting indigenous fruit
trees together with the local population.
John joined the MOBS committee straight after leaving school. The committee didn’t have the full
endorsement of the school at the time but Adriano and John developed the MOBS data base. Darko Vidas
and Chris Busschau were also on the committee which didn’t even have a quorum so it is encouraging to
see the growth in MOBS.
John is still a member of MOBS and would send any son of his own to St David’s.
JLE November 2014

Interview with Gabriel Simaan – 1967
Gabriel began his career at St David’s in grade 1, 1956 as a day boy becoming a boarder in

1965. He remembers crying all day and his teacher, Mrs Brick sat him next to Derek
      Schoombie. Gabriel was the first of Nassey Simaan’s sons at the school. He also recalled
      his brother Antoinne killing all the fish in the fish pond. Gabriel took a bus to Corlet Drive
      then walked to school most days and with his brothers delivered milk on the way.
      All the boys were scared of Mrs Kenesovitch. Br Andrew was in charge of sport. When in
      boarding school the boys could work out when Br Andrew was in his room and on one
      accession George Da Matto, David Palmer and Geoff Price went off for a smoke on the
      lower field. Br Andrew got wind of this, put on his habit and went out with his torch and
      caught them. The matric boys sat at the head table in the dining room and Br Andrew walked
      up and down using a chain to hit boys if they misbehaved. Gabriel put books in his pants
      when he was sent to Br Anthony for caning. Other Brothers were Br Vincent and Br Bosco
      (Mario).
      Gabriel enjoyed the sports days and athletics events were very special. Gabriel didn’t play
      soccer but went instead into the U12 rugby team at the age of eleven. The boys were only
      allowed to play rugby once they reached high school. He didn’t play cricket but played tennis
      and participated in athletics. Gabriel was a good rugby player in the high school with Nassey
      being the rugby coach. Gabriel was captain of the U13A but was eventually dropped as
      captain because he was too naughty. His team U13, U14 and U15 won almost all their
      games.
      Although Gabriel loved athletics he always had to compete with Terence Lavery who held
      the world record for U17 sprint. In high school, Lavery had to drop out of rugby and
      concentrate on running and as a consequence their rugby team was no longer so strong and
      began to lose games. The Marist weekend in Cape Town was a phenomenal experience.
      The boys planted the new cricket fields, knocking on doors in the area for donations and
      were very successful. In standard 9 they were sometimes allowed out of school in the
      evenings. One of the boys, George Da Matta’s father owned a fish and chip shop, and he
      lent the boys his truck to transport the grass which they collected from nearby Gabriel’s
      home in Buccleuch and planted up the rugby and cricket fields. Br Anthony was not aware of
      the boys trips to the fish and chip shop in Melville.
      Gabriel made some good friends which included Jo Stravino, Anthony Reswick, Peter De
      Kock, Kevin Hussey, Johnny Williamson and Johnny Miranda.
      Gabriel was appointed prefect in his matric year, was awarded his honours blazer, scrolls for
      merit and rugby and was also captain of the army rugby side, Roodepoort. He was selected
      for the Transvaaal U20 rugby team but injured his hand and stopped playing although his
      father, Nassey maintained it was because he discovered women! Nassey was always
      disappointed that Gabriel didn’t become a provincial Transvaal rugby player.
      On leaving St David’s, Gabriel went into the army followed by 5 years studying pharmacy at
      the Johannesburg Technical College. He then opened his own pharmacy and
      pharmaceutical companies together with his brother Andrew and currently owns Eurolab. He
      was awarded the Healthcare IMS award in 1996.
      Eurolab opened 18 months ago and is currently the second biggest supplier of generic
      oncology drugs only marketing drugs which have been approved by the US Federal Drug
      Agency and the MCC in Europe.
      Gabriel supports a settlement nearby his game lodge establishing a community centre, a
      store to sell goods.
      JLE July 2013

1 page A4 transcript in MS Word Pdf file
Interview with Adriano Iorio – 1997
Adriano started his career at St David’s in grade 0 and remembers coming for aptitude tests
with Mrs Kirchner before he was accepted. He was taught by Mrs Scaafsma who was a strict
disciplinarian but a good teacher. Mr Royce was the head of the prep school and was
outstanding and a great History teacher. In standard 5 he remembered someone organised an
event with the Foster brothers talking about their experiences working with the bushmen – the
bushmen believed that all are created different but equal.
Adriano was a general all rounder, was in the prep school soccer team and later went on to play
rugby in the high school from standard 6 until standard 9 and was in the water polo team but
didn’t participate in any sport during his matric year.
In the high school Darryl Boswell never made an impression on Adriano, he was then followed
by Paul Davies but the school turned around with the appointment of Paul Edey as headmaster
of the high school. There were no longer any brothers teaching at the school but teachers such
as Gary Norton made a big impact on him, he was a good leader and deputy head.
Adriano was involved in school plays, debating and public speaking, he directed a play for
College house. He also used to participate in the SMILE programme and made a contribution,
albeit small to the co-workers.
He recalled nothing memorable about either his last day or his matric dance. Adriano enjoyed
the overall ethos and founding principles of Champagnat and the spirit in the classroom and on
the sports field.
Academically Adriano did well receiving the Dux each year and acquired 6 distinctions for
matric, he went on to study engineering at UCT. He was on the Dean’s list and was awarded his
degree, Cum Laude after 4 years. He then worked off his bursary at Mintek, in the mining
industry,he then joined a group of friends starting up a mobile software company. Unfortunately
that folded in 2009 and he is now working for Blue Label Telecomms as an IT/software
specialist, specialising in product development and is also trying to develop a parallel path in the
property and development industry.
Adriano found school quite easy but his impression of first year at university was far more
humbling, away from the insularity of a Marist education, meeting other boys from Hilton,
Kearsney, St Stithians etc. getting a sense of where the bar was actually at. He admired the
boys from the boarding schools as they were generally more independent and adjusted to
university more easily. With hindsight, the internet has changed the landscape and, in an era
without the internet the general exposure to the rest of the world was far less than it is today.
School was insular; however some of his best friendships were made on leadership camps and
with boys from other schools.
Adriano was involved with MOBS when Paul Edey was still around in 2000 until 2003. He is still
in touch with other old boys, Raef Farinha; Craig Chandler; Keith Clover (his mother Mary was
the Librarian); Daniel Wright who is with Google.
Sadly Adriano would probably not send any sons of his to St David’s as it would be too
expensive and he envisages relocating to Cape Town in the future.
JLE May 2012

Black & white photo