Sandy Grant, who passed away on 23 rd February, was a pupil at Pretoria Boys High, having matriculated in 1958.
He enjoyed his years at the school making his mark in swimming and water polo, and accumulated a vast number of friends during his school career, friendships that he retained for the rest of his life.
Sandy went on from school to attend Pretoria University culminating in his qualification as a Quantity Surveyor. After a couple of years of practical work with the Gerrie de Jong construction operations, he declined an invitation to become a partner at a prominent firm of Pretoria quantity surveyors, opting instead to set up his own building and construction company, initially in partnership with John Nunn, also a PBHS old boy and finally with Colin de Kock.
Sandy ran his construction operations under the name Alexander Grant Construction for a period of thirty-five years, and the legacy of his business can be seen in many well known buildings throughout Pretoria, including the communal dining hall at Boys High.
He was an active man with an active mind, well read, with opinions that were always balanced and insightful, across a broad range of subjects. He participated in motor sport, making his mark as a works rally driver, but his first sporting love was cycling in which, amongst other awards, he was the South African Veterans’ Cycling champion. Prior to his illness, he regularly cycled from Pretoria to Plettenberg Bay, where he had built a lovely holiday home.
He married Elaine Glen, a Pretoria Girls High girl, and they produced two daughters, Lynn and Caren and a son Ross, also a Boys High old boy. Ross, following in his father’s footsteps, became a Springbok cyclist. The girls delighted Sandy and Elaine with four lovely grand children, in whom Sandy could not contain his love and interest, and Ross is engaged to be married in June and will hopefully add to Elaine’s delights.
Sandy succeeded in everything he tackled, but perhaps his most noteworthy and appealing characteristic was his deep interest in people. He could remember virtually everybody he had met at school, and, in most instances, knew where they were.
He was able to converse at every level and was comfortable in the company of princes and paupers. He was intrigued by unconventional characters, drawing great delight from conversations with people from all walks of life, and, in particular the Damon Runyonesque characters whom he befriended, such as his motoring pals “Bearings” Brits and “Clutch” Cloete.
His friendships, observations and experiences filled him with a wonderful array of stories with which he kept his friends continually entertained, and I fully remember his excitement when he discovered that Jimmy Abbot was about to launch the career of a new professional heavyweight wrestler named Petrol Pyp du Plooy.
In 2006, Sandy became ill causing him to become paralysed, virtually overnight. Initially it was hoped that he had the Guillaine- Barre virus, a condition that causes similar paralysis, but from which there is a reasonable chance of full recovery. Indeed he started showing improvement, and was able to walk short distances on crutches, but then suffered a series of setbacks causing him to become more and more inactive.
It ultimately became clear that Sandy had a progressive auto-immune disease, his condition slowly deteriorating over a period of five and a half years, until he succumbed on the 23rd of February 2012.
He treated his disease with great courage and dignity, a gentleman to the end, generous with his compliments and his concern for others. His memorial service, held at the lovely home he had built, was very well attended with many of his old school acquaintances there to pay their last respects.
Despite his premature departure, he will not slip from our minds, and the loss that his passing has left on both his family and his many friends is partially alleviated by the rich memories that we have of him, and the impact he had on our lives.
Submitted by Tiny Barnetson, a friend of 60 years