Donald Mervyn Frost died on 8th March 2011, after a short illness. He was one of the group of Boys High pupils who signed up to fight with the Allied forces in World War II immediatley after leaving school. He served with the South African Air Force, first as an instructor at Dunnotar and later as a ferry pilot in North Afirca and Italy. At the end of hostilites he enrolled at Wits University to study Dentistry and on graduating married a young Physiotherapy graduate Barbara Warren. After a ‘gap year’ working for Britain’s newly established National Health Service, Donald set up the first Dental practise in the newly declared mining town of Welkom. The couple had three children Jonathan a retired museum curator and librarian, Barbara recently retired from the Walter Sisulu Univesity and Robin an intelligence analyst for the Canadian Defence Force. Donald had a wide range of interests he played provincial squash for many years and began a life long passion for golf, in his retirement playing on both South African veterans circuits. He enjoyed tennis, and yachting and in his forties took up sky diving. He maintained his pilots license into his seventies. Donald had a great love of music, playing the piano, banjo and guitar. In the early days he was musical director for several amatuer musicals on the Goldfields. He had a strong sense of Civic responsibilty and was elected to the City Council three times, being granted the honorary status of Deputy Mayor in his final term. Ironically a lot of his support came in the form of protest votes from mine workers who refused to vote Nationalist. During this time he worked hard on the establishment of the Rovers Club sports complex and supported the establishment of the City’s racing circuit. He served on the Board of Governors of Nursery, Primary and High Schools as well as on various sporting bodies. Donald was a founder member of the Rotary Club later serving as its President.
After thirty seven years of marriage Donald and Barbara were divorced and he married his dental assistant, Jeanette Engelbrecht. His marriage to Barbara had seen them raise a family and establish a successful and busy dental practise. Jeannette was to be his companion in his retirement, 22 years younger than he was, they spent many happy years together. After Jeanette and Barbara died within months of each other, a devastated Donald left Welkom for East London in 2006 where he settled into the Fairlands Retirement Village. Donald’s association with Pretoria Boys High continued indirectly for some years after leaving the school when his sister Christine married an art master at the school, the gentle giant, Larry Scully, later to become Professor of Fine Art at Stellenbosch University.
Jonathan Frost