ROGER ASHLEY PETTY, TEACHER AND FRIEND EXTRAORDINAIRE
It’s with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Roger Petty on 4 April at the age of 86. He suffered a heart attack.
Roger is survived by his wife, Delphine, and three children, Sharon, Bruce and Kerry. He had seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Roger and Delphine lived at Celebration Retirement Village in Olievenpoort, Roodepoort.
“My Dad lived a full and varied life and was always an inspiration to all, in spite of ill health in recent years”, says Sharon. “He showed great courage in the face of all adversity”.
Roger matriculated in the Class of 1954 and taught at the School during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
A remarkable person in many ways, he was an exceptional educationist, sportsman and environmentalist, and could converse with confidence on an amazing variety of subjects. If you spent time with him, you realized that he was a real man among men.
By the same token, Roger wasn’t loud, but had a quiet way about him which made him admired and loved wherever he went.
Tributes from his former contemporaries point to his wonderful rapport with all, marvelous sportsmanship, and he was a delight in any company. He was also always ready and willing to lend a hand whenever he could and nothing was too much trouble.
A tribute to him at his funeral in Johannesburg, read: “A truly wise man does not have preferences in his attitude towards the world. He is simply on the side of Right. That was Roger Petty”.
At the Johannesburg College of Education Knockando residence, Roger bonded closely with a host of aspirant school masters, some of whom went on to teach at PBHS. These included Tim Hill, Headboy in 1951, Tom Bourquin , Clinton Harrop-Allin, Keith Gibbs, Don Anderson and Vivian Hendry. Also among them was Norman Barlow, elder brother of the famed Eddie, whose father had been the School Estate Manager and whose mother ran the School tuck-shop. Others were David Quail and Mark Henning, future Headmasters of Jeppe Boys High and St Stithians College respectively.
As sportsmen, Roger and Tom Bourquin represented the School first cricket and rugby sides; played Nuffield Cricket; and played for the JCE and Wits University under 19 rugby sides. Norman Barlow, meanwhile, went on to represent the Transvaal under 19 rugby side; Tom Bourquin represented the Northern Transvaal senior side, and in 1960 was included in the XV that played the All Blacks side but was walloped 27-3. No mean tennis and table tennis partners, Tom and David Quail won the Knockando and JCE championships on several occasions, though Roger was never far behind.
In the accompanying Knockando rugby picture, Roger is sixth to the right in the second row from the top; Tom, the captain, holds prime position in the third row; and David Quail is to the right, also in the third row.
Following a decade of teaching at Boys High, Roger and Tom switched to St Stithians Boys College (Saints) in Johannesburg and played major roles with Steyn Krige and Mark Henning in its development. Founded in 1953 as a private Methodist School, it was soon ranked one of the top performing independent schools in SA. In 1969, after Saints, Roger taught at Northcliff High for a year.
Then again, along with Steyn Krige, he founded Woodmead School and was Senior Deputy Vice-principal. Currently located alongside the Jukskei River north of Sandton, Woodmead was one of the first multiracial schools in Johannesburg and at the time drew enormous criticism from right-wing circles.
In 1980 Roger and his family moved to Mpumalanga to start educational camps on the Olifants River. A year later he moved to Botswana, and stayed and built two hospitality bush camps in the Tuli Block. He also built a beautiful house on the Limpopo.
In 2003 he returned to SA, and thereafter managed and built many educational camps around the country. In due course, due to ill health, he was unable to travel, but continued to inspire family, friends and former colleagues on a range of fronts.
LEON KOK, Class of 1964
