It was with profound sadness that the Phobian community received news that a much loved and highly regarded Old Boy, Vincent Anthony Moore, had suddenly passed away.
Vince, as he was fondly known, started the PBHS journey in 1967 and finished Matric as a 1st team hockey player serving as a Prefect on the Executive Committee to boot, thus making him a true ambassador of Sunnyside House! Being a typical Boys High Boy though, Vince did have a taste for adventure and a voracious appetite for fun, leading to one particular anecdote that played out in 1970 and yet will have many that knew him smiling wryly.
It was towards the end of the year and the class of ’70 had already left school. Vince, Pete Brauer, Steve Blair and a few other ‘responsible’ scholars were given keys to the sacred Prefects Room which would serve as the Ops Room for their tenure as Prefects.
During their first meeting, the focus of the agenda switched to alcohol where after it was unanimously decided that some wine was to be brewed. It was minuted that consumption would take place during the reading of the minutes of this first meeting, at the second meeting, which would be held at the same venue in exactly one week’s time. Equipped with a 5l bottle and bung & tube kit courtesy of Willy Brooks’ Lab (The legendary science teacher and deputy headmaster after whom the Brooks Field is named) the ambitious brewers began at once with their pineapple, yeast and brown sugar potion.
As is the case with most pioneering gangs, there is always one member vulnerable to the spoils of a good crime and who leaks the story and once word got out it didn’t take the boarders long to polish the entire pineapple wine batch off without it so much as touching the lips of a very keen Vincent Moore. Suffice to say this is a very plausible explanation pertaining to his love of fine wine (particularly after school) and his insistence that no poor soul is left out of any celebratory occasion – a rule that he religiously stuck to throughout his illustrious and adventure-filled life!
Vince went on to the Navy in Simonstown before returning to study and qualify as a Quantity Surveyor at Tukkies and joining his father’s company, Vic Moore Construction.
Vincent was a natural leader with undeniable business savvy, and this prompted the creation of his own very successful company, HST International. Now, after 31 years, HST remains a leading ceilings and partitions company and Vince would be proud to see it continue to grow based on the sound pillars of integrity and professionalism which he followed implicitly himself and which he instilled in his colleagues and employees from the very first day.
Vincent’s life took an even larger turn for the better when he met the ever-beautiful Betsie. Who he would go to share what can only be termed a swashbuckling 38 years of marriage. A family man through and through, Vince was blessed with two daughters, Jean-Marie and Natalie and even a son in law, Gabriel to help out with braai duty and fine wine decanting. The big man’s heart would swell with the arrival of his two grandchildren, Matthew (affectionately known as Bakkies) and Juliette (the Ginge), who permanently plastered that familiar smile on his warm face, just as it should have been.
Vince had a short list of his favourite things and this enabled him to ensure that he loved them all truly and deeply with a passion and enthusiasm second to none. Family and friends were always first and foremost, but there was a heated battle for third place fought between Boys High, the Blue Bulls and Springboks, the Proteas, Liverpool and last but not least, African wildlife.
Of these, possibly the most consistently loved and rewarding through sheer dogged determination and unstinting loyalty was (and still is) Pretoria Boys High School! Vince went past ’40 years on’ and his pride in the school never wavered and, if anything, grew year in and year out, unwittingly setting a precedent for all Old Boy’s to follow, such was the man.
Each one of us, from 1967 through to the class of 2015, that had the privilege and honour of meeting Vince, will have met a man who was correctly schooled, and will miss him every time the Ist XV take to the field! The Boys High motto states “Virtute et Labore” and so it was for Vincent Anthony Moore 20/02/1954 – 17/08/2015. RIP Vince and don’t worry, we will shut up, drink up and, most importantly, T.T.F.U!
Steve Blair Class of ’71
Jock Seeliger Class of ’72
Gavin Briggs Class of ’91
Jason Storm Green Class of ’93