In Memoriam

Mr Graham Dods (Headmaster 1966 - 1983) sadly passed away on Thursday, 7 January 2021 in Hermanus where he had retired. Mr Dods is remembered by many Old Georgians and left an impression on many who passed through the school.

His adventurous spirt, leadership and “let's go for it” attitude carried the school through his many years at the helm. During the 17 years Mr Dods led SGGS, the school experienced many changes and much growth. In 1984 the newly opened Library and Lecture Theatre building was named in his honour.

His dedication to St George’s Grammar School was felt for many years after his leaving.

In his retirement he never stopped adventuring, with bungee jumping the world's highest bridge bungee (216m), Bloukrans Bridge in 2015, and sky diving at the age of 93 in 2019.

Click here to read an extract from "Cross of Gold - The History of St George's Grammar School" by Patrick Coyne (OG 1945) about the years of Mr Dods as Headmaster.

We thank Mr Dods for sharing so much of himself with Georgians and St George’s Grammar School, your gift to us has carried us through our moments of joy and challenges without your even knowing. The path you laid made the steps we take today effortless, we thank you, Rest in peace Mr Dods.

Our condolences go out to his family and many friends around the world.

Mr Dods daughter, Jean Rubesch shared a wonderful tribute to her dad.

A TRIBUTE TO MY DAD GRAHAM DODS

“SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF A HEADMASTER’S DAUGHTER”

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for their comments on the passing of my dad, both good and bad comments! Believe it or not, the bad comments were a gift! At first, I was filled with immense hurt and I couldn’t see anything except the bad comments, I hardly noticed the good things that were said......and then I received a beautiful private message from one of the participants on the site and it made me realize that I had a choice to focus on the negative or focus on the positive and I have chosen the positive.....this is the lesson!

There will always be those that dislike “the teacher”.

I grew up at St. George’s from the time I was born and watched how involved my dad was with the school. In fact, his involvement actually robbed my siblings and me of his time and this he came to realize as we got older. I often watched him sitting on the benches in the school grounds, talking to a junior boy and I wished that it was me he was talking to. We did enjoy trips to the Eastern Cape with him during school holidays, but the rest of the time he was involved with St. Georges. We actually even had 3 boys living with us in our house as they could not afford the boarding school fees and so my parents took them in.......they became like brothers to us and the one even called my father “Daddy”.

Growing up, he actually wanted to be a surgeon, but came from a poor family who could not support his medical career and thus he became a teacher. He had amazing hands and did the most incredible woodwork. He did a lot of woodwork for the school, saving the school thousands. He was the first headmaster in South Africa to introduce blacks into the private school system and for this he was greatly persecuted. In fact, he was told that he could only admit a certain number and when he went over that number, they came to the school to take him away to prison. He did not resist and asked if he could go home, pack his bags and let his wife know. I do not remember what happened, but they never landed up actually putting him into prison. As a young girl, I remember a lot of commotion with “board of governors”, obviously my parents did their best to hide this from us, but I got a glimpse of what was going on..........my dad tried to implement many positive changes at St. Georges and he was shut down by the board of governors at almost every turn. In fact, they made his life a living hell!

Corporal punishment was the order of the day back then and I know for a fact that he did not revelin this

I was always embarrassed that my dad was a headmaster and I never wanted anyone to think that because I had a dad who was a headmaster, that I was a “goody two-shoes”, therefore I made a point of misbehaving at boarding school. I have since come to realize what an amazing honour it was for him to have the position as headmaster. Yes, he was strict, stern and sarcastic. Never strict on his children though, which explains the misbehaving by me at school and the need for discipline!

He had a dry sense of humour and I remember one story he told me about, when he was helping out at the boarding house. One of the prefects bunked out and when my dad noticed he was gone, he got into his bed. He said the look on the boys face when he came back and saw his headmaster lying in his bed, was punishment enough. All he said to him was “see me in my office tomorrow”. The boy obviously didn’t sleep that night, but when my dad saw him the next day, there was nothing to be said..........it never happened again!

My dad lived down the road from me for the past 8 years and I saw him almost every day. I became very close to him and he shared many stories with me. Before St. George’s, he taught at St. Andrew’s College in Grahamstown and over the years, many of the old Andreans have sent wonderful messages to him and even visited us here in Hermanus.

He had a very feisty and adventurous spirit in his old age and he bungee jumped off the Blaauwkrantz bridge at the age of 91, he also skydived at 95. His wish was to break the bungee record, which is 96 and 9 months, but sadly he missed it by 5 months. His wish will partly come true, as our family will be making a trip to Nature's Valley in April and one of his grandsons is going to jump off the bridge with his ashes.

Farewell to the man I called Pops. He was my dad and I loved him very much. May you go peacefully on your journey Dad...

Jean also shared a tribute from Peter, an Old St. Andrew’s boy:...

I had the privilege of reacquaintance with Graham Dods shortly after his 90th birthday when he had done his bungy jump off Storms Rover bridge in 2014. He was in amazing shape for a ninety year old. In fact he was in amazing shape for an 80 year old with a clear mind and memory. He was still driving and still going out for lunch, on occasion, at his favourite restaurant near the sea-cliffs of Hermanus. He was thinner than I remember him, but looked good and was firm of foot and eye, and physically his old, wiry self.

Sadly he passed away on January 7 in his 97th year. He would have turned 100 on September 14 2024 which is close to the date that the ’64 leavers will be celebrating their 60th anniversary of Matric.

By copy of this memo, I ask Jean, his youngest daughter, to send you a short bio of his pre-College life about which I know nothing. I am fairly sure that he did not go to College, much less have had the experience of being in Mullins. Those of us who were there during his tenure did not like him much. He was strict and ran a tight ship which teenage boys did not appreciate – some things never change. Even then we did appreciated his ready smile and often self-deprecating sense of humour. I remember one of his house dinner speeches where he talked about his golf prowess. We had all watched him practicing his short game on the Mullins front lawn. He had seen us watching and talked about our attention to his game (paraphrased) as follows:

“During my golf practice I was delighted to hear some of the boys watching me referring to my prowess in comparison to Bobby. It was most gratifying to be compared to the great Bobby Locke. This pleased me no end until I realized that they were actually referring to me in comparison to Bobby-Jaan.”

This, of course, bought the house down and made the evening for most of us. We derogatively called him the ape-man but we did know him as a fair and compassionate house-master. So, unlike the boys in some of the other houses, we were not afraid of him although we were most respectful of him. After all, as an EP hockey player, he did have a strong right arm!

During my last year at UCT in 1968, Graham was in the process of moving to Cape Town to become head master of St George’s. I spent a few afternoons with him and this is where I got to know him more as a person than as an authority figure. It was where I learned to like him for himself and for his passion for education and developing young people to their absolute potential. When I saw him recently he talked proudly about his involvement, orchestration and management of the move of the school from its historical location adjacent to St. George’s Cathedral in central Cape Town, to its present location in Mowbray. This allowed the school sufficient real-estate to finally have its own sports fields and a more integrated campus.

I had planned to visit Graham during my March/April visit to Cape Town in 2020 but we all know what happened to plans in 2020. So I was cheated of a final beer and lunch with this man who undoubtedly had a marked and positive influence on my life.

Use this as you will, Chris. I’m sure that you will pass on the sad news so that he can be remembered in the history of our alma mater.