I never planned to write a book. It was never on a retirement bucket list, and having read books written by colleagues over the years, I certainly did not feel I could emulate their erudition. Shortly after Cherry died, Eugene Ashton, of whom she was very fond, contacted me and invited me to breakfast. He had been overseas when she died and had missed her memorial service, and he wanted to chat about her. During a long and leisurely breakfast, he suddenly said, ‘Boss, you have a book in you. If you write it, we will publish.’ This, coming from the chief executive of Jonathan Ball Publishers, certainly required some serious consideration, and so here is the result of that conversation.
It has taken just over a year to write this magnum opus. Never having kept a diary or journal, other than for the odd overseas holiday, I had to dig deeply into the recesses of a failing memory and contact friends and colleagues from the past and tap into their memories. This has proved to be a most worthwhile exercise and has renewed friendships that had faded over time. As the chapters began to appear and were dutifully sent to my publisher, Annie Olivier, I began to take courage as she seemed satisfied with the content and the style. Her quiet yet firm suggestions to elaborate on certain points and discard certain others were greatly appreciated, if not always agreed upon.
I have always been a bit wary of autobiography, as it can become a self-indulgent chronicle. I hope my efforts will not be viewed as such by readers. The writing of this has caused me to reflect on a very rich life and to mull over the things I have said and done, some embarrassing moments, some failures and some successes. I hope that as you accompany me on this journey, you will be able to identify with many of the anecdotes as they remind you of some of your own escapades as a schoolboy or even as an adult. I also hope that in these chapters there will be incidents that will encourage those in teaching, the mother of all professions, whether they be at the coalface, in administration or management, to continue doing what so many of them do so well. I hope they will realise just what a huge impact and lasting influence they have on those whom they teach, coach or counsel, and through that, the huge impact they have on the society in which they operate.
Thank you to Eugene Ashton for sowing the seed and giving me such wonderful people with whom to work. Annie Olivier more than lived up to her reputation of being one of the best in this game. It was a privilege working with her, and without her expertise, patience, encouragement and a bit of flattery, this book would never have seen the light of day. To my editor, Alfred LeMaitre, thank you for your work in honing the final product. And thank you to the Jonathan Ball team, who have made this all happen.
I am honoured that Professor Jonathan Jansen has contributed the foreword, as I am for the endorsements from John Smit and Bernard Kantor. To my friends and colleagues – too many to mention here – thank you for your advice, insights, encouragement and anecdotes. My thanks go also to Gail Bloemink, my secretary for 20 years, for those years as well as talking me into this; to Ela Cockrell, for arranging and hosting a ‘Down Memory Lane’ function in Cape Town, enabling me to reconnect with a large group of colleagues from 30-plus years ago; and to Ruth Buckland, my secretary at Pinelands High, whose farewell gift to me was two beautifully presented lever-arch files of my life up to 1990, which was a veritable treasure trove of anecdotal material and pictures.
I wish to thank John Illsley, the second master at Pretoria Boys High School, and himself a respected author, for his advice and support. His Boys High centenary publication and 20 years’ worth of Pretorians, the annual publication that he edited for about ten of those years, proved a most valuable source of memory-jogging. His willingness to source original photographs for this book, and his just being there for me as my last second master and my friend, is appreciated beyond words.
My sincere thanks go to my three children, Tracey, Glenn and Bradley; their respective spouses and partner, Michael, Alison and Leanne; and my grandchildren, Jason, Nicole, Zoe and Liam, for their love, support and encouragement, particularly over the past couple of years. The dedication of this book to Cherry is but a small token in return for the massive part she played in my life.
Finally, my immense gratitude goes to the thousands of boys and girls, over nearly 50 years, without whom there would have been no book, no career and none of the richness of life, the fun and the life lessons that they gave me.
Bill Schroder
March 2019