Hugs and memories for Ella du Plessis class of pre-’81

High school reunions can be a daunting experience.

This was not the case for the Ella du Plessis class of pre-1981, which braved the cold to celebrate the school’s 60th anniversary with their former headmaster on Thursday.

The anniversary coincided with a visit from former headmaster Adolf de Klerk and his wife, Veronica, to Namibia from Somerset West in South Africa to renew his driving licence.

A plan was set in motion to bring the class of pre-1981 and its teachers together.

The reunion took place at Brakwater’s Valley of Angels.

Despite their graying hair, the alumni are young at heart, with the class clown cracking jokes and everyone present hugging De Klerk and his wife.

Instead of handing out lashes with his yellow stick, ‘De Kalla’, as they called him, held out his hands to greet everyone and find out what they had done with the lessons he has taught them.

The school’s motto, “per ardua ad astra”, which is Latin for “through struggle to the stars” has silently guided each former pupil on their life journey.

The reunion was organised by Bianca Gawanas-Fowler in the United Kingdom and her planning committee, consisting of Stella Erasmus, Mara Blom-Booysen, Elize Strauss-Symonds, Harald Kambrude, Laetitia Louw-Schwart and Blanche Baatjies-Hoffman.

Former ambassador Pius Dunaiski heralded his former headmaster’s great discipline, foresight and unwavering faith in transforming a community of pupils into important pillars of society.

“After more than five decades, a chance to see how DK’s pupils have made their mark in life . . . I think the old man smiles in his sleep when he dreams of us,” he said.

Namibia Netball Association’s Elize Peterson reminisced on the different sport teams the school had, saying De Klerk fostered a tradition of sport and art.

“Mr De Klerk was a comedian, he was very much into arts. And sport was very high on his agenda, and so we had teams in the school,” she said.

“And then we competed against Dr Lemmer High School, Augustinium other schools. And then we became national players at the end of the day. We sat on the international federation bodies as well,” she said.

Peterson said De Klerk instilled discipline in the pupils by making them help the cleaners clean the classrooms.

“He wanted to always discipline us, and then he actually taught us to clean the classrooms, and I didn’t like that,” she said.

“Later I realised those stones he laid eventually paid off. I’m so glad to have him here now, so we can thank him,” she said.

Nick de Voss, an alumnus and also teacher at his alma mater, said De Klerk was a big contributor to him becoming a teacher.

De Voss said as pupils, he and his classmates looked up to De Klerk, who was the only teacher at the school with a diploma and a bachelor’s degree.

“So, in our minds, he was brilliant and he knew it all. When I came back as a teacher, he was not so much involved in the classroom, but he was still a brilliant geography and language teacher, and he could guide us young teachers on the methodology of teaching.”