The 2023 Chronicle

It’s early days and we’ll give feedback on our progress in due course. But so far so good.

otherwise – this is not so much of an issue.

For others, particularly those boys on significant financial aid, there remains great risk that the dream could end when they walk down Warriors’ Walk and out the gates at the end of A Block. A priority of my presidency will therefore be to create some sort of follow-on infrastructure – formal or otherwise – to assist where it is needed. Work has already begun with early onboarding to the club as well as allocating Old Boy mentors to every A Block boy. The mentors, in the main, are Old Boys who have left within the past ten years.

If you’d like to be involved, please do get in touch with Murray or one of the Friendraisers.

All that remains is for me to thank Wayne for his splendid service to our club and pledge my service to you for the coming two years.

It has been and remains a privilege to be in your company.

I hope to see you soon.

OBITUARIES

and it was obvious after Patricia’s death just how much courage and strength he had derived from her! Donald and Patricia moved to the beautiful Zululand hilltop town Eshowe in 1965, a place where he was incredibly comfortable to lead his life, amongst a community he loved, which also included his lifelong friend James Stevenson who Donald had met on his first day at Michaelhouse. Donald was a man with many interests. He was a romantic and loved how expressive the English language is; he was well-read, had a particular passion for poetry and also wrote poetry of his own. He adored music, especially jazz! From as early as his teenage years, Donald was an avid birdwatcher and had a keen interest in plants, trees and wildlife in general, and Zululand was the perfect place to deepen these interests. It was Donald’s role as a doctor however that made our family proudest. We were especially proud of the type of doctor he was – his dedication and commitment to his patients, his bedside manner and compassion and his determination to get to the bottom of every ailment. It was not uncommon to find Donald still making house calls in his 80s. Through his work Donald became very involved in the lives of his patients, many of whom became his good friends and to

Donald went on to study medicine at Wits University and although his studies were always his focus, it was another period in his life where he made the most of every opportunity. His love of the bushveld grew, and he used his time to explore as much of southern Africa as he could. He played rugby and hockey at Wits, while always involved in athletics, but after dislocating his shoulder playing rugby, he decided to focus on athletics. By now it was clear that the 440 yards was his race, and he captained the Wits athletics team the year Wits won the varsity Dalrymple Cup in Stellenbosch. In 1950 he was selected for the Springbok Athletics Team to run against a visiting team from the USA and he narrowly missed being selected for the South African team to attend the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952. After qualifying as a doctor, Donald spent a memorable time in the UK and US. He first worked as doctor in London, and spent his holidays exploring Europe, a year he found incredibly enriching. The following year he worked at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, a city that was to become very special to him and which he always remembered with great fondness. He returned to Johannesburg where he set up practice and a few years later met the woman of his dreams, Patricia, with whom he spent 57 extremely happy years. He and Patricia had a particularly special love for one another. Together they took on life and lived it to the full,

CLARK, DONALD JOHN Born 1929, Died 2023 Michaelhouse, 1944-1947

Donald John Clark was born in Johannesburg on 10 November 1929, which is where he spent most of his early childhood. He attended Pridwin school, an environment he loved and in which he flourished, and his love of nature and the outdoors can be traced back to those early days. It was at Pridwin where the first glimpses of his athletic ability became evident as he outclassed the opposition every year at Pridwin’s sports days. Donald’s grandmother married a man by the name of George Barry, who played a positive and influential role in Donald’s life; it was because all the boys in the Barry family had attended Michaelhouse that Donald followed. He was an only child, and his parents divorced when he was 10 years old, so it was not surprising that Michaelhouse became something of an extension of his family, an institution with which he developed an incredibly strong bond until his last days. The school’s location, its traditions and its beautiful surroundings suited him perfectly and enabled him to further his growing interests. He became a school prefect, played rugby and cricket for the first teams, but it was on the athletics track that it became obvious that he had a special talent.

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