The Foundation Office received the following interesting story from Peter Levey (Graham 1963) recently.
“I think that you published the story of Graham Dods’ (Hon OA) bungy jump off the Storms River Bridge in 2014. Since I was intending to visit Cape Town in 2015, this prompted me to meet with my old House Master while there and Frances and I spent a delightful day with Graham and his daughter, Jeanne, in Hermanus where they both now live.
This crazy stunt was something that Graham had wanted to do for some time and he did it on his 90th birthday. He drove me to lunch and still lives a very independent life. He has changed very little except that he has mellowed since his working days. Being a house master of Mullins with 80+ teenage boys to contend with would not be something that most people could do – and do well – without being pretty tough. So he had to mellow. We were all a bit afraid of him, but he was always fair and encouraging. I met him only once after I left College and before I left South Africa, and that was when he moved to become Head Master of St Georges in Cape Town in about 1968. He was instrumental in moving this venerable school from its original location in downtown Cape Town, to the much more accessible location that it now occupies.
And at 91, he still had a “bucket list”. One of the items on it was to sky dive. Well guess what? He did this in September this year on his 95th birthday! Jeanne tells me that he really enjoyed the experience.
I look forward to visiting him early 2020 when, no doubt, I will find out what he still wants to do, particularly on his 100th.
He is a remarkable man who positively influenced so many young men. He could not have been more welcoming when we visited him. I would encourage any of the old Mullins gang from his era to contact him when in the area. Like most of us in our later years, he loves to reminisce.”
Have a look at Graham Dods’ skydiving HERE!