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Roger Dale is remembered as a warm, friendly, and articulate classmate. Roger married Deborah Geyser in 1986. He and Debbie had two children, a son Cal and a daugher Skye, and he also had a son Shane from an earlier marriage.
Roger had a strong artistic and creative flair and pursued a career in publishing and online editing. He died of cancer in Durban on 20 January 2004.
The following three photos of Roger were taken by classmate David With at Salt Rock in 1962.
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Terence Dowdall
I was really sorry to hear that Roger had died. I knew him slightly at DHS but came to know him well at Natal University, where we were both studying. I spent many hours between lectures in the refectory at UND, drinking coffee, eating buns and chatting with him about a thousand things. I always liked his calm, even-tempered, amiable manner, and his openness to consider and discuss anything at all, from his own sensible and analytic perspective. I really regret not having seen him over all these years. Does anyone know his wife/widow?
David With
I came to know Roger as a fellow rugby battler during 1960-61 in the 5th XV (Bushwackers) campaigns, that band of not-too-competitive rugby blokes who would cluster for a fag before the matches. Following matric year Roger and I would meet after work at the Musgrave Road hotel near the school and philosophise, in our embryonic way, on the world yet to emerge for us. During that year, 1962, we spent a week-end tenting and tasting the freedom at Salt Rock in an overcrowded campsite, and being rained out for our troubles. The photos above, appropriately borrowed from my profile page, were taken at that time and embody the ‘roughing it’ nature of the experience.
Roger had a sensitive feel for literature, and love of books. I recall trawling the second-hand bookshops in Durban with him and poring over volumes of 19th century literature with the gold edged books of Tennyson, Dickens and the like, and their fine etching illustrations. It was no surprise Roger pursued the publishing business.
Over the past many years I have wondered how Roger was doing, and it was only when the Class of 1961 website emerged late last year, and the opportunity arose to contact many of those I had known so long ago, that I looked him up. However, sadly and to my regret, his life had already ended some years earlier.
Terence Dowdall
This isn't really a comment - but does anyone have contact details for Roger's wife Debbie? I'd really like to visit her and hear more about his life and what he did, their children etc. I really liked Roger, and have much regretted not keeping contact with him.
Terry Dowdall
Ian Robertson
Terry, Roger's wife Debbi has her own company called Media Negotiations, where you can contact her at +27 71 362 7078, or info@medianegotiations.co.za. She is also on FaceBook and Linkedin if you prefer to use those. Ian