David Sawers was one of the best known and best liked members of the class of 1961.  He was a cheerful person of great amiability and charm, generous and open-minded, physically fearless, and always ready for any new experience or adventure.  Despite his relatively small stature, he played rugby with astonishing energy and ferocity, and was a valued member of the DHS first XV of 1961.  In this photo he is middle row, second from the left:

Dave repeated a year at DHS, so he matriculated with the Class of 1962.  In that year he again played for the first XV, and he was also a school prefect.  Dave appeared in a 1962 Daily News "school's out!" photo:

After school Dave attended the Air Force gym, and then proceeded to the University of Natal in Durban, where he took his B.Econ degree.  His first job after graduating was with the Shell Oil company.

Dave married his childhood sweetheart Rosemary Bizzell (classmates recall that at DHS he proudly carved her name onto his wooden ruler).  In the late 1960s he and Rosemary moved to Toronto, where Dave worked for Shell in various capacities.  Unfortunately the marriage broke down in Canada: their teenage romance, centered on sociable, languorous days on Durban beaches, did not survive the harsh realities of actually living together in a city with fewer friends and interminable sub-zero winters, and the couple divorced.  

Dave then formed a new relationship with a lass from Liverpool who was working in Toronto.  He eventually married her, but apparently nobody now living can recall her name, so (like the names of most people who have ever lived) it is lost to the abyss of time.  In the 1970s Dave's father died, and he returned to South Africa with his new wife to take over the family business, Powells Jewelers.  However his wife disliked her new life in Africa, so the couple divorced and she returned to the comforts of Liverpool.

Dave next married Gail Griffiths, on the 7th day of the 7th month of 1977 (he correctly bet on horse number 7 in that year's July Handicap, too).  Dave and Gail had two sons, the identical twins Gareth and Nicholas.   About ten years later Gail visited Israel and became so enamoured by that country that in 1986 she divorced Dave, converted to Judaism, and joined the Israeli army.  Dave kept custody of his sons, but missed Gail so much that he went to Israel and persuaded her to return to South Africa, but she left again in 1989.

In 1996 Dave married for a fourth time, to Sheila Lourens.  She had also had multiple marriages and added her children Mark, Samantha, and Emma to the household, so they effectively became Dave's step children.  Dave and Sheila remained on good terms until the end of his life, although from 2020 onwards Sheila spent much of her time doing care work in the UK to supplement the family income.

As central Durban entered a spiral of decay at the turn of the century,  it became harder to maintain Powells Jewellers in its original Broad St location, so Dave moved its operations to a new location in Westville.  A dispute with a partner there led him to relinquish that business, and open a new one, D M Sawers Jewellers.

Dave was a keen golfer, but his favourite pastime, from childhood onward, was fishing.  He was part owner of a trout farm in the KZN midlands, and also owned a beach cottage in Mozambique, which he visited regularly for ocean fishing expeditions:

Dave was an avid supporter of Class of 1961 activities.  He attended our 50 year reunion in Durban in 2011.  Here he is at the opening reception with his schoolfriend David Anderson and David's partner Janet.  

And here is Dave delivering a speech at our Grand Reunion dinner:

And here again, with some Class of 1961members who got together for a post-Reunion game of golf:

Dave underwent gall bladder surgery in 2018, which required him to temporarily stop taking blood thinning medications to prevent blood clots.  Perhaps because the medications were suspended for too long, he suffered a stroke.  The stroke left him with some physical and visual impairments that made it impossible to carry on with his jewelry operation, so financial difficulties followed.  

Dave attended our Class of 1961 gathering in Morocco in 2018, but could do so only with the assistance of his son Nicholas, who accompanied him.  Here he is with Lee Irvine at at our repecption dinner:

And here Dave is with his son Nicholas and other bold spirits from our class, in a hot air balloon near the Atlas mountains:

In subsequent years Dave experienced a steady loss of weight, which eventually left him very thin and frail.  He became unable to live independently and moved into the Garden Grove retirement home in Durban (the old Los Angeles hotel) and then to the care home Tuinsig, near the Botanic Gardens.

To his great disappointment Dave was not well enough to participate in our 61 year reunion in Israel in 2022, with its gruelling overnight flights and demanding, week-long schedule.  However Dave won great admiration for his determined and courageous attendance at subsequent local KZN functions, right up to a few months before his death. It was evident to all present that he was calling on his last reserves of strength and endurance to be able to join his old comrades again.

Dave became very ill in late 2025, possibly from the effects of metastatic melanoma which was diagnosed that year.  He passed away peacefully in Durban on 4 December 2025, surrounded by family members.    

David Sawers is survived by his wife Sheila; his son Gareth;  his son Nicholas and partner Tamilyn; his stepchildren Mark, Samantha, and Emma; and ten grandchildren.

[Special thanks to Nicholas Sawers, Nick Gray, David Anderson, and Tony Crosby for their help with this In Memory notice]