Local newsNews

Kingsway teacher mourned

A Kingsway High School teacher, Philip van der Westhuizen died on Thursday, 15 August.

Philip was known to Kingsway High School pupils as ‘Mr vd Besti’, who didn’t walk, but floated around gracefully. He was always there to lend an ear or helping hand to pupils and staff. He and his wife took pupils under their care in various ways on many occasions.

Philip was an accomplished pianist and accordion player. Poetry at Kingsway will never be the same again. Every now and then, he would start playing his accordion and pupils would sing the poems.

He was an outstanding photographer and started the photographic society at the school.

Philip taught at many different schools over the past 40 years. He was headmaster of a large educational institution in his 40s and thrived in the educational environment.

For the past six years he taught Afrikaans at Kingsway. He loved languages and held a degree in English and a post-graduate qualification in higher education.

“Philip was a great man, who lived his day to day life with love, strength and sheer determination for his family by the grace of God. Those were the principles he lived by and installed in his family,” said Kingsway principal, Geoff Harrison.

His greatest accomplishment was his marriage and love for his wife of 39 years, Pam, his two children Fransua and Liezle, his daughter-in-law Helen, son-in-law Wouter and four grandchildren.

At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Stay in the know. Download the Caxton Local News Network App here.

Related Articles

Back to top button