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Inspiring teacher remembered

One of the Bow Valley’s favourite teachers was remembered this week as a kind, compassionate man with a powerful love for his family, his students and community.

One of the Bow Valley’s favourite teachers was remembered this week as a kind, compassionate man with a powerful love for his family, his students and community.

Hundreds of people packed a hall at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Centre Saturday (Feb. 12) to pay their respects to Pieter Grobler, 70, a man of many talents and many loves, all of which he eagerly shared.

Grobler, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1940, worked in the Bow Valley as a teacher and school administrator for 32 years. Known by his students as Mr. G, Grobler taught at the Banff Elementary School as a Grade 4 teacher for most of those years where he was recognized as a vibrant, dynamic teacher with a passion for helping others discover the joy of learning.

He was also a quiet man who used his actions to show his love for those around him.

“There are two things I learned from my father,” Grobler’s son, Achilles, said during the service.

“My father was a very kind man. He took an interest in people and by listening to them he gave them confidence in themselves. Kindness is such a simple thing. It doesn’t take much effort but it was something that my dad, in his own small way, did (to make) people’s lives around him better.”

Those words were echoed by Grobler’s sisters, Ria and Betsie, who described their brother as having a “kind and gentle heart”, Achilles said, reading from a letter.

“(Grobler’s) ultimate priority and love was for his wife, children, grandchildren, who were his greatest joy. As a family man, a loyal friend and compassionate teacher, he would always make time for others. His passion for teaching and his gift for energizing students was exceptional. We, his sisters, would like to thank all students and teachers who shared his life and made it possible for him to live his dream. To the community of the Bow Valley who knew him and cared… to you all… please don’t forget him, cherish his memory because he was such a special person.”

Grobler came by these qualities at an early age, born to hard-working parents who valued education and family.

His parents were poor Afrikaner farmers who left South Africa for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where his father had gotten a job as an overseer at a mine.

“My dad was a poor kid. He didn’t have much. He came from a family that valued education. All of the family income after food and shelter was saved for the education of my family and his two sisters. As a result of that, my dad had to find his own way to entertain himself,” Achilles said.

One of the ways Grobler did that was to sit with the African workers as they told stories around their campfires. Listening to their stories led him to become a storyteller in his own right.

Those stories became the backbone of three novels, the first – The Hunter and the Honeybird – written in the 1970s and then revised in 2004 and published as Nkwazi: Sentinel of Africa’s Wilderness and then his most recent novel, Not Enough Time to Cry.

The interaction he had with the many peoples of Africa led him to believe that there had to be a better way to live than what apartheid offered. After university, during his second teaching post in 1965, Grobler turned his interest toward Canada, where he eventually got a teaching job in Bruce, AB, located southeast of Edmonton.

During that time, while taking courses at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Grobler met his wife, Mirjam; they were married for 41 years.

In 1973, Grobler came to Banff for a conference where he fell in love with the Bow Valley, finding work at the Canmore high school that same year.

Four years later he began working at Banff Elementary School, where he stayed until he retired in 2005.

Cori Fraser, a Canmore teacher and Grobler’s friend, after reading a quote by Stephen Grellet that Grobler kept on his office door – “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good things, therefore, that I can do, any kindness that I can show a fellow being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” – shared thoughts from a few of his many students, who described him as an “amazing man” with a “beautiful disposition”.

“Mr. Grobler was one of the most passionate men I knew. Passionate for his family, for his teaching and for the world we live in... He was more of a friend, in fact, he was family,” Fraser said, quoting a former student.

“Mr. Grobler was the coolest teacher in the world. He had an accent and most of his stories were from Africa. He always caught the attention of the students listening to him. If there was a child that needed help, he would be there. He was a unique teacher who just can’t be replaced in my heart,” she said, quoting another student.

Hugh Notman, who is married to Grobler’s daughter, Sabrina, told the crowd Grobler became a surrogate father and a friend.

“Pieter’s death is tragic because even at 70, which is no small feat for many men to reach, he was the embodiment of a bigger health and energy that truly belied his age. More importantly, he had so much left to give and teach,” Notman said.

Although Grobler is gone, Notman urged everyone to follow Grobler’s lead and do as he would as a way to make the community better and to remember Grobler by following his lead.

“Perhaps telling a story to the next child you meet, by showing your children or grandchildren how to find sea monsters on YouTube, by greeting everyone you meet with a smile and their first name, religiously bringing your loved ones a Danish and coffee every morning, and perhaps then we can go in some small way to filling the void left by Pieter Grobler,” Notman said.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

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