Stuart John Dunbar (1975)

Stu Dunbar, late of Northlea School, Bulawayo, Rhodes University and Kenton-on-Sea, Eastern Cape, died yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 22nd April, 2009), after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Stu was a wonderful fellow - full of humility, a carer for his fellow man, a magnificent sportsman and athlete. Preston Robertson, who was the Rhodesian captain when Stu was first selected to the team had this to say...." I remember him well - I called him The Mule 'cos he could kick the ball so damn far and this young guy came in to the team and covered himself in glory from his first game" ... and I remember watching Stu put over a penalty kick fully 70 m out for Rhodesia during a Currie Cup game played at the Salisbury Police ground in about 1972. When he followed through on his place kicks, his right foot would be way above his head (over his left shoulder)- it was an amazing sight and given his muscularity and height, it is no wonder he was able to kick the ball so far.
Stu played for Rhodesia from 1970 to 1974 - (except for 1973 when he was recovering from a seriously broken ankle that occurred when playing for against the touring Cardiff XV (that famous Welsh team lead by Gareth Edwards) - it was this ankle break that had him turn down a Springbok rugby trial. Stu played in every backline position for Rhodesia in his time in the team except for scrumhalf (not surprising seeing that he was well over 6 feet tall!).

Jonty Winch, who wrote the book... Rhodesia Rugby - a History of the National side 1899 - 1979 had this to say...." There was admiration for two Rhodesians in 1974 when they returned to the national fold after long spells out of the game through serious injury. Ray Varkevisser came back......and his Bulawayo Queens clubmate, Stu Dunbar, after playing all the positions bar scrum-half behind the pack for Rhodesia, broke his leg playing for Midlands against Cardiff early in the 1972 season. The injury, which prevented him from accepting a Springbok trial, was complicated by twisted tendons and ligaments, but contending with immense discomfort, he returned to the Rhodesia side as fly-half'.

He left Rhodesia for Rhodes University in 1975 where he studied and completed his Pharmacy degree with distinction. Because of the previously mentioned ankle injury, he declined to play rugby at Rhodes, despite all us there imploring him to and turned his attention to the game of squash, where, within a short time, was the E.P. number 1 senior men's squash player and on his day, could beat any of the top ranking S.A. (Springbok) players.
He continued to play squash into the Master's leagues and was a presence at many S.A. Senior and Masters Tournaments over the years.
He was also a fine golfer and could drive the ball hundreds of yards - given his height, natural strength and natural ball playing skills whose handicap was way down into the single figures.
After completing his Pharmacy studies at Rhodes in 1978, I lost contact with him as I was moving around the country but as Port Alfred became a place of choice to visit during holiday time (my in-laws had a cottage there), I came across Stu at the Kenton-on-Sea pharmacy which he subsequently bought (Kenton is about 20 km S of Port Alfred). As we tended to only visit Port Alfred during peak season (Christmas and New Year) trying to see Stu in his exceptionally busy pharmacy was difficult for more than just a snatched conversation here and there but through my brother-in-law, who was also a pharmacist and a golfer (living in Port Alfred), the communications lines were kept open.
I mentioned his humility and caring for others - during the last part of his illness, his main worry was for his family and friends, he feeling that he had let them all down with this terrible disease. When I last spoke to Stu - about a month ago - he said to me that he had try to fight the cancer the medical way by chemotherapy but it had left him feeling so ill that about 9 months ago he had decided to fight it on his own ground - and that seemed to work until about 6 weeks ago, when he took a bad turn from which he did not recover.
The world has lost another wonderful person and a young one at that, as Stu was born in about 1949 or 1950 so he wasn't even 60 years of age when he died. I am just so thankful that I had got to know him and am honoured to have been able to have called him my friend.

Submitted by Rob Maclean