Robert Douglas Vassen (27 Apr 1938 - 3 Mar 2016)

In loving memory of Robert Douglas Vassen (Bobby) who sadly passed away on 3rd March 2016

Robert “Bob” Douglas Vassen was born on April 27, 1938, in South Africa and raised in the Indian suburb of Fordsburg, just outside Johannesburg. In many ways, his life was quite ordinary. He grew up in a supportive environment of family and friends and experienced life events common to many youngsters around the world. But as a “non-white” in apartheid South Africa, Bob was also surrounded by prejudice and oppression. As a young man, he was greatly impacted by leaders in the anti-apartheid movement, and he grew to believe that we are all responsible for implementing positive change in society. After attending university where he studied education and later law, Bob became a teacher working with students largely from impoverished families, and he strove to give his young pupils the dignity they were not always afforded as minorities in South Africa.

In 1961, although controversial among members of the African National Congress (ANC), the armed forces branch of the ANC was formed, known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) , and Bob—quite unlike his character—became one of its first young recruits. Just a few years in, however, the actions of the MK dwindled perhaps due to the arrests of countless ANC members, a “mopping up” of the ANC, as Bob describes it, and by late 1963, life for Bob had quietly become one of teaching and spending time with his newly wed wife and friends.

But it was on a Monday morning of October 1964 that Bob received news that changed the direction of his life. His father had news that the South African police were asking Fordsburg neighbours of his whereabouts. Spurred on by advice from leaders of the Indian National Congress and the knowledge that numerous ANC comrades had been imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered, Bob and his family planned his escape. Within two days, he was on an Alitalia flight, London-bound, leaving behind his wife Ursula and 6-month-old son Sean.

Bob continued as a teacher in a London school and later changed career to teach English as a foreign language to adults. He later became head of a school in Victoria.

At the age of 52 and after 26 years in London, Bob and Ursula moved to Michigan where he was an associate professor and helped run the English Language Center at Michigan State University. They remained in the USA until Bob’s retirement in 2006. They then returned to the UK to be close to their family and grandchildren.