Ron Underwood   1924 - 2010

Ron Underwood was born on 27 June 1924 in Britain in (Wandsworth) London and attended a County school until the beginning of the war. After completing the equivalent of his matric, Ron left school at the end of 1940 as a young man of 16.

He began his working career on a farm at Ludlow in Shopshire and left the farm to work for a trade union in London. He was called up to the Air force and trained in London before being sent to Rhodesia and from there overland to Palestine, where he completed his final training.

Thereafter, Ron was assigned to a squadron in the South of Italy and took part in numerous bombing operations over war torn Europe. Having achieved the rank of WO 1, he returned to London after the war and started working as a salesman for one of the biggest bread company’s in Britain.

In 1947 Ron applied to join the BSAP (The British South Africa Police) in Rhodesia.  He met his wife Kate Delicia Brunton and married on 21 October 1950 in the small town of Gwelo. They had two children Geoff and Patty, Geoff is working in Cape Town as a Town planner and Patty is living in California. 

Ron left the BSAP as a Chief Superintendent after 23 years of service, he went to work for the tourism board and later retired as the Chief Development Officer for tourism. In 1981 he and his wife Kaye immigrated to South Africa choosing to live on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast where he worked for several businesses, before coming onboard at the Association in 1990 at the age of 66. After 18 years of loyal service to Master Builders KwaZulu-Natal, Ron eventually retired at age of 84. Sadly on 31 August 2010, he passed away at the age of 86. 

The success of his relentless drive to grow the Association’s South Coast member base remains evident today. He will be sorely missed as a colleague and a friend.

Hans Stols | South Coast Regional Manager