Rodney

Rod was a friend I made through the sport of pistol shooting. He did his apprenticeship in the Royal Air Force and landed up in France at the beginning of WW2 with the British Army. He saw the outdated RAF planes shot out of the sky by the then superior German planes. He was in the subsequent British retreat and evacuation from Dunkirk. After that he ended up in Burma via South Africa where he saw at first hand some of the Japanese atrocities. Rod did not let this embitter him but he developed a strong morality and did not suffer fools.

Back in London he found the smog and cold weather intolerable so he and his wife settled in S.A. where he opened a small engineering shop. I had a great interest in making things and Rod was always ready with help and advice. He often gave me materials and tools that I could not afford or get elsewhere. I always offered to pay but Rod never took money. One day I told Rod that it was embarrassing for me to take stuff from him without payment. I will never forget his reply : "The materials I give you are left over from a job and are already paid for. The tools I give you are still of good quality but the slight wear they have gone through makes them unsuitable for the extreme accuracy I need in my work. I have recovered the costs of these and do not want another payment. If, by giving you these items I improve your life, you may carry that on by doing something kind for the next person and in turn they may help another. In that way there will be a little more happiness in the world and that is all payment I need."

What a man. I wish that I had implemented his philosophy more often in my own life.

Another gem I got from Rod: Before you make something do a drawing. That way you make the mistakes on paper where that can be corrected cheaply and easily rather than having expensive box-ups on the job.