Obituary

The sad passing of industry stalwart Dave Rowlands in April 2020 brings to an end yet another sterling chapter in the history of the South African stainless steel sector.

In 1976 Dave was appointed as the first executive director of the Heavy Fabricators Association (HFA). He broke new ground in a sector where quality management standards were not considered good enough for major specifiers to give work to local industry.

One of his significant achievements was the implementation of quality management systems throughout the sector, thereby boosting its competitiveness. The HFA also initiated the inclusion of the Stainless Steel Sheet and Plate Index in Seifsa bulletins and published a national coding system for stainless steel materials.

Rowlands served as Sassda Executive Director from 1980 to 1985, and during that time developed a ground-breaking educational tool for the industry, the Information Series, which was first published in 1992.

Dave’s work on the information series was a significant shift in the emphasis on stainless steel training for local industry and it has since been adopted as the basis for educational programmes in various countries. Sassda subsequently took over the publication of this invaluable industry from Middleburg Steel and Alloys (MS&A) and the source material was localised.

Dave’s passion became the compilation, presentation and updating of the Information Series and he did this with great attention to detail. He made sure to have samples available to demonstrate principles and this included a stainless steel sink which had pitted from hairdresser’s bleach! It’s probably in this capacity that Dave is remembered by many in the stainless steel industry across South Africa.

Personally, a long-standing love of Dave was the sea and together with his brother in law they built a 14 meter ketchrigged yacht and in 1985 he  resigned and sailed around the world.

On his return, he went to work for MS&A and when it was sold, he took early retirement and was retained as a Technical Consultant to Sassda, a post he held for many years.