Ross Metcalf

Ross Metcalf spent his working life in classrooms — chalk dust, lesson plans, and the endless optimism that tomorrow’s lesson will be even better than today’s.

He taught across the years when South African schooling was reinventing itself repeatedly — and his gift was to keep pupils engaged despite the bureaucracy swirling around them.

His approach was patient, firm when required, and grounded in the idea that curiosity is contagious. Former students still remember his classroom as a place where questions were welcomed, not feared.

Retirement has allowed him to trade homework marking for reading, golf, and time with family — but the teacher’s instinct to explain and encourage never quite switches off.

At Probus he remains the fellow who can make a complex idea simple — and who still knows how to keep a room paying attention without raising his voice and telling an engaging story. 

Probus talks:   2025-07-09  Story Telling.