Various thoughts…

Claire Martin contributes:

I think I knew Rob for over forty years. 

I met him through Graham, his school and life long friend. 

I was encouraged by Rob to join a socialist walking group and the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. I am now a life member of SPAB. I often met him on SPAB visits and he made every visit memorable. 

He took me to the pub that he was a shareholder of. 

He was unbelievably knowledgeable about geography, including his local geography, and of course real ale! 

I visited him in Cheltenham when he was teaching at Cheltenham Ladies College. 

We undertook countless visits to galleries, historic houses, and gardens. 

I also enjoyed many parties at his different gaffs as he called them. 

He had a brilliant mind and could take the government to pieces in the most amusing and informed way. 

He used to criticise my carbon footprint due to my love of travel and unbroken ownership of a car, which he called the limo. 

We once sang along at the tops of our voices to the Rolling Stones as we travelled through the Kent countryside in my limo! 

He enriched my life and amused me in equal measure. 

He was a remarkable and wonderful man. It was an absolute privilege to know him. I miss him greatly. Claire 

Karin Jashapara writes

Like all of us, I’m sure,  I’ve loved reading other people’s memories of Rob. They reveal more and more of his wide-ranging knowledge, interests and passions. Yes, it was good to know him, whichever him it happened to be!

When I arrived in Carshalton in the late ‘80s, my new home was fortunate, verdant, though the area felt suffocatingly conservative, dull and over-comfortable. But the local Green Party was unexpectedly lively – especially Rob, Graham, Sylvia, Richard and Gay, who were all determinedly different and each in their own way inspirational. Rob’s famous grin and sparkling eyes made it possible to listen to his views, often terribly articulate -  “we’re tearing up the fabric of nature” . I found his knowledge and conviction energising.

A few of us tried car-sharing and even washing-machine sharing, with limited success, but there was no way anybody was about to throw in the towel. It was obvious that everything was utterly pear-shaped (Thatcher was in power!) and a planet-friendly vision was essential.

As well as the usual meetings, fundraising, campaigns, elections, recycling, all made kind of bearable by the sheer liveliness and determination of the personalities I’ve mentioned, there was the dancing. A friend played double bass for The Forest Hillbillies, and for a time Gay, Rob and I went to their gigs, hopping around as if under a spell. At the Sun pub in Carshalton, Terra Folk got lots of us up on our feet  with their  gypsy tunes.  

Rob also enjoyed quests for fine ales with my partner, Ashok, and was kind to our daughters, giving them wonderfully quirky Christmas gifts, and was pleased of course to know that one of them was to take up Geography. Although we saw less of each other in the latter years, it was poignant to visit Tower Cottage after Rob had gone, remembering some great parties there, and to wander around his place, seeing in it his unusual and warm character. I‘m left with lots of good memories, and a book on the Transition Movement, an excellent gift he once for some reason gave me, with which the work, of necessity, in its own way, continues.

Old school and University friend Dave Fryer says

Having known Bob since 1966 from School and University and kept in contact all the years since, it was a real shock to lose him so soon.

 As a schoolkid I used to visit his parents house in Carshalton and go on from there to watch his beloved Robins especially if Carshalton Athletic were playing my team Redhill

 At University he could, of course, be very annoying especially if he was in a group wanting to go out for a drink as he would insist on leading us to some spit and sawdust pub because it served a good pint of Gales ale.

 Bob as well as playing for the Southampton University Chess Team was also a member of the Wallington & Carshalton Chess Club and obtained a very decent playing strength of about 170 ECF grade – for the uninitiated that is County strength.

He stopped playing seriously many years ago however this did not stop him from challenging and beating me in a correspondence game in April 2020. A link to the game is https://lichess.org/tYIHwyNUATUu

Goodbye Bob RIP 

Three of Rob’s pupils reminisce

Wallington High School for boys- showing evidence of Robs presence there on the roof

 From Stephen Dow

‘Rob Steel taught geography while I was at Wallington High School for Boys although he was not my teacher.  My teacher was very formal and distant.  His lessons consisted of rules, fountain pens, dictation, and the threat of a rap across the knuckles.  I thought little of geography as a subject, and assumed that all geography teachers were like that.  So I was surprised when I first came across Rob Steel.

 At the age of 15 or so, I went on an overnight field trip organised by Rob to learn about coastal erosion.  I was more interested in a jolly with my friends than the subject matter.  However, I remember being really taken by his energy and passion when teaching us about the environment.  It was infectious - I wanted to learn more about the world around me when he was speaking.  What a contrast to the other geography teacher who had taught me until then.

 I remember late in the evening before lights out a few of us had opened some beers that someone had brought along.  We knew that we would be in trouble if we were caught, and this was part of the fun.  At this point Rob walked in.  However, rather than giving us a talking to, he asked if he could have one and proceeded to talk to us about how we were getting on.  To my memory, this was the first time I felt a teacher had talked to me as an adult.

 In his time as a teacher, his passion for the subject and ability to reach out and communicate with us as adults will have affected hundreds of students for the better.’. 

And from Graeme Dow

 ‘Rob was probably the most influential teacher I had at school, although if this was not reflected in my Geography grades, it was certainly reflected in my understanding of the world.  Apart from my second year at high school (where I had the pleasure of being terrified and bored in equal measure by Mr Dolby), Rob was my Geography teacher all the way through my time at Wallington High School For Boys.  I think his subject would have been more accurate to label Human Geography, with its emphasis on social and environmental issues.  Or maybe, Environmental/Social Politics for Beginners.  Yes, Rob seemed to me to be something of a Green Party activist disguised as a Geography teacher.  I still remember his blistering critique of the Trickle Down economic theory which, in 1987, was going against the grain.  

Rob cared about what and who he was teaching, which was a refreshing experience.  He did not sound like or dress like any of our other teachers.  He implored us to think for ourselves.  He berated expensive trainers, or "pumps" as he called them, much to our amusement.  He was the only teacher who wore jackets with elbow patches.

He was an inspiring and idiosyncratic teacher and I am happy and honoured to have spent such a formative time with him.’.

and lastly: Colin Dow ….

‘So Bob was my geography teacher when I was a Pupil at Wallington Boys.

As my parents already knew him from the Green Party (I think), he would always look out for me as fellow kin.

To me though, as a kid, he seemed to be a cool guy in the way he wasn’t afraid to be an individual who stood up for his own morals and was cool in being outspoken.

Although he taught geography that didn’t mean he was only interested in rivers and hills, but he would talk of politics and the economy of Africa and the effects of the rapacious western economic policies which made you, as a youngster, think critically and independently which was a good example to a youth and which made him, in turn, a role model which was good.

All round, to me, he was a good bloke who stood firm in his beliefs and, in a way, such people don’t ever leave us but remain with us forever’.

And finally their father George Dow

This is a lovely idea to honour the memory of Rob and his remarkable life.

Here is my memory …

Rob was such an important character in, not only my own life, but the lives of all members of my family. I think I first came across his name in the early eighties on an Ecology Party leaflet, probably in connection with local elections or the general election around that time. I was events secretary for Sutton CND and would come across him at some meetings and demos. He was always such an enthusiastic and committed activist. And a great support when I stood for the Greens in 2010.

 And then there was Rob the teacher, who taught Geography to all three of our sons throughout the late eighties and early nineties. They all considered him to be  fine teacher. And throughout his life whenever we met, he would always ask how each of them were doing. He cared so much for his former students.

 And finally, there was Rob my friend. Always there to help, whether it was in erecting a polytunnel on our allotment or leaving us the keys to his house where we stayed during a gap between moving house from Hackbridge to Penzance. Jacqueline and I were so happy that he and Jacqui had got together as a couple. They were so well matched – and it was a real joy to have them stay with us for a few days during a Cornish visit two years ago.

 It was such a privilege to know him. Inspiring, kind and committed to making this world a better place.

 George

Tansy Honey’s contribution

How difficult it is to describe the memory of a person.  His character and spirit - I can remember as if he were still here, but how to put it into words…

 I knew Rob, not well, but since the 1990s through my work and volunteering at EcoLocal in Carshalton. He was intrinsically part of our community; a part of Carshalton ‘village’ and of the local environmental community. I can visualise Rob now, saying hello with a big grin and, as somebody else said ‘a twinkle in his eye’- that’s so true. He always seemed to thoroughly enjoy meeting and talking with people. I remember him at The Hope Pub, parties at his Tower Cottage, at the Environmental Fair – relaxed and happy – delighted with the world. Though of course he railed against the politics he deplored and against local policies he disagreed with. But he didn’t just moan about the things he disagreed with, he got involved – in the Green Party, the Carshalton Society, and various local environmental forums. I’m not sure how many allotments he had, was it 2 or 3? It’s hard enough to maintain one! He taught one of our organic food growing courses at one time. (see the picture on the home page)  His untimely passing is a great loss indeed, but his legacy, or rather one of his legacies, is that he helped make our community what it is today.

 Tansy Honey