NATALIE STEAR
It gives me great pleasure to introduce our guest speaker today.  Natalie Stear was born in East London and matriculated from Clarendon High School for Girls. Thereafter she joined the nursing profession, becoming a registered medical and surgical nurse.
Her major career change came when her two sons were at Junior School and her husband, Bob, encouraged her to study English at UPE (now NMU). She gained her BA and BA Hons degrees there, followed by her post-graduate teachers’ diploma at UNISA and her Master’s degree in Education at Rhodes University (cum laude).
She gained recognition in the teaching profession and education in South Africa when she served as President of the South African Teachers’ Association and was instrumental in the formation of the National Union of Educators, now NAPTOSA.  For this she was honoured with a Life Associate Award.  During the time of the transition in education in SA she served on several committees and was honoured by SACE (South African Council for Education) by being selected among the top 100 educators to be registered by the Council.  She was also a co-author of an English grammar series for Grades 8 to 12 and won a best poetry award from the PE Writers’ Club.
During her 13 years’ tenure as Principal of Riebeek College, the school was listed for three consecutive years in the Sunday Times top 100 schools in SA and it was the first state school in SA to vote in favour of opening to all races.  Also during this time, every matriculant passed.  This included two pupils who wrote and passed their supplementary exams.
Natalie Stear retired as a school principal at the end of the year 2000. She is now involved in proof reading doctoral and master’s degree dissertations and also does the proof reading of the PE, Queenstown, King William’s Town, Mid-Karoo and Kouga Express weekly newspapers.  Each year she is a marker for the English Olympiad National examinations.  In addition, in her retirement, she has written support material for English first additional language for Oxford University Press. To add to this she is also a loving Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother.
She has served as a President of her Rotary club and was recognised in Uitenhage with a Paul Harris fellowship for services to the community and education, and also in Port Elizabeth for her services to Rotary. 
At the end of 2012 she was honoured with a special award by the NMMU (now Nelson Mandela University) Alumni Association for lifelong service to education.
Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you Mrs Natalie Stear.