James Apollis dies

James Apollis, referee and long-serving referees' administrator, died suddenly at his home in Bellville early in the morning of Monday, 13 December 2010.

For some time his health has been troublesome though of late he seemed much better. He woke early on Monday morning. His wife Ursula went off to make tea for him while he went to clean his teeth. When she returned he was dead after suffering a massive heart attack.

James, who came from a well-known rugby family, played in the three-quarters for Bellville, a SARU union, was an SA Cup referee with some 25 representative matches and after his active days became an administrator in the Tygerberg Rugby Union in SARU, as it was constituted before unification, serving on the both union's executive and on the referees' executive whose chairman he was.

In the process of unifying rugby in South Africa he served on the joint committees in the Western Province and in South Africa. In that process he played a big part with his tenacious fairness. Nobody could get away with shoddy thinking when he was present.

After unification, which went smoothly in refereeing ranks, James served on the executives of the SARFU referees and the Western Province Referees' Society. Western Province sent him to New Zealand to do a course in assessing and he ran the difficult assessment committee brilliantly for some years, a brilliant, meticulous organiser. Apollis was also the vice-chairman of Western Province Referees and still on the committee at the time of his death. Nationally he served on the referees' executive, was a national assessor and the convener of the national assessment committee.

Just recently SA Referees voted to award Apollis life membership. When the present Western Province Chairman, Dan de Villiers, went to tell him, Apollis was clearly moved.

Steve Meintjes, the chairman of SA Referees, said on hearing of Apollis' death: "James was a mentor to many of us and a close friend who gave advice freely. He will be greatly missed."

Refereeing was not his only activity. He was also the chairman of Western Province primary Schools and heavily involved in schools athletics.

Apollis was a schools man. He was the principal of a fine primary school at Pinedene, often involved in contact with overseas schools, a contact which resulted in a well-equipped computer room at the happy school.

James Apollis was born in Tulbagh on 26 January 1943, one of 13 children whose parents died young. He died in Bellville on 13 December 2010, a strong family man, survived by his wife Ursula, his sons Lynton and Grant, his daughter Jo-Ann, and three grandchildren. Apollis was so delighted when Jo-Ann produced a grandchild about a month ago.