Remembering Steve Dean

The cricket-loving music oficianado Steve Dean, a great St Mary’s character

Some sad news reaches us of the death of Steve Dean who was at St Mary’s between 1963 and 1969. Here his friend and contemporary Phil Mackie pays tribute to a wonderful and much-missed character

“It is with sadness that I announce the death of my dear friend and former classmate Steve. We first met in form 1A in September 1963. Like many who passed through the doors of St. Mary’s, we would swap old school anecdotes at the drop of a hat, still finding amusement in some old nonsense or other from nearly 60 years ago. Silly nicknames abounded then, and for reasons that defy rational explanation, Steve is listed in my phone as ‘Organtube Woodbinehauser’. With the passing years, we would sometimes pause to remember an old boy who has now left this world. Steve parted company with St. Mary’s in 1969 and did not stay on to the upper sixth, going instead to Bromley Tech then Nottingham Trent. Our paths diverged for a while after school, but I know he spent some time as a stone mason. His last job was with Bromley Council. After retirement, he moved to Hastings.

“Steve was a keen cricketer. I cannot comment on his abilities as I am, in the words of Vivian Stanshall ‘an odd boy who doesn’t like sport’. But once we were discussing the classical guitarist Julian Bream, who played cricket yet never insured his hands, despite the obvious threat to his career should he suffer any injury. Steve’s response was ‘cricket is a higher god.’

“We had a shared interest in music and played together in various schoolboy bands, giving our own, shall we say, distinctive interpretations of the songs of blues legends such as Elmore James and Sonny Boy Williamson. Some of our efforts were more successful than others. We were both involved in the notorious “drum-less drummer” incident recounted in “We Did Our Homework on the Bus”. Steve’s contribution then was mainly as a vocalist. But he later took up guitar, mandolin, and violin and was a prominent and respected figure on the traditional Irish music circuit in Hastings. He was a big fan of Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band. His mother, who did not find ReplicTrout Mask Replica and suchlike to her taste, once said to him ‘Why don’t you play something by that nice Jimi Hendrix?’

“He had a keen sense of humour with a taste for the absurd. He would sign off Christmas cards with a borrowed catchphrase such as ‘You’ll have had your tea’ or ‘Wee laddie for a palfrey.’. When I wished him a happy birthday on Facebook earlier this year, his reply would not bear repetition in polite company, but the laughing face icon showed that he was just kidding.

 He leaves behind Sally and their son Tomás.

 “On your way home, Dean!”

Steve Dean - 5 March 1952 – 20 June 2023