By Brian Searle-Tripp
Bob Rightford, you made work, respect, soul, toughness, pride, commitment – and a promise – to truly mean something. I will remember your big heart, big soul, big hunger, big love. Bob Rightford, I owe you my life.
By Roger Makin
Bob Rightford was my mentor, my partner, my role model and above all, my friend. I owe so much to him that I cannot fully express my thanks and my good fortune for having met him.
I first worked with Bob at the advertising agency De Villiers and Schonfeldt, where he was MD. Thanks to him, the Cape Town company was growing rapidly, and late nights at the office were commonplace. One evening we were due to have a new business presentation the next morning, and the creative studio was working flat out to meet the deadline. Bob’s report for the presentation was finished and typed; his work was done and he could easily have gone home to his family. Instead he went out and brought back steak rolls for everybody in the studio, and joined us for a late-night picnic. I remember thinking: “I’d be happy to keep working for a man like this.”
And so it happened, and I thank my lucky stars for my many years with Bob at Rightford Searle-Tripp & Makin, and beyond. He enriched so many lives, especially mine.