Dick Stacey graduated initially as a mechanical engineer with a particular interest in stress analysis. He worked under Prof Z T Bieniawski in the Rock Mechanics Division at CSIR’s National Mechanical Engineering Research Institute in South Africa before spending a year at the Imperial College of Science and Technology as an Academic Visitor in the Engineering Geology Department with Sir John Knill. He spent 25 years with the consulting engineering company SRK Consulting, and was Chairman of the South African Company, before joining the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2000 as Centennial Professor of Rock Engineering. He retired officially at the end of 2008, but continues to be involved with the University, running postgraduate courses and supervising research students.