Dietlof was tragically killed in a car accident. The accident confined his wife to a wheelchair. It was a source of great sorrow to me that while I was in the process of completing my book entitled: "Die groot rugby gesin van die Maties", in which she was looking forward to reading about her husband, she too passed away and never did read the homage paid to him.

He was one of the few players who could play both forward and halfback. By halfback in this case I mean any position in the three-quarter line. A very strong player, a charming person and one who almost by accident discovered Bob Loubser and so rendered a further great service to South African rugby.

Maré wrote the first handbook on rugby ever to be published in Afrikaans, with his contemporary, Japie Krige, providing the foreword.