VN July 2020

Vetnews | July 2020 35 6. Maatje Marie Sophie (Malie) Smuts Malie Smuts was born on 27 February 1933 in Potchefstroom, attending primary schools in Pretoria and The Strand and matriculating from the Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof in Stellenbosch in 1949. She was selected for admission to the second year of the veterinary course at Onderstepoort in 1951. Malie qualified in 1954 and was awarded the coveted Theiler Medal as the best student in the final year. The 6 th female Onderstepoort graduate, she was the first woman to receive this award. Following a short spell as assistant veterinarian in the Rondebosch practice of Drs Faull and Burgess, in 1956 Malie joined the internationally active Moral Re-Armament movement, with head office in Switzerland, doing voluntary moral revival work until 1969. Approached by Prof HPA de Boom, she was appointed lecturer in the Onderstepoort Faculty’s Department of Anatomy in 1970, the first female appointee, and was awarded a DVSc degree in 1976 with a thesis entitled The Blood vessels of the Cervical Vertebrae of the Ox . In 1982 she succeeded Prof JMW le Roux as professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy when he became Dean of the Faculty. Her reputation as an always friendly but uncompromising examiner earned her the apt student nickname of ‘The smiling executioner’. At her request, a rotating headship of the Department was introduced in 1986. Most noteworthy of her extensive international veterinary involvement was an anatomical study on the dromedary conducted as guest on invitation of Prof D Cohen, director at the Ben Gurion University’s Desert Research Centre in the Negev in Israel. The textbook, The Anatomy of the Dromedary , with Smuts as senior author, was published in 1987. She also served as guest professor at the Koret Veterinary School in Rehovot, Israel in 1991. Prof Smuts’ nominations and awards: In 1976 she was nominated Star Woman of the Year by the Star newspaper; in 1979, OutstandingWoman Veterinarian of the Year by the Women’s Veterinary Association of the USA; in 1987, Pretorian of the Year and in 1994 she received the Laureatus Award from the University of Pretoria. She also received Ad Educandum awards from the University of Pretoria in 1989 and 1992. Prof Smuts retired from the Onderstepoort Faculty in 1993 and currently lives in a retirement facility in Somerset West in the Western Cape. v STUDENT LIFE AT ONDERSTEPOORT 1ST YEAR 1950 (2ND VARSITY YEAR FOR BVSC) Arriving at Onderstepoort, I settled in with the Childs family who owned the Onderstepoort Service Station. We jelled at first sight and I was happy and at home in that family, doing homework and romping with the children and becoming best friends and a co-worker with their single mother. Lectures started at Onderstepoort Research Station and conditions for me changed. I felt completely out of place and unwelcome in my class of males, a complete misfit – obviously also due to my lack of knowledge of how to socially behave like an adult female. It meant a lot to me that several of the final year students greeted and welcomed me. The studies were very interesting, yet I struggled, not fitting in correctly withmy classmates. Also, many extra notices andwork- related items, of which I was completely unaware, took place at the men’s hostel. That year I just kept putting on a bravado front and did my work and studies as best possible and then was back with the Childs family, where I relaxed and had fun. The first year came to an end and two or three of us failed two subjects for which we could do subs early the following year. Christmas wasn’t as joyful this year as it had been in the past. Early in 1951, the second year at Onderstepoort started and the entire atmosphere changed. Bert Langen and I did our Anatomy sub together and with the teaching of Dr de Boom (Boompie for short) we soon became happy working companions. Soon we claimed that we were anatomical experts and could easily assemble an entire horse – just unable to blow breath into him. Margaret Roos (née Rose) >>> 36 Did you Know?