VN August 2023

Augustus 2023 25 In Memoriam Daar het ook verskeie wetenskaplike publikasies uit haar pen verskyn terwyl sy senior- of mede-outeur van ander artikels was. Sy het verder as skrywer van kinderverhale naam gemaak. Sedert 1983 het sy vyf TV-onderhoude toegestaan. Haar nagraadse toekennings is so indrukwekkend dat dit bykans soos ‘n fe ë verhaal lees: • The Star-koerant se Star Woman of the Yea r in 1976. • Outstanding Woman Veterinarian of the Year deur die ‘Women’s Veterinary Association of the USA’ in 1979. • Pretorian of the Year in 1987. • Die Laureatus Toekenning van die Universiteit van Pretoria in 1994. • Ad Educandum toekennings van die Universiteit van Pretoria in 1989 en 1992. • Verering deur die Anatomiese Vereniging van suider Afrika vir: ‘Uitstaande toewyding aan onderwys en navorsing’ in 2003. Dis duidelik dat benewens erkenning as uitstaande wetenskaplike en akademikus, Malie veral ook as vroulike presteerder van formaat erkenning geniet het. Sy was ‘n besonder dinamiese welsprekende mens met ‘n uitgaande, vriendelike persoonlikheid wat haar plaaslik sowel as in die buiteland baie gewild gemaak het. Sy het haar christelike beginsels daagliks onopsigtelik uitgeleef en sodoende ook aangetrokkenheid tot haar verwek. Haar belangstelling in die kunste en ander dissiplines het sy onder meer gestalte gegee deur saammet ander Fakultietsdosente die Onderstepoort Kultuurklub en Onderstepoort Forum te stig om belangstelling in die kunste, wêreldgebeure, politiek en sport by die studentekorps te prikkel. Prof Smuts het in 1993 by die Onderstepoort Fakulteit afgetree en in ‘n aftree-oord in Somersetwes in die WesKaap gaan woon. Ten spyte van afnemende gesondheid, het sy ook daar haar reputasie as besonder aangename en dus geliefde persoon gestand gedoen. Die plaaslike veterinêre professie is inderdaad baie bevoorreg om so ‘n wonderlike mens soos Malie onder sy geledere te kan tel. v Rudolph Bigalke 17/07/2023 Maatje (Malie) Marie Sophie Smuts 27 February 1933 – 23 May 2023 (Translated from the Eulogy by Prof Bigalke) Malie, as she was lovingly known, was born on 27 February 1933 in Potchefstroom. She was the granddaughter of the German missionary Daniel Heese murdered during the Second BoerWar. Her primary school years she completed in Pretoria at the Laerskool Pretoria-Oos, and she went on to matriculate from the Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof in Stellenbosch. Due to her excellent marks during her first-year studies at the University of Stellenbosch, she was selected into the Faculty of Veterinary Studies Onderstepoort in 1951 as a second-year student. She was the only female student in her class of 18. At the end of 1954, Malie qualifies as a veterinarian and received the coveted Theiler medal for the best student in the class. As the sixth female Onderstepoort graduandi, she is the first to obtain this outstanding honourous medal. She accepts an assistant post at the well-known Rondebosch practice of Drs Faull and Burgess, but after a year decides to join the internationally active “Morele Herbewapenings beweging“ or Moral Rearmament movement with its headquarters in Switzerland, to do voluntary moral upliftment 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 1977/78, Malie visits eight Departments of Anatomy at European Faculties to study the most successful way to teach veterinary anatomy. 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 a guest on the 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 a guest professor at the Koret Veterinary School in Rehovot, Israel in 1991.