VN February 2023

Vetnews | February 2023 29 Maurice’s veterinary service was not limited to South Africa. Apart from spending three years in Mauritius working for the Mauritian Turf Club, he also rendered professional services in Greece and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, as well as giving lectures around the world and attending conferences. In December 2006, Maurice retired from private practice in South Africa and relocated to Ireland, where he continued to do locums. In February 2011, he was awarded a Meritorious Silver Medal by the Irish Veterinary Council for 50 years of service to the veterinary profession. He was awarded the Spirit of SAEVA award in 2013 for his unwavering contribution to the welfare of the horse and the horse industry in South Africa. He retired in September 2016, spending time with his wife and children in Dublin, Ireland. Maurice passed away on the 22nd of December 2022, leaving his wife, five children and grandchildren, who will miss him dearly. Maurice was a kind man who embraced life fully. He created opportunities for many a young veterinarian to enter the equine world and many apprentices to become fully-fledged farriers. He will be remembered as a man who dedicated his life to furthering the welfare of the horse and horse industry in South Africa and as a man who stood on his principles. On behalf of us, and I’m certain all his colleagues, family and friends. . . . . we will miss him. v Bernadette Azzie and Ann Carstens MAURICE ANTHONY JOSEPH AZZIE Maurice's fifty-eight-year commitment to veterinary practice includes a sincere contribution to the advancement and spread of equine veterinary knowledge to the profession, equine research, farriery and the South African horse-racing industry. As the Equine Practitioners Group 1966 (EPG) founder, now renamed SAEVA, he continued to contribute to the advancement of the veterinary profession. Upon receiving a personal award from the Late CW Engelhard for his veterinary services rendered to the great horse "Hawaii 1968", he established the Hawaii Foundation fund within the South African Veterinary Foundation. With this commensurate fund, he promoted the development of postgraduate courses for practitioners and the internationally well- remembered First International Equine Veterinary Conference held in the Kruger National Park in August 1974. Twenty years later, at an international equine sports medicine conference in San Diego, exact reference was made to the trigger effect of the successful Kruger National Park conference on the development of additional specialised fields of study and communication between equine veterinarians internationally. These activities, together with his thirty- year service on horse racing administration boards and associated input with establishing the Equine Research Institute in 1989, will remain his South African veterinary milestones. v Annette Boshoff IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU GIVE TO THE BETTERMENT OF YOUR PROFESSION. ENJOY THIS PLEASURE; ACHIEVEMENT IS YOUR PERSONAL AWARD! Maurice A J Azzie 1966 In Memoriam