IN MEMORIAM: Percy Tucker

[BCom 1950]

1928-2021

Percy Tucker recognised early that the romance of an arts event could be built on hardnosed business practices. The founder of Computicket, born in the small mining town of Benoni in 1928, died on 29 January 2021 at the age of 92 from COVID-19-related complications.

He told WITSReview in 2012 that his love for the theatre – which spanned classical music in all its forms to ballet, modern dance, popular music, variety and spectacle – started at the age of seven when he heard Gracie Fields sing live.

“The lights in the Criterion Theatre in Benoni dimmed and the orchestra struck up. The entrance of Gracie Fields is as vivid in my mind as if it was yesterday. Tall, blonde and wearing a long blue dress that sparkled under the spotlight, she seemed to me to be the most glamorous of creatures. As her clear and resonant voice soared over the auditorium, I was filled with total happiness, and thus began my abiding love of the theatre. I have been starstruck and stagestruck ever since.”

As someone who couldn’t act, dance or sing, his biography Just the Ticket! (Jonathan Ball, 1997) documents a life surrounded by glamorous artists such as Marlene Dietrich, Margot Fonteyn, Shirley MacLaine and Luciano Pavarotti. Pieter Toerien, renowned producer and theatre manager, wrote of him in the foreword: “A wonderful showman, he has inspired people to think that the theatre is not only important but also indispensable to our lives. Self-effacing (‘And what do you do, Mr. Tucker?’ ‘Oh, I just sell tickets’), always optimistic and supportive, generous with advice and encouragement, he has been a true patron of the arts.”

Tucker matriculated from Benoni High School and graduated with his BCom from Wits in 1950. He was asked to be the business manager of Leon Gluckman’s production of King Lear at Wits in 1954 but discovered there were no systems in place for organising bookings and marketing, and the process was made more complicated by having to deal with boxes overflowing with postal applications. His first theatre business venture was a booking service called Show Service, which he opened in 1954 and grew successfully, yet he relentlessly looked for ways to eliminate queueing. He started investigating the use of computers in the 1960s and travelled to Los Angeles in 1968. In 1970 he travelled to London after learning about an abortive computerised system. Within five weeks he relocated the 12 top team members in Johannesburg. In 1971, he founded a company called Sigma Data. He launched Computicket on 11 June 1971 – the first electronic theatre booking system in the world, which marks its 50th anniversary this year.

He was the patron of the Wits Best Director Award, the Naledi Awards and the Cape Town City Ballet Awards and had a long list of Lifetime Achievement Awards: The Moyra Fine Vita Award; the Theatre Management of South Africa Award and the ‘Fleur de Cap’ Award for Lifetime Contribution.

His partner for 50 years, Graham Dickason, died in November 2020.

Sources: Wits archive, Percytucker.com

[DSc Med honoris causa 2014]

Stuart Saunders

1931-2021

Former UCT Vice-Chancellor and Emeritus Professor Stuart Saunders died in his sleep on 12 February 2021, aged 89, after a short illness.

After graduating with an MBChB from the University benefited research, teaching and postgraduate studies at of Cape Town, Professor Saunders undertook post-grad- Wits. uate work at the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School at He was awarded honorary doctorates from the Hammersmith in London, and at Harvard University. Universities of Aberdeen, Sheffield, Rhodes, Cape Town, He returned to UCT in the late 1960s and co-founded Princeton, Toronto and Wits. He was a Fellow of the the university’s Liver Clinic and Liver Research Unit College of Physicians of South Africa, the Royal Society (now the Liver Research Centre). In 2002 he became a of South Africa and the Royal College of Physicians Grand Counsellor of the Order of the Baobab, Silver, London. He was an honorary fellow of the College of bestowed by then President Thabo Mbeki. His memoirs Medicine were published in Vice-Chancellor on a Tightrope (David Philip, 2000).

Professor Saunders was senior adviser to the Andrew W Mellon Foundation of New York (a generous benefactor of South African higher education research projects). Former UCT Vice-Chancellor and Emeritus Professor Wits benefited enormously from the philanthropic work Stuart Saunders died in his sleep on 12 February 2021, and support of the foundation. The long-term commitaged 89, after a short illness. ment of Professor Saunders, as a philanthropic player, benefited research, teaching and postgraduate studies at Wits.

He was awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Aberdeen, Sheffield, Rhodes, Cape Town, Princeton, Toronto and Wits. He was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of South Africa, the Royal Society of South Africa and the Royal College of Physicians London. He was an honorary fellow of the College of Medicine.