F E AT U R E : I C O N I C M E N T O R
All things human M “I’m often asked why I didn’t marry or have children. I’ve had 10 000 children. Those medics, dentists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses who’ve been through here – those are my children.”
PROFESSOR PHILLIP V TOBIAS
uch loved and respected Professor Phillip V Tobias (BSc 1946, BSc Hons 1947, MBBCh 1950, PhD 1953, DSc honoris causa 1994), spent his entire academic career at Wits, from when he started as a student in 1943 until his death as emeritus professor in 2012. He was an excellent lecturer and public speaker, who endeared himself to students and had a genuine interest in their welfare. He described his life’s concerns as “all things human, humane, humanitarian, and humanistic”. He grounded himself in a range of disciplines: science, anatomy, medicine, genetics, biology and palaeontology – but he was best known for his research on fossil hominids and human evolution. Along with Louis Leakey and John Napier, he described Homo habilis in 1964. In 1966 he initiated a long-term excavation at the dolomitic limestone cave deposit of Sterkfontein, which has become the world’s richest single deposit for hominid remains: the Cradle of Humankind. Professor Tobias was vocal about his opposition to the injustices of apartheid, as a student and as a lecturer at Wits, emphasising “race is irrelevant in matters of the mind and spirit”. He was president of the non-racial National Union of South African Students, which rejected segregated education. He participated in protests against the Group Areas Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Population Registration Act, and the xenophobic violence in 2008. He complained to the South African Medical Council regarding the treatment of Steve Biko, who died in police custody in 1977. He said: “I’m often asked why I didn’t marry or have children. I’ve had 10 000 children. Those medics, dentists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses who’ve been through here – those are my children.”
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