Kay de Villiers

Jacquez Charl de Villiers (7 March 1928, Klerksdorp

Studies and career He qualified as doctor at the University of Cape Town. Following graduation and internship at the Groote Schuur Hospital, he commenced general practice in Swellendam for four years before taking up a lecturer post in Anatomy in 1957 at the newly established University of Stellenbosch Medical School. and in 1972 to associate professor. In 1976 he became the first incumbent of the Helen and Morris Mauerberger Chair of Neurosurgery.

According to an obituary on the University of Cape Town website, “While his research interests were those of any dedicated clinician, reflecting the diversity of conditions he encountered in his daily practice, he made special contributions to the understanding of head injury in children, in work done with the young Dr Marian Jacobs.

De Villiers was the face of Neurosurgery in South Africa, pioneering new techniques learned in Zurich, Charlottesville and Paris - the latter allowing him to bring back the new technique of trans-sphenoidal pituitary surgery - and an appreciation of fine cognac which never waned and enlivened visits to his home.”

Family life In December 1952 he married Christina Meta Botha in Stellenbosch, who died in 1967.

In March 1968, he married Jeanne Marié Erica du Plessis in Rondebosch, who died 20 November 2016. She was, in her own right, a highly qualified medical scientist. In her later years, she was the medical officer at the Poisons Information Centre located at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Rondebosch. He co-authored Yeoman of the Karoo and was a founder of the Cape Medical Museum.