Obituary

E U Schmid

Eugen Ulrich Schmid was born on 30 July 1927, the youngest of five children of a devoted Lutheran family. After a happy childhood in South-West Africa (Namibia), he qualified as a medical doctor in Pretoria in 1952. After an extended period in private practice in Namibia, he returned to Pretoria where he obtained his Master’s degree in surgery before he entered the missionary field.

He spent seven years as a surgeon at Ramoutsa in Botswana, where he was a co-founder of the Bamelete Lutheran Mission Hospital near Gaborone. He was honoured by President Sir Seretse Khama with special appreciation for his outstanding services to the people of Botswana.

In 1971 he was appointed as Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pretoria and chief surgeon at Kalafong Hospital, where he served with distinction until his retirement. It is a pleasure and singular honour to be called upon to pay homage to a loyal friend, highly respected colleague, renowned teacher, and caring surgeon who left an indelible impression on his patients, the nursing staff, the medical students and his peers. When he bade us farewell on his retirement from Kalafong Hospital we witnessed the great grief and sense of loss shown by the Kalafong nursing staff to a caring and sympathetic ‘father’ and leader of the team.

Uli Schmid was a seasoned clinician and an outstanding technical surgeon. He was a founder member of the multidisciplinary Head and Neck Oncology Clinic in Pretoria as well as the Head and Neck Oncology Society of South Africa.

His love of nature was as intense as his love for his work. This particular interest dates back to a blissful childhood in the land of his birth where he spent many hours in the African bush. After retiring, he attended a course in sculpture at UNISA. His experience in the visual arts reached its culmination when he carved a crucifix from a log of Boekenhout wood (Faurea saligna) which he found in the Bushveld near Zeerust in the North West province. This sculptural masterpiece, which took him two years to complete, was admired by everyone who gathered in the Evangelic Lutheran Church in Pretoria to pay their respects when Uli was laid to rest at the foot of his creation. It will serve as an eternal memorial to the profound religious convictions that guided his life.

In 1953 Uli married Marianne Straueli. They had five children: Rudolph, Klaus, Bärbel, Jörg and Annelore. The caring way in which Uli nursed Marianne during the final years of her incapacitating and incurable illness was a touching lesson to us all.

We will remember him.

R C Franz

Emeritus Professor of Surgery, UP

J P Pretorius

Adjunct Professor of Surgery, UP