Academics, deputies bid farewell to UCT vice-chancellor Stuart Saunders
By Sam Spiller
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UCT academics and former institution leaders are voicing their respects following the death of former Vice-Chancellor, Dr Stuart Saunders.
Saunders died in his sleep on Friday after a long battle with an illness. He was 89 years old.
“Dr Saunders was a titan of South African academia in the 1980s and 1990s,” said Professor Tom Moultrie of the Centre for Actuarial Research. “With good grace, charm, humour and compassion, he was able to lead the institution through difficult and turbulent times.”
Born on August 28, 1931, in Cape Town, Saunders graduated from UCT in 1953 with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees. He did postgraduate research at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London and at Harvard University, before returning to South Africa and receiving his doctorate in medicine at UCT in 1965.