Jewish Affairs - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2012efforts on my behalf that this complex situationwas facilitated. Thereafter, Phillip was my mentor,as he of course was to some 10 000 medicalstudents. His tutelage was a turning point in mylife and also to those many students whose nameshe was able to recall due to his amazingly retentiveand photographic memory. He was able to hold anaudience of academics, students and the publicspellbound by his powerful oratory, delivered inthe most eloquent language.Phillip’s academic career spanned sixty yearsand never really ended. He was never in denialabout this. In one of his last letters to me, hementioned that he had to give up using hiscomputer. This must have been a painful step inthe inevitable ageing process for one who was soprolific.One of Phillip’s most distinguished studentswas Dr Robert Simmons, educated at St Vincent’sSchool for the Deaf. Despite his handicap, heachieved academic success and was appointed asa Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy.Phillip’s interest in Makapansgat first arosewhen, as a Wits student in 1945, he participated ina third year science class initiative under thetutelage of Raymond Dart. The requirement forthird year students to participate in the Julyexpedition to the Makapan caves was continuedwhen Phillip became head of the Department ofAnatomy. For him it was the highlight of histeaching year. For many of us ‘city dwellers’, itbecame a feat of endurance as Tobias’ staminaand feats of athleticism in scaling rock faces inorder to explore the caves, left us far behind. Itwas equally difficult to accustom ourselves to thesharp reality of bitterly cold nights spent campingon the open Highveld.Another memory of my student days is of myassignment to write an essay for the South AfricanJournal of Science on the facial features of theOvambo Bushman. Phillip was preparing for ajourney to England at that time, but very kindlyoffered to meet me on the cruise liner prior todeparture in order to edit my rough draft. Fromthis experience, I learned that Phillip was a masterof the English language. He was a stickler forgrammatical perfection and we stayed up until theearly hours of the morning as he guided methrough the intricacies of my first scientific pages.It was largely due to his editing efforts that theeditors of the Journal expressed admiration forthe final result.After my appointment as Wits UniversityLibrarian in January 1975, I recall that during oneof my visits to his then apartment at 602 MarbleArch, Hillbrow, he showed me a small hardcoverednote books giving an inventory of no lessthan thirty-six publications in progresssimultaneously. I was later to feel the effect ofthis extraordinary productivity when some yearsafter being appointed , I arranged for theUniversity Library’s fine craftsman binder andrestorer, Arthur Budd, to bind in a special bindingall of Phillip’s copies of his own publications aswell as cuttings about himself. The project had tobe abandoned, partly because of financialconstraints but mostly because it provedimpossible to keep up with his prolific output.I was delighted to discover that Phillip sharedmy passion for bibliography and was a dedicatedbibliophile. He was a relative of the renownedJewish South African author, Sarah GertrudeMillin, and possessed a complete collection of allher works, in full edition and variants, and inperfect condition.Phillip was a man of incredible vision andforesight. In my own half century career as auniversity librarian, I found him to be the onlydistinguished academic and researcher topersonally collate and organize everythingauthored by himself during his lifetime, foreventual deposit in the University’s Archives andnot to entrust this arduous, but hugely importanttask to the custodians of his collection.What was to be a most significant event andcrowning achievement of his career was thediscovery, by one of his former students, ProfessorLee Berger, of the hominid fossilsAustralopitchecus sediba at the Malapa Caves.This discovery vindicated earlier research byRaymond Dart and Tobias on earlyaustralopithecines and early members of the genusHomo.During his later years, Phillip produced for hislegion of friends and associates seventeen annualnewsletters, each averaging twenty pages andchronicling the highlights of the year. These madefascinating reading and were by no means limitedto good news e.g. an ever expanding necrologysection!Phillip was certainly not a reclusive hermit. Aclassic example of his extroverted, outgoing natureis a party invitation of some twenty-five yearsago, which is one of my treasured possessions.It became a thrilling experience for me and agreat honour to be the recipient of many of hispublications, personally inscribed for me. Anexample is when Stella Stricke completed herbibliography (225 items) of the Published Worksof Phillip V. Tobias, 1945-1969. Phillip warmedthe cockles of my heart in these words: “ToReuben Musiker - my former student, loyal friendand now cherished colleague. AffectionatelyPhillip Tobias.”Phillip Tobias was a great credit to SouthAfrica, to Jewry (in general and South Africa inparticular), to the worlds of science and medicineand specifically palaeo-anthropology andanatomical genetics. He deserves to beremembered as unique a person as it is possiblefor a human being to be.18