​​​​Stellenbosch University's (SU) Division for Social Impact, the Lückhoff Alumni Think Tank and SU's Department of Physics cordially invite you to the inaugural Walter Parry Memorial Lecture:

Walter Parry: A legend of Lückhoff High School

WHO WAS WALTER PERRY?

Mr. Parry was awarded a Bachelor of Science in 1932 and in 1934 a Master of Science majoring in Physics with a first-class Honours from the University of Cape Town. The legacy of Walter Hazel Parry has been shared across many generations of communities of Cape Town, Gqeberha and Stellenbosch. Physics was always his first love and although he had great ambitions to become a nuclear physicist his dream was sadly deferred due to the British colonial period coming to an end in South Africa and the oppressive Apartheid regime looming. Sadly, Parry was forced to take on a career as a mathematics teacher. 

Parry was known for his brilliance as a mathematics teacher among many of his peers, colleagues, and learners at the old Lückhoff High School and Stellenbosch community. Growing up in District Six from 1913 to the 1930s, Parry touched many with his love for science and mathematics. It was also rumored that Prof. Piet Zeeman, then head of the Department of Physics at SU, secretively collaborated with Mr. Parry on projects for experiments which were planned for the Southern Universities Nuclear Institute (SUNI).​

This memorial lecture will reflect on Walter Parry's personal life and his teaching career. The second part of the lecture will explore the science of Parry's era, how it must have inspired him, and how it has evolved into useful applications today.      

RSVP: Click here to register

PROGRAMME

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Mr Stanly Amos

Stanley Amos was born in Idas Valley Stellenbosch in 1950 and attended Lückhoff High School in Banghoek Road from 1963 to 1967. He started as a clerk at the Rembrandt Group in 1968 but resigned in 1970 to begin an apprenticeship in Building Construction[JS1] . On completion of the apprenticeship in 1974 he joined Old Mutual, where, over the years, he received numerous awards for marketing, management, and sales. He was a founding member of LUASA Boland, forerunner of the current CFP (Certified Financial Planner) Board of Standards. On three occasions he achieved the International Quality Award from LIMRA in the USA. In 1997 and 1998 he received the regional award from Old Mutual Trust for wills and trusts. In 1999 Stanley was seconded to Old Mutual's Head Office as a member of the McKinsey team to assist with the unbundling of the Society. In 2003 he was appointed Regional Manager Group Schemes for the area Cape Town to Middelburg (Cape). His training included investment planning, business assurance, estate and retirement planning. He received the Old Mutual merit award (gold) in 1995 for development and training of staff. After retiring at 55 as regional manager from Old Mutual, he established the Lückhoff High School Alumni in 2021 after writing the book, Universiteit van die Vlakte, with the aim of assisting and uplifting Lückhoff High School.

Reneé has a master's degree in social development from the University of the Western Cape (UWC), with her thesis titled “Current Manifestations of Trauma by Forced Removals, Interviews with a Former Vlakte Inhabitant". She also holds Honours degrees in Psychology and Geography from UWC, as well as a Diploma in Project Management and is a certified executive and management coach. Reneé has been actively involved in the field of Social Development for the past twenty-five years. She has presented several lectures on healing and transformation, restorative justice, restitution, student-driven social impact, social identity, and youth development in a South African context. She currently holds the position of deputy-director in the Division of Social Impact where she is responsible for work on visual redress as restitution, focussing on the return of the Lückhoff School as a community asset. She is also a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, focussing on institutional culture.

Mr Brian Pool

Brain Charles Pool was born in 1937 in Stellenbosch, where he attended Rhenish Primary and Lückhoff High School in Banhoek Road. Mr Walter Parry was his mathematics teacher from standard 8 to 10. After matriculating  in 1954, he completed a BSc and BEd degrees, as well as a  Senior Teacher's Diploma, at the University of Cape Town. During Brian's teaching career from 1966 to 1977 he taught Biology and Physical Science. His administrative duties at Lückhoff High School included the positions of departmental head, deputy principal and principal. From 1978 to 1993 he served as Inspector of Education in various regions in the Cape Peninsula, Chief Inspector of Education in Bellville and at the Head office in Cape Town as Director of Education for personnel (teaching) and evaluation and conditions of service. 

Prof. Shaun Wyngaardt

Professor Shaun Wyngaardt is head of the Department of Physics at Stellenbosch University. He holds a PhD in nuclear physics from SU. Following his postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut für Kernphysik (IKP) at the Jülich Research Centre in Germany, he held academic positions in physics at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town, before returning to SU. Shaun headed the division for nuclear, radiation and health physics research in the department until his recent appointment in 2023 as head of department. Raised in Stellenbosch, and an alumnus of Lückhoff High School, Shaun often heard stories about the legendary Walter Parry from his parents, and relatives.

Image of Walter Parry: Heyns, Jackie. 4 December 1966. "The District Six nuclear genius that never was". In: Drum Post, 4 Desember 1966, p3 - BAHA Archive​