Frank Kossuth (’30)
(Frederick Francis) FRANK KOSSUTH was born 28th March 1913 and he died 5th February 2010 in Hermanus just 7 weeks short of his 97th birthday.
He attended SACS for his schooling. His great love was cricket, and not only played for the school, he played for UCT and for Western Province. He was also in the Governor General’s personal Cricket team, which he describes as “Village Cricket at its best”.
Because of the depression, he became a Chartered Accountant, and not an Architect as he wished.
After the war he moved to Pretoria and joined a firm of Chartered Accountants, where he soon became a partner. The Company becam Craggs Kossuth and Osche.
1950: He was voted Vice President of Institue of Chartered Accountants and remained an honorary Life Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
1961: He received a Leadership Grant from the USA State Department. He visited both Stanford and Harvard Universities and met many of the top Financial Leaders during his two months of travel around the States. As a result of this, he was largely instrumental in his Company becoming Douglas Low and thereafter Ernst and Young Chartered Accountants. This was at a time when Ernst and Young were the second largest firm of Chartered Accountants in the world.
1971-74 He was Chairman of Ernst and Young, South Africa.
1979: He retired as a partner of Ernst and Young, and following his heart, he took an Art Course at both Pretoria Technicon and University of Pretoria.
For many years he was President of the Pretoria Art Association, and in 1984 when he held a solo Art Exhibition, not only were all his paintings sold, but he had recognition and acceptance from all the top artists. Some of the artists also invested in and bought his paintings.
During his career as a Chartered Accountant he was on the board of many large Companies. He was Chairman of the Executive Council of St Mary’s DSG for many years. The idea of a Boys Church School in Pretoria was born during his long walks with the then Bishop of Pretoria around our farm just outside Pretoria and the neighbouring farm. He was subsequently very influential in the establishment of St Albans College for boys in Pretoria He remained on the St Albans council for 29 years.
Amongst others he was also:
Past President of Rotary
A trustee of the Anglican Church of South Africa,
President of the Princess Christian Home for many years.
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Eulogy for Prof Steve de Gruchy ('79)
This Eulogy was prepared by the School of Religion and Theology-UKZN. The original can be found here.
Steve de Gruchy was born on 16th November 1961 in Durban, South Africa, later moving with his family to Cape Town and matriculating from the South African College High School
(SACS) in 1979. He continued his studies at the University of Cape Town obtaining a MA in Religious Studies, a STM from Union Theological Seminary, New York, and a DTh at the University of the Western Cape in 1992. His doctoral thesis focused on the themes of justice and liberation in the work of the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.
As a young man, Steve’s commitment to issues of justice and liberation were evident in his involvement in the Students’ Union for Christian Action, as a youth pastor at the Rondebosch
Congregational Church, as a religious conscientious objector refusing to serve in the South African Defence Force during the 1980s, and finally as an ordained minister in the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa in Athlone, Cape Town. Committed to both faith and social action, Steve became Director of the Kuruman Moffat Mission Trust in 1994.
During this time he was engaged in establishing a number of projects to alleviate poverty, curb illiteracy, and promote theological education, becoming fluent in speaking Tswana.
In 2000 Steve was appointed as the Director of the Theology and Development Programme at the School of Theology at the then University of Natal. At the time, this fledging
programme was small and little known and Steve has built this programme to be recognized
throughout the African continent as a relevant and contextual centre of post graduate study.
With a strong commitment to the Ecumenical movement he has participated in a number of consultations and commissions of the World Council of Churches, World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Council for World Mission.
Appointed Associate Professor in 2005 and later full Professor in 2008, Steve’s stature as a scholar grew enormously over the past decade with numerous publications in the field of theology and development, more recently in the area of public health and issues of water and climate change. He was passionate about the way in which communities need to regain
their dignity and focus on their assets in order to become more fully human. He has supervised numerous students who know and love him as a committed and critical scholar, pastor and friend. In 2008, Steve became Head of the School of Religion and Theology at the merged University of KwaZulu-Natal. Colleagues have thrived under his decisive and brave leadership. He was always full of new ideas, ready to relieve tension with a joke, and
determined that the School of Religion and Theology would be a centre of excellence within the University.
Those who are close to Steve also know that scholarly and activist pursuits are not his only love. He is a gifted musician, loves walking in the Drakensberg, and always enjoys socializing with friends. Married to Marian, and with their three children, Thea (18), David (15), and Kate (11), the family loved outdoor adventures. It was on one such adventure that the life of Steve de Gruchy was taken by the very waters (pula) he spoke so assionately about. South Africa has lost a son of the soil.
The South African church has lost a key theologian. The Ecumenical Movement has lost a prophet. And the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and particularly the School of Religion and Theology, has lost an astute administrator, dedicated academic, an agent of transformation, and a caring friend. We mourn his loss.
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