David Meiring Kriel (5/11/1930 – 12/3/2019): A Versatile Classicist

Abstract

David Meiring Kriel (5/11/1930 – 12/3/2019):A Versatile Classicist Deon van Zyl Click for larger view View full resolution DAVID MEIRING KRIEL (5/11/1930 – 12/3/2019) It was with great sadness that the Classical world in South Africa learnt of the death of a dearly loved friend and colleague, David Meiring (Dawie) Kriel, on 12 March 2019 at the age of eighty-eight. When the editor of Acta Classica requested me to write an obituary in memory of this esteemed and versatile Classical scholar and true friend to so many over the years, I was particularly happy to do so. I realised, of course, that there are any number of his past students, colleagues, and good friends who would have been far more capable than I to assume this responsibility, but the special relationship Dawie and I had developed over many years, probably commencing in 1977, when his extremely successful Latyn vir die Regstudent was published by Lex Patria, prompted me to do so. Dawie presented me with a copy of this book, which I still have and use. Prior to my commencing to prepare an obituary for Dawie I was happy and honoured to join his family and a number of close friends in celebrating his life and honouring his memory at a memorial held by his four daughters, Annabie, Mala, Tertia, and Suzelle, in Cape Town on 16 March 2019. It was extremely sad that his late wife, Zella, whom we all remember with great respect and affection, was no longer with us to record her thoughts on their lives together. Needless to say we had no doubt that Dawie was smiling down upon us at an event which he had requested should be small rather than large. [End Page 1] In preparing this obituary I was ably assisted by Annabie and Suzelle, who let me have particularly helpful notes on Dawie's life and versatility which prompted my description of him as 'a versatile Classicist'. In this regard I was likewise given great assistance by colleagues in the world of Classics, including Christoff Zietsman from the University of the Free State, Koos Kritzinger from the University of Pretoria and Jo-Marie Claassen from the University of Stellenbosch. Although Dawie and I were not classmates (he was thirteen years my senior), we both had the pleasure of studying Latin under Professor Henri Louis Gonin at the University of Pretoria. It was in fact Dawie who edited Pro Munere Grates: Studies Presented to H. L. Gonin by former students and colleagues (1971), one of which was my contribution on mala fide negotiorum gestio in Roman Law, an excerpt from my doctoral thesis submitted in Leiden, Netherlands, in 1970. Dawie also wrote a truly enlightening and inspiring obituary for Professor Gonin, when this giant in the field of Classics passed away on 10 April 1997, leaving a number of publications which are still in use today for Latin teaching at the secondary and tertiary levels.2 Dawie was born on 5 November 1930 in Pretoria and matriculated in 1947 at the Helpmekaar Hoër Seunskool in Johannesburg. After completing a BA degree at the University of Pretoria in 1950, followed by a Higher Education Diploma in 1952, Dawie began a high-school teaching career. He initially served as senior Latin master at the Benoni High School in 1953 and thereafter, from 1955 to 1956, in similar capacity at the Hoërskool Florida. Dawie then turned to a long and fruitful university career. From 1957 to 1965 he served as a lecturer and subsequently, after completing his MA in Latin at the University of Pretoria in 1961, as a senior lecturer in Classical Languages at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where he worked under the guidance of Professor Gerrit Viljoen, then the Head of the Department of Classical Languages at UNISA. The role Professor Viljoen played in his life is brilliantly illustrated in Dawie's obituary dedicated to him after his passing in 2009.3 During his period of service at UNISA, Dawie also did research, from 1963 to 1964, at the University of Urbino in Central Italy, under guidance of Professor Scaevola Mariotti, with...