Ronald Otto Christian Kaschula, known as Roc, is a man of Africa. He was born in the former Southern Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, in 1935, the eldest of 5 children. His father was a farmer of Western Slav origin whose family immigrated to South Africa in 1858, and his mother was of Afrikaans origin. His parents married in Zimbabwe. He was raised on a farm in the Gutu District in central Zimbabwe. At the age of 5 Roc was homeschooled by his mother for the 1st year. At the age of 6 he went as a boarder to the nearest farm school, which was called the Soti Source Primary School. This was during World War II, when there was a shortage of petrol. In order to conserve petrol the fathers from his area would take turns fetching the 6 local children home 3 times a year for the school holidays. Roc has memories of traveling in his father’s pick-up truck with the other boys; on other occasions he came home in a horse and mule– drawn cart belonging to one of the other fathers. After 4 years at the farm school he was sent as a boarder to schools in Gwelo—the Cecil John Rhodes Primary School, followed by the Chaplin School. Although unknown to him at that time, he watched his future wife play hockey for Girls’ High School, when she traveled with her team from Salisbury to play against Chaplin School farther to the south. Roc developed rheumatic fever and schistosomiasis as a child. His ill health brought him into contact with the family general practitioner, Dr McGladdery, from Ireland, who realized his potential and encouraged the young Roc to spread his wings and study medicine in Cape Town, South Africa. In order to do this, he won a scholarship provided by the State Lottery and was assisted by a government loan. A medical classmate, J.P. van Niekerk, also a former Dean of the Medical Faculty at the University of Cape Town, remembers traveling down to Cape Town with Roc in his Simca car after the university vacation. The trip from Gwelo to Cape Town spanned 2000 km, and it took Roc 2 days to complete the journey. Roc appeared more serious than the rest of his class, but he had a wry sense of humor and was adventurous in a quiet and understated way. He played 2nd-league field hockey for the University of Cape Town Hockey Club, and once he qualified as a doctor, he played social tennis and squash. He was also interested in South African cricket and rugby. Roc completed his undergraduate training in 1959. As an intern, Roc spent 2 months of the following year at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in the surgical wards. He was then advised to spend a year studying pathology prior to returning to Zimbabwe to work off his government loan. He planned to work for the well-known physician Michael Gelfand in Salisbury. However, after a year of pathology, his request to serve Zimbabwe was turned down, as the government medical service wanted medics with basic training in forensic pathology. He remained in Cape Town and completed his MMed in Pathology in 1964. In 1965, he joined the South African Society of Pathologists. The Red Cross Children’s Hospital opened its doors to patients in 1956, when Roc was a 3rd-year medical student. His future wife Sheila had also moved from Zimbabwe to Cape Town and was one of the 1st student nurses to work there as part of her training. The pathology department at Red Cross Children’s Hospital was opened in 1957 by Dave Mackenzie, who played a major role in establishing Roc as a pediatric pathologist. As a 1st-year registrar in pathology, Roc met a glamorous staff nurse, Sheila Darby, in the Urology Department at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH). They both shared an upbringing in Zimbabwe. They married in 1963 and produced 3 healthy children. Sheila put her nursing career on hold to raise the family until the youngest child, Wendy, began school. She then started working part time at Red Cross Hospital with Professor Cyril Karabus. She took an oncology course in 1986 and spent the last 12 years of her career working in a gynecologic practice providing individually tailored chemotherapy for patients. She retired in 2003. Roc and Sheila’s 2 eldest children followed the family’s medical tradition and studied medicine in Cape Town. Roc’s son is an orthopedic *Corresponding author, e-mail: Helen.wainwright@uct.ac.za Pediatric and Developmental Pathology 17, 413–418, 2014
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Aug 2, 2017
James A Leitzel 
Open Access