Richard van der ross biography of martin

Obituary

Vice-chancellor of UWC known as 'Uncle Dicky'

17 December 2017 - 00:00 By Chris Barron

Professor Richard van der Ross, who has died in Cape Town at the age of 96, was an anti-apartheid activist, educationist and the first black vice-chancellor of the University of the Western Cape.

He was the first coloured person in South Africa to receive a doctorate - in philosophy from the University of Cape Town.
He accepted his appointment at UWC in 1975 with considerable misgivings. It was a construct of apartheid, of which he had been an outspoken opponent all his life.

It was a bush college run by pro-government members of the Broederbond.
It was in the heart of the Cape Flats, where coloured people had been forcibly resettled after being kicked out of their homes in the "white" suburbs.

Van der Ross himself had been removed from his house in Wynberg and lived in Belhar, next door to UWC. The