EE-News
News and announcements from EE Publishers Issue 76, November 2009

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The Rapha Pretorius Benevolent Fund
A tribute to a brilliant engineering colleague and true friend
by Brian Dowding and Chris Yelland
 
Rapha Pretorius
Many electrical engineers in South Africa, in industry, at project companies, at original equipment manufacturers, at firms of consulting engineers, and in academia, will have dealt with, known of or heard about Rapha Pretorius. In the fields of power system analysis, insulation coordination, lightning and surge protection, power quality, reactive power compensation, static var compensators, harmonic distortion and harmonic filters, he was an acknowledged world leader, providing consulting services to the world's prime electrical engineering companies. His reputation stretched before him.

No-one who knew Rapha would deny that he was a complex and difficult person. His brilliant and innovative brain was exhausting and never stopped working overtime, day and night. But those who knew him closely, as we did, also counted him as a true friend through thick and thin - a person who would empathise with you and share in both the hardships and joys of life.

Some would have heard of the tragic incident at a braai in Benoni where some meat lodged in Rapha's throat, causing him to choke and lose consciousness from lack of oxygen, and then sink into a coma. Everyone who heard the story was shocked and saddened. But few would have heard the terrible outcome, which could hardly have been worse.

Despite hopes of some miracle when Rapha finally emerged from the coma, the outlook was bleak. For a period, Rapha returned home to the care of his wife, Anneke, in Hout Bay. But tragically, it appears that there had been severe and irreversible brain damage, leaving Rapha essentially bedridden, unable to feed or dress himself, and requiring constant nursing care.

He has since been moved to a specialist frail care facility, where he survives on a drip and receives the necessary intensive care and attention. But you can imagine that such care is both expensive and debilitating on the financial resources of his wife, leaving her in parlous position.

Two people who have known Rapha since his early days as an electrical engineer and researcher at the CSIR are Brian Dowding, founder the project company, Dowding Reynard & Associates (DRA), and Chris Yelland, MD of EE Publishers. Both have had business relationships and friendships with Rapha over several decades.

Feeling a special closeness and responsibility to Rapha, Brian Dowding and Chris Yelland have established the Rapha Pretorius Benevolent Fund, administered by Moore Stephens Auditors of Johannesburg, and have made initial donations into the fund.

This announcement serves as a call in this Christmas season of 2009 to those who knew Rapha and are concerned for his well-being, and that of his wife, Anneke, to make donations to the Rapha Pretorius Benevolent Fund. Any funds so collected will be managed, accounted for and dispersed for the benefit of Rapha Pretorious and his wife, with the joint signatories being Brian Dowding PrEng and Chris Yelland CEng.

Payments may be by checque or EFT to:

Eloff Street Nominees (Pty) Ltd
(A trust company under the auspices of Moore Stephens Auditors)
Standard Bank, Smal Street Branch, Branch Code 1805
Account Number: 00 109 645 1
Reference: Rapha

We hope that in this season of giving, you will spare a though and a prayer for Rapha and Anneke in these most difficult of times.
 
Brian Dowding and Chris Yelland
  
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The Rapha Pretorius Benevolent Fund: A tribute to an engineering colleague and a friend
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Vector e-Zine
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