Home 
Agricultural Economics
Photo by Rosie Breuer
|
I. de Villiers Malherbe1888 - 1967
Author of Grondvrugbaarheid
1. edition, 1933/ 6. edition 1960
Soil Fertility, 1948
|
Professor at the Department of Agriculture, from 1919 and Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture,
Stellenbosch University, 1921-1937
Isaak de Villiers Malherbe was born on 25.1.1888 as the seventh of twelve children in Paarl. He matriculated from Boys High School in Paarl in 1905. He studied at the Victoria College, now Stellenbosch University, 1906-1908 (B.Sc. and B.A. hons) and at the Transvaalse University College or TUCS, now University of Pretoria, 1909-1911(M.A.). Here he also served as Science Assistant and Junior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry.
1912-1915: He then continued his studies at the Universities of Berlin and München, where he obtained a PhD, summa cum laude. Titel of the thesis: Zur Frage der Unproduktivität des Unterbodens in humiden Gebieten.
In the meantime the First World War had broken out. The young South African was taken to an internment camp in Traunstein. Fortunately he was saved from custody after two weeks (because this South African stemmed from a Boer family) and was allowed to return to the University in München.
1919: Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, Stellenbosch University.
1921-1937: Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture
1931: Section President of the South African Association of the Advancement of Science
1934: Acting Principal of Stellenbosch Elsenburg College of Agriculture
1931-1935: President of the South African section of the International Society of Soil Sciences
I. de Villiers Malherbe contributed many entries to the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal
. He was married to Julie Boucke. After her death in 1937 he married Anna Elizabeth Kühn (1904 - 1999) in 1938. They had two children: Willem Malherbe and Elisabeth Anna. His younger brother was Fransie Malherbe.
Isaak de Villiers Malherbe retired in 1958. He died on 5 January 1967.
Award: Havenga Prize by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns in 1960
Information by Willem Malherbe
www.StellenboschWriters.com © Rosemarie Breuer
Books
