Obituary - Dess Fourie

It is with regret that we report the passing of Dess Fourie on Tuesday 2 April, following a long battle against ilness. Survived by his wife Sybil, daughter Michelle and son Des, to whom we extend our condolences.

Dess was a knowledgeable person who could converse intelligently on any number of subjects, always able to contribute new insights and to do so with dry humor. We at ASSA first met Dess when he joined our telescope making class in 1994. Despite being wheelchair-bound and subject to bouts of intense pain, he was the first in that class to finish his telescope - and to a high standard of workmanship. He went on to do useful variable star work under the direction of the late Danie Overbeek. In order to access fainter stars he produced a succession of ever-larger telescopes. To deal with the rigours of winter, he constructed a novel wheelchair-accessible observatory/telescope combination whereby the observatory as a whole turned in azimuth, carrying the telescope and wheelchair with it. For several years, he provided an excellent mirror-aluminising service to the members of the society, carefully tending the society's aluminising plant. His enthusiasm and dedication in the face of adversity was an inspiration to all who knew him.

He will most certainly be sadly missed by all who knew him.

Chris Stewart