Professor Heinz Prekel, the man at the forefront of South Africa’s transition from imperial measures to metrics, died Thursday at his home. He was 89.
Prekel has been instrumental in South Africa’s transition from fortnightly stadiums to grams, metres and litres.
Afrikaans newspaper Rapport reports that Prekel died after a fall, with his wife Truida (82) pierced in his side.
South Africa’s transition to the metric formula preceded the replacement of British imperial pounds, farthings and shillings by rands and decimal cents.
According to the report, South Africa’s metric is one of the most successful in the world.
Informe also reported that Prekel wrote a brief summary of his life last year.
Prekel, physicist, son of German immigrants who came to South Africa in search of a better future.
In 1939, when he was six years old, he went to Germany with his parents for a stopover in. World War II broke out on his scale and they were not able to return to South Africa until after 1950.
During the war, they were hungry and Prekel said he may not digest caraway seeds since.
He also revealed that he was forced to join the Hitler Youth organization, and that he hated it.
“He hated attempts to deceive us. Independent thinking was not tolerated,” Prekel wrote.
On his return to South Africa, he had no registration and joined Iscor to train as a craftsman.
Through a series of satisfied opportunities, which he attributed to synchronicity, he received his PhD in physics from the University of Pretoria.
After his paintings on South African metrification, he attended Unisa’s School of Business Leadership.
He continued in universities around the world.
Prekel Covid-19 in August, from which he recovered.
However, he fell behind in September and underwent emergency brain surgery. He remained in the hospital for six weeks.
For more than two weeks, he was at home, where Truida and two caregivers helped him. In November, the Prekels celebrated their wedding anniversary.
Prekel is survived by his daughter-in-law Lu-Marie Sobey, who lives in Perth, Australia.
Title Heinz Prekel Truida Prekel
If you had to subscribe to an LTE service, which carrier would you choose?