William Smith has died

Dr William Smith decorated by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April 2019.
Photo credit: Netwerk24.com

Today, Wednesday 21 August 2024, Netwerk24 and News24 reported that the iconic South African teacher, Dr William Smith, died peacefully in Australia after a short battle with stage four cancer.

Dr Smith started his ground-breaking physical sciences and mathematics classes on SABC TV in the 1990s. He was an amazing teacher with a practical and hands-on approach to excellent explanations. He helped millions of learners to understand the subject content better, and he helped thousands of teachers to improve their own explanations of the subject content.

Apart from his amazing career and service to teachers and learners of South Africa, something of special interest to me is that Dr Smith appeared as a boy in a picture that was taken when the second coelacanth was brought to South Africa.

William Smith as a boy on the far right.
Photo credit: saafmuseum.org.za

This amazing story can be read here and here. We thank the websites and authors for documenting this interesting history.

My sincere condolences to Dr Smith's family. What a great honour it was to have experienced this man!