Centenarian
A remarkable 100 years! BY JACQUELINE STEENEVELDT
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his year marks the 100th birthday of a very special alumnus and activist, Dr Michael Hathorn (MSc Eng 1943, MBBCh 1950), who celebrates his birthday on 8 April 2022. Dr Hathorn was born in KwaZulu-Natal and matriculated from Hilton College. He’s lived a remarkable life in three countries, including: serving in the South African Air Force (SAAF) during World War II; earning two degrees from Wits; being imprisoned without trial under the State of Emergency for more than 90 days; and pursuing a respected career as a paediatric pulmonologist. The spritely Dr Hathorn corresponded via email and shared highlights from his life with WITSReview: “I had decided to do mining engineering at Wits on the recommendation of my uncle, who had qualified at the old School of Mining in Eloff Street,” he writes. “One of the best lecturers I remember was Professor Gordon B Lauf, who taught us mine surveying.” One of the requirements of mining students was to spend time over the holidays working in a gold mine. “It also made me realise the vast difference in the way that white and black miners were treated. The white miners were covered by legislation whereby they received free treatment and financial compensation if they developed silicosis or tuberculosis, due to working underground. Black miners were on yearly contracts, which were renewed if they were healthy; if not, they were left with no treatment or compensation. It was this which decided me not to continue with mining after the war.” A week after qualifying as an engineer he joined the airforce as a fitter, and serviced the SAAF airplanes until he was demobilised in January 1946. While in the SAAF, he married Dr Margaret Cormack (BSc 1946, MBBCh 1949), a second-year medical student at Wits. “It was
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at this time that I met Zena Stein (MBBCh 1950, DSc honoris causa 1993) and her husband Mervyn Susser (MBBCh 1950, DSc honoris causa 1993). We travelled together by train to attend the evening classes.” The Wits Medical School required medical students to spend three weeks during their second clinical year at the Alexandra Health Centre and University Clinic. “This exposure to the health problems of African patients was an important part of their medical education.” In December 1951, Dr Hathorn and colleagues Dr Stein and Dr Susser applied for posts at the clinic. “Mervyn was appointed as a full-time medical officer, and Zena and I as part-time. When Zena became pregnant and then nursed her child, I became temporarily full-time,” Dr Hathorn writes. Dr Hathorn and his wife left the clinic in April 1955 to take up posts at the newly formed University of Natal Medical School in Durban, “Margaret in social medicine, and me in physiology under Professor Theodore Gillman (MBBCh 1941, MSc 1948, DSc 1958).” “In 1960, I was detained in prison for three months.” Dr Hathorn kept a diary of his time at Durban Central Prison during his detention under the State of Emergency. After his release he was employed as a senior lecturer in physiology at the Wits Medical School and left South Africa in 1961 with Professor Joseph Gillman (BSc 1929, BSc Hon 1930, MBBCh 1933, PhD 1940), as head of a new research institute in Ghana.” In 1964 Dr Hathorn left Ghana for the UK to become a senior lecturer and, later, reader in physiology at the London Hospital Medical College. He officially retired in 1987 but received a post-retirement post for three years from The Wellcome Trust and his last paper was published in 2000!
