GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Oskar Prozesky was not just a vivid character who will be long remembered by many in Oudtshoorn and Graaff-Reinet, but a man of many talents.
He was a dedicated teacher in Hermanus, Oudtshoorn, George, Cape Town and Graaff-Reinet, a published writer and poet in English, Afrikaans and German, an artist, historian, conservationist, a man of deep Christian faith, and a loyal friend and colleague to many.
He was also a talented storyteller and mimic who could keep people in stitches of laughter. I'll never forget his respectful imitations of the voices of Desmond Tutu and Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, then Chief Minister of KwaZulu.
Mischievously I once urged him to phone a leading Sunday paper as if he were the Chief Minister, announcing his resignation from politics. Oskar wisely declined.
He was born in Pietermaritzburg on 25 April 1947 and spent his early years in the former Natal and Johannesburg until the family moved to Oudtshoorn in 1953.
He attended the old Boys' High School before matriculating at the Union High School in Graaff-Reinet. He obtained an MA degree in German at Stellenbosch before embarking on his teaching career.
During those years he obtained a PhD in family history from the former University of Natal.
I was then Dean of Humanities on the Pietermaritzburg campus, which gave me first-hand knowledge of the quality of his research.
Older readers in Oudtshoorn especially will remember his first book, Grobbelaartjie van Velskoendorp, which he illustrated himself and which so clearly revealed his love of the town and sense of humour.
His teaching career was interrupted first by dedicated conservation work at the Old Harbour and Fisherman's Village in Hermanus, and then by research while living at Wilderness into the history of the Prozesky family, before returning to the classroom.
In retirement, he researched and published a substantial illustrated book on the history of the old Oudtshoorn Boys' High School, work which is described by Hazel Jonker in the next paragraphs, and a book about the Prozesky family in South Africa.
In his last years in Graaff-Reinet, a town he also loved, he worked on his poetry, illustrations and other literary works.
As Oskar's older brother, in remembering his life I cherish perhaps most of all the tennis ball cricket tests we played against each other as lads in the back yard of our Oudtshoorn home in Adderley Street and on the beach at Victoria Bay during magical summer holidays, with our dog Scruffy as our tireless fielder.
That and his lovely poem Woordeboer. In it he likens himself to a farmer, paper his lands and his pen a plough.
Here are the last three lines:
En dag na dag van vroeg tot laat
Woeker ek agter my ploeg en pen,
Bewerk papier en saai woordsaad.
(- Martin Prozesky)
A memorial service (semi-religious) will be held for Oskar on Saturday 12 February at 13:00 at the Union High School Hall.
Also read: Oskar Prozesky passes away
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