A summary of SIG History Event. "OR: I remember" by Jos Grobbelaar

By Hannah Callaghan

On 22 October at 18:00, we had the priviledge of listening to Jos Grobbelaar present on his career and the begining days of OR in South Africa, in his talk titled "OR: I remember." Jos is one of the founding members of ORSSA, not quite the oldest member, but the oldest living president of ORSSA.

After completing his schooling at the Hoërskool Sentraal in Bloemfontein, Jos enrolled for a BSc at the local university, followed by a Hons BSc in Mathematics at the same university. It was there that he got involved in OR without even knowing it.

Jos did vacation work at NRIMS at the CSIR as a bursary holder. After completing his studies, he joined the CSIR and was placed in the OR section of NRIMS where he was involved in research into military decision making for the South African Defence Force. From there, Jos, together with Gerhard Rudolph and Louw Kotze, was sent to the United Kingdom to gain practical experience in research on military matters. Jos said that he regretted not taking this opportunity later in life, as it would have been more beneficial when he had greater knowlegde of asking better questions. While in the UK he was put in a section tasked with developing manual war games - these are war games fought without troops - and on his return, he got involved in the development of a local war game.

Jos went on to get a MSc in Mathematics at UNISA, then it was a three year degree. He got offered a position as a lecturer, he took it and loved it. However, he was called to offer courses that he was previously enrolled for which was daunting but he was very supported by the department. He completed a PhD in Mathematical Statistics and eventually became the Head of the Department of Statistics and Operations Research. Jos, however, always felt a desire to be in the arena where his students were earning their bread and butter, so Jos resigned. He felt that he was "telling people what to do but he hadn't done it" himself. So, after a couple of years at Unisa he joined the OR section at Armscor. But while he was there he missed the interaction with students and soon returned to Unisa, this time Jos joined the School for Business Leadership to teach decision makers what OR can do for them. An opportunity to serve the university system arose and Jos joined the Committee of University Principals as chief executive officer for a rewarding almost ten years. He supported his successor until the end of 1999 when he retired for a second time. The then Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit offered Jos a post which he occupied until 2007 before retiring again. He believes that he finally closed his laptop in 2014.

Apart from his busy career in OR, Jos had a great impact in ORSSA. On 18 April 1968 at a meeting at the Sunnyside Hotel in Johannesburg, it was decided to form a national steering committee to organise the possible establishment of ORSSA, Jos was on this commitee, to which he was surprised by the interest in the field. On 20 November 1969 the inaugural meeting was held and as a result ORSSA was established, with Jos being elected as the vice president and in 1970 he was elected president of the society.

The initial members where passionate and very commited. The commitee would meet in Pretoria or Johannesburg and if members found themselves to be in Bloemfontein when the meeting was set to take place, they would come by train just to attend the meeting. Most of the commitee meetings dealt with deciding if certain people could become members of the society. In the first year of ORSSA there were 47 members and 24 associate members - quite significant for their first year! And in 1999 Jos was elevated to an Honorary Life Member of ORSSA.

Jos looks back on these years very foldly, and it was so wonderful seeing someone speak with such passion for OR, stating that his love for OR never, in anyway, diminished.

Here are some of his closing remarks that show his love for OR and the great power that OR has:

• "OR leads one to look at decision making problems in a wholistic way, it is a subject that can really help decsion makers."

• "Stick with OR for the rest of your life. OR prepares you for the rest of your life and for all your decsion making."

• "Spread the good news of OR to all of society!"

It was a wonderful evening, and we are thankful to Jos for sharing his story, despite him sitting in the dark due to not having electricity! Thanks again to Marthi for her efforts in organising such events.

For more insightful talks like these, be sure to watch our event page (here).