Dr Christopher (Chris) Palmer died on March 16 after a long battle with cancer.
His widow, Margaret, said he will be sadly missed by his family in Benoni and abroad, as well as members of Brainstormers and the Bredell Catholic community.
She explained Dr Palmer suffered brain damage following a vehicle accident in 1991 and, in 2004, the family was attacked in their Fairleads home, where their assailants beat Chris over the head with an iron bar.
“Chris also had a jaw and arm broken. I was shot in the chest at point-blank range. Our 16-year-old twins, Rupert and Gaston, were also harmed – Rupert was shot in the chest and Gaston was severely beaten, tied up and dragged around the house to look for money.
“When Chris tried to get up, he was shot in the thigh. Thanks to CMS and Linmed’s night shift doctors, the surgeon and staff, we all survived.”
When Dr Palmer ‘retired’ and was disabled, he joined Headway, an organisation for brain-injured persons in Johannesburg, and became a founding member of the Benoni ‘Brainstorm’ group.
“Here, he met others with similar disabilities. Brainstorm offers occupational therapy in the form of games, exercises, discussions, occasional outings and visiting speakers and therapists.
“These sessions become a lifeline for head-injury victims, many of whom show amazing progress, as did Chris.
“He contributed to their newsletters regularly and was encouraged to continue reading, gardening and woodwork,” Margaret said.
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Background
Dr Palmer was born in Krugersdorp in 1946.
In 1963, his family relocated to Benoni and during that year he matriculated at the age of 16.
Dr Palmer attended Pretoria University for first-year medical and further studied at Onderstepoort for his BVS, qualifying as a veterinary surgeon in 1970.
He worked for the Johannesburg Municipality for a year, during which he married Margaret Harris and moved to Eikenhof.
In January 1972, he opened his own veterinary practice in Vryheid with his wife as his assistant.
During this time, his two daughters, Sheri-Ann and Mandy Jane, were born. He bought a plot on Hlobane Road and built a large animal hospital, as most of his work came from dairy and beef farmers in the surrounding area.
He opened a branch practice in Dundee.
However, Benoni was calling, and the family moved to a plot in Fairleads in late 1975, bringing Dr Palmer’s imported Pintzgauer stud cattle with them.
He built offices and a laboratory in 1987 when he started his own veterinary consultancy, Palmvet, and also took a position with Bayer Lewerkuzen as a technical assistant vet on their research farm in Kyalami.
“Chris enjoyed the intricacies of the research and development of new veterinary remedies, and his job put him in touch with many top farmers in South Africa, as well as affording him, and occasionally his family, several trips to deliver papers and keep in touch with developments on the African continent,” Margaret said.
“It was also a breath of fresh air to work regular hours when not travelling, as this gave him time to pursue his many interests – caving, yachting, golf, squash, ice hockey, speed skating (his team won silver in the South African Games during the Olympics ban), photography, journalism, vintage cars, as well as his cattle and tunnel farming, producing first cucumbers and then Ogen melons for the London market.”
Hoechst Pharmaceuticals took Chris on board to conduct trials, and register new veterinary remedies and train their representatives.
Here too, he was sent to Europe and the USA.
“After a further six years in the veterinary industry, Chris opened a veterinary research and registration consultancy. He took on projects from international pharmaceutical companies.
“As computerisation was the next important step, he started a second enterprise which dealt with hardware (Compaq computers) and Open Access software and specialised farming software with training.
“Later, he opened a pharmacy for vet remedies, which involved taking on two pharmacists,” Margaret said.
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