Death of Chris Skinner
He was a teacher, writer, community activist and dedicated Rotarian.
Renowned Toti environmentalist Chris Skinner died on Thursday morning, 9 June.
Chris was born in 1940 in Yorkshire in the UK.
He and his wife Jane came to South Africa in 1968, after a voyage on the Edinburgh Castle.
He worked briefly in Durban for Unilever and then moved to Johannesburg to take up a job as a journalist on the Sunday Times’ Business Times.
Many years later, in 1987, he returned to the Durban area and settled in Amanzimtoti.
Chris created an intricate network of friends, colleagues and community projects that spanned media, public relations and environmental issues. He served as chairman for many years for the Toti branch of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) and president of Amanzimtoti Rotary Club.
He was a teacher, writer, community activist and dedicated Rotarian.
Among a host of projects, he wrote South Africa’s leading textbook on public relations. In 2014 he was honoured with a leather-bound copy of his handbook from Oxford University Press Southern Africa to celebrate its 10th edition.
A graduate of Cambridge University with a BA, MA and one-year certificate in education, Chris also published two books in Ghana and Kenya on proactive public relations and contributed a chapter on public relations in Africa to the World Encyclopedia of Public Relations.
He was a loving and dedicated husband, father and grandfather.
He is survived by five granddaughters, three daughters and his wife of 50 years, Jane.
His energy, kindness and his belief that anything was possible, no matter how difficult, will be sorely missed.
The Skinner family has set up a website of remembrance. Anyone who wishes to express how Chris touched their lives, post your thoughts on https://remembr.com/chris.skinner. The family will appreciate this.
A celebration of Chris’ life will be held on Saturday, 18 June at 11am at the Athlone Park Methodist Church hall in Linscott Road.
