If any of us can say goodbye to this world with the extraordinary tributes that have been pouring in for the late Professor Duard Kleyn of the University of Pretoria (UP), we could rest with the assurance that our time on Earth was well lived – that we had left a shining, lasting legacy.

It is a legacy that is recounted by every colleague and student who knew Prof Kleyn, and who all speak of him as an utterly brilliant man with a rare wit, as a visionary, raconteur, aesthete, a wonderful friend, an unforgettable teacher and a magnificent mentor. Prof Kleyn was also an unforgettable, irreverent, snappy dresser, and a unique human being who lived entirely on his own terms.

He was always fun to be with, incredibly humorous, always busy with something interesting and out of the ordinary. He could captivate a room, confront authority in the nicest way, and be direct and honest. People always felt good in his company, whether in the faculty halls, the lecture rooms, over a glass of wine or at his home, where he was a wonderfully hospitable host.

Prof Kleyn and Jan Mutton, the Belgian ambassador at the time, married in 2010, and moved into a mid-century modernist house in Brooklyn. They filled it with friends, books, music, artefacts and a growing collection of contemporary and avant-garde South African art, which surrounded Prof Kleyn in his last days when he passed away. Mutton said that those final days were peaceful and content.

Prof Kleyn was a lifetime UP person, with deep institutional memory, and an integral part of both the Law Faculty and the University. He obtained his BA, LLB and LLD degrees at UP. In 1981, he became a lecturer in the Department of Legal History and was promoted to senior lecturer in the same year. In 1988, he was promoted to professor. In 1997, he was appointed Deputy Dean and in 1998, Dean of the Faculty of Law, serving in this position until 2006.

“Duard was blessed with a brilliant intellect, and the gift of sharing his wisdom and insights with colleagues and students, igniting a love and enthusiasm for the law,” said Professor Elsabe Schoeman, Dean of the Law Faculty, in her tribute to Prof Kleyn. “He set the highest standards, and his students were inspired to reach and surpass them. He combined academic rigour with an understanding of the purpose of law in society and throughout the history of humankind. He displayed compassion, a generosity of spirit, and a commitment to advancing the careers and lives of innumerable colleagues and students. Duard was a mensch in the true sense of the word, and we will honour his legacy.”

Prof Kleyn’s legacy endures in the very fabric of the Law Building, the design and construction of which he oversaw every phase of. It was completed in 2004. Twenty years later, as he foresaw, it has contributed to the Faculty of Law being the best in the country and one of the best in the world. The building acts as a metaphor for Prof Kleyn, who committed his life and soul to the best interests of the faculty.

“His infectious personality, his loyalty, dogged determination and prioritisation of the faculty prompted the University’s top management into agreeing to us having own building constructed,” said Prof Frans Viljoen about Prof Kleyn, who was his lecturer in Roman Law at UP, and subsequently his mentor and colleague from 1992 onwards. “We were in the Education Building when Duard became Dean, and he said that if we want to be a great faculty, we must have our own building that embodies our identity and sets us apart.

“His vision is in every part of the Law Faculty building, which did indeed create a powerful sense of identity and bring us together as a scholarly family of students and staff who feel we are in the place we belong,” Prof Viljoen continued. “This was Duard’s dream – he was always seeking wholeness; he wanted people to be happy and integrated, to belong and to achieve their best. You always came away feeling good after being in his company. It was a joy having him as a friend and colleague.”

“I’ve known Duard since we were students in the 1970s; he completed his LLB one year before me,” Prof André Boraine said. “We were juniors in the faculty together and we pursued our careers side by side. He was always the livewire, fond of parties, with witty remarks about everything. It was always exciting to be in his presence as he had a unique way of seeing things. He was a very good, loyal friend to me and an incredible chap to have around. All his students really loved him; this is reflected in him being named Lecturer of the Year for many years in succession.”

Prof Kleyn was renowned for his “card system”; the card included the name and photo of each student in his class. He would call on students to answer questions or offer comment. When they got something wrong, he was witty with his retorts, which everyone feared, yet at the same time, made them feel exhilarated and never dispirited. The spirit in his classes was phenomenal – very serious yet very enjoyable at the same time.

“When he became Dean, I served with him as Deputy Dean,” Prof Boraine continued. “It’s a daunting task to provide leadership to a law faculty, but he did it with distinction. He had a wonderful way with people and could deal with difficult situations. We all had tremendous respect for him. He was involved in faculty management and leadership through all the changes at the University.”

Prof Kleyn urged faculty members “to embrace change, as change is inevitable, and essential to growing and moving forward. It is when we embrace change, accept change, prepare for change and learn from it, that we become all the better for experiencing it – then change is no longer our enemy, but our teacher”.

As a teacher and researcher, Prof Kleyn’s brilliance is legendary.

“I have known Duard since 2010, when I was a first-year law student,” Prof Joel Modiri recalled. “He was my lecturer in Historical Foundations of South African Private Law, and I had the pleasure of knowing him as a teacher and a friend. He was a brilliant lecturer and legal historian. There are very few people with such command of legal Latin and a thrilling understanding of Roman legal civilisation. He had his students riveted with his powerful storytelling about the history of Rome, Roman civilisation and the history of law. He was larger than life and enormously popular, with an inimitable wit. When I first started publishing, he encouraged me, and was pivotal in my decision to pursue an academic career.”

Prof Modiri adds that Prof Kleyn was deeply committed to transformation.

“He was a humanist, and one of his philosophical standpoints was to share how elements of Roman law and Roman civilisation are very similar to the core values of ubuntu,” Prof Modiri said. “He was progressive, and really believed that law is about justice. One of his last articles was about the core values of Roman law – justice, fairness, equality, doing good to others and not harming others – and how these are in sync with the core values of ubuntu.”

Prof Kleyn felt it was important for lawyers to receive training in the ancient civilisations in order to understand the evolution of society and the history of ideas, not just rules. He also believed that art is very important for inspiration, provocation and thinking.

Behind his desk in his office, he had a painting by Max Ernst of the Virgin Mary giving the Christ child a spanking – definitely not an orthodox representation, yet a simple cameo of life between a mother and her unruly child. It caused controversy and was considered by many to be blasphemous, in that Jesus should not be seen as being treated as an ordinary child or misbehaving.

There were also artworks by Diane Victor, which captured the human condition and political life in South Africa with powerful, evocative, violent imagery.

“There was huge debate about them in the faculty, which is what Duard intended,” Prof Modiri recalled. “He felt lawyers and students should be confronted with powerful, evocative images that make you think.”

In many ways, Prof Kleyn was ahead of his time, with his focus on internationalisation, and by inviting professors of law from other esteemed international faculties to lecture at UP and reciprocally lecturing at their universities. In 1996, he was appointed as the first visiting South African fellow to the Department of Private Law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he lectured in Advanced Property Law. In 1997, he was appointed as a visiting professor at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, where he lectured in Legal History (Private Law).

Prof Kleyn co-authored the third edition of Silberberg and Schoeman’s The Law of Property, a seminal text on South African property law often quoted by the high courts. He was equally capable of writing for non-academic audiences, co-writing A Beginner’s Guide for Law Students, which he worked on with Prof Viljoen.

“It was an introductory text for law students which didn’t exist at the time,” Prof Viljoen explained. “It was part of his forward-thinking and commitment to accessibility. He said the guide had to be accessible to the audience – learners who have just left high school – and it must be written as such.”

There is so much more to say about Prof Kleyn; in fact, several volumes could be written about him. He is released from pain now, having faced a number of illnesses and issues in his life, including diabetes, and a hip and ankle replacement. He is gone too soon at 68, with his wonderful, big heart finally giving way.

The entire Law Faculty at UP mourns him. We are shocked by his passing, but feel blessed to have been part of Prof Kleyn’s magnificent life.

A LIFE WELL LIVED – IN MEMORY OF DUARD KLEYN

By Honorary Ambassador Jan Mutton, spouse of Prof Duard Kleyn

Duard Kleyn was born in Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, in 1955. He matriculated in Kempton Park, where he grew into an intelligent, dedicated schoolboy with several extracurricular interests.

At the age of 18, he began studying law at the University of Pretoria (UP). He lived at the Maroela men’s residence, where he left his mark as a gifted student with a wild imagination, an inspiring enthusiasm, and a clear sense for the extraordinary, the bohemian and the provocative, at times coming up with remarkable winning suggestions for float building during Rag.

It is well known that he moved quickly through his doctoral era to become a professor and, later, at a young age, became Dean of the Law Faculty. He did research in Scotland and the Netherlands, and was a Von Humboldt scholar in Germany. He excelled in his discipline, and produced writing that is still used by judges and academics around the country.

More importantly, however, Duard developed a dedicated and approachable style of teaching. He was respected and liked by all and, right up until his retirement, he was regularly voted Academic of the Year. His time at the Law Faculty is also marked by his efforts to deliver an architecturally impressive new Law Building, and a desire to fill it with art that addressed legal and social issues.

A keen eye for art led him to spending his entire first salary on a Gregoire Boonzaier painting (to the horror of his mother). He surrounded himself with an interesting crowd of young academics and professionals, all of whom enjoyed socialising, good conversation, art and good food. When he bought the old farmhouse in Clydesdale, together with his architect friend Ora Joubert, they restored the house to perfection and won a prize for the design of their garden. Ora would move on to turn the stables at the back of the property into an iconic piece of contemporary architecture.

Later in life, when we married, we moved into a mid-century modernist house in Brooklyn. We filled it with friends, books, music, artefacts and a growing collection of contemporary, sometimes avant-garde, South African art, which surrounded Duard up to his last days when he passed away, peacefully and contentedly. We will remember him as a spirited and provocative human being, a brilliant educator and a committed collector.