In memoriam : Fritz Zollner

Abstract

Fritz Zollner was born on 21 Sept 1949 in Lydenburg, shortly after his missionary parents arrived in South Africa by boat from Germany. Fritz started his working career as a medical technologist in Bloemfontein. He earned two international diplomas in Chemical and Clinical Pathology, but his love for all creatures, great and small eventually got the better of him and 10 years later he started to pursue his real calling when he went to Onderstepoort and qualified as a Veterinary Surgeon in 1986. Fritz spent the first 18 years of his veterinary career in Bloemfontein at the VETOVS Animal clinic mainly working with horses, cattle, small animals and assisting at the zoo. He also completed numerous locum tenens in mixed and horse practices in the UK, Germany and Austria until the early 1990s. In April 2004 he moved to the Cape where he worked in Somerset West at Country Animal Clinic and Altena Animal Clinic in Strand, before he moved to Malmesbury in April 2006. For the next 12 years, he worked at the Malmesbury Animal Hospital and since April 2018 he has been part of the Groenkloof Animal Clinic, until his sad departure at age 75 on 13 May 2024. Fritz was a member of the SAEVA (equine) group of SAVA.