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OBITUARY:  
PROF. F.H. (TERRY) TERBLANCHE  

(17 JUNE 1939 - 30 APRIL 2014)

Professor Terry Terblanche, a former President of the South African Communication 
Association (SACOMM), who passed in Bloemfontein on April 30 this year, was 
in academia first and foremost a rhetorician in the classical tradition. 

Terry studied at the Heidelberg College of Education, the University of South 
Africa (Unisa), and the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein where 
he obtained a doctorate in Communication Science under the promotership of 
Ben de Koker and Arrie de Beer in 1987.

Terry’s professional career took him into teaching at school and college level, 
and a lengthy stint as lecturer in the Department of Drama and the Department of 
Communication Science at the UFS. He was appointed Head of the Department 
of Communication Science at the UFS in 1990 and continued in that position 
until his retirement in December 2003. Despite his ailing health, he remained a 
most valued research fellow of this Department and an Editorial Board member 
of Communitas until his death.



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While Terry had a life-long interest in Greek and Roman rhetoric, he also excelled 
in the teaching of general communication theory and, in later years, nonverbal 
communication. With regard to communication theory, he often explicated 
an existential approach in a similar vein to Marthinus van Schoor and the late 
Nerina Jansen of Unisa, as well as the dramaturgical approach on which he was an 
expert. Given this background, it is no wonder that Terry was a formidable debater 
and a compassionate lecturer.

Tributes to Terry have been widespread from former students, colleagues and the 
SACOMM community. I was close to him for the past 25 years and can attest 
to his insatiable curiosity, dry sense of humour, sharp mind, humaneness and 
scholarly way of being in this world. We salute Professor Terry Terblanche for the 
outstanding contribution he made to the Communication Science discipline and 
for his overall scholarly legacy.

Professor Terblanche leaves behind his wife, Ansa, three children and a grandchild.

Johann C. de Wet  


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