Wimpie de Klerk Collection
Willem Johannes (Wimpie) de Klerk Collection
(12 April 1928, Reddersburg – 7 August 2009, Johannesburg)
Mrs. Nina (Overton) de Klerk, wife of Prof. Wimpie de Klerk, approached the university administration regarding donating Prof. Wimpie’s complete personal library, as he was known to everyone at this university. The donation was accepted based on the long-standing relationship between the De Klerk family and this university, particularly with the Potchefstroom campus. Prof. Willem de Klerk’s grandfather, W.J. de Klerk, served as Registrar from 1921 to 1927. Prof. de Klerk’s father, Senator Jan (Johannes) de Klerk, an alumnus of this university (1923–1926), entered politics in 1974 and served in various cabinet positions for 15 years. He was also Minister of Education from 1961–1966/1968 and served as Chancellor of the PU for CHE from 1961 to 1979. In 1960, he received an honorary LLD for his role in public life from the PU for CHE. Willem de Klerk was also the brother of Mr. F.W. de Klerk, a former student of this university’s Faculty of Law and later President of South Africa.
Although, for practical reasons, the library and accompanying manuscripts, documents, and photographs could not be housed as a single unit, an undertaking was made to archive them so that his association with and influence on NWU, as well as the impact of his intellectual legacy, would benefit the university and academic community. The collection will also be available to researchers worldwide.
De Klerk divided his books and documents into various categories, which roughly correspond to the course of his long and influential career: as a minister in the Reformed Church (1953–1963), lecturer in Psychology and the comprehensive (Philosophy) course, Interfaculty Philosophy, which all students at this university—then still the PU for CHE—were required to take (1963–1973), editor of Die Transvaler (1973–1982) and Rapport (1982–1987), professor of Journalism at the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg) (1987 until his retirement), after which he continued practicing as a Pastoral Psychologist.
The collection also includes several original manuscripts, which consist of, among other things, Psychology lectures, the full series of Interfaculty Philosophy lectures that he developed as a course at the PU for CHE, sermon collections, reflections on current affairs and life, dated commentaries, and other correspondence. The collection also contains a significant number of family photographs and documents, largely preserved as they were received and partially catalogued.