Professor Johannes Marinus Boon

Professor Johannes (Hanno) Boon (1970 - 2004)

Brief overview:

Hanno (34), a popular medical doctor from Pretoria and Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Pretoria, was shot dead while collecting stones for building purposes from the Mamelodi quarry, on 13th December 2004.

Hanno and one of his employees, Johannes Kekana, were overpowered by two armed men on the Cullinan road about 14h00. They shot Hanno and stole his wallet. His employee Johannes fled and went to search for help.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
  • Hanno is survived by his wife, Sietske, and three children, Germien, Julia-Marie and Joel. His wife, Sietske, was expecting the couple's fourth child.
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Street/Suburb
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction

Additional Biographical Information:

Hanno's father, professor Hans Boon, director of distance education at the University of Pretoria, said his son has been a doctor at Mamelodi Hospital for more than five years.

"Hanno was a recipient of both national and international research grants since 2000. The list of various prestigious academic acknowledgements and prizes that he received for his research include, among others:

• The Wellcome Trust Travel Grant to visit Cambridge in 2000.

• The Conrad Lewin prize for best scientific paper, awarded to him at a meeting of the British Association of Clinical Anatomists in Glasgow in 2001.

• An award for Educational Innovation from the University of Pretoria for his CD-ROM (The Virtual Procedures Clinic, Boon et al.) in 2002.

• During 2003 he received the Exceptional Young Achiever Award, a prestigious research award from the University of Pretoria.

• The Presidential Travel Award for the best presentation given at the 21st Annual Conference of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) meeting in San Francisco, USA (8-11 June 2004)."

Professor Hanno Boon: Eulogy given by Dr Peter Abrahams

A shining light has been extinguished from my intellectual life, and countless other academics worldwide My academic heart has been torn out.
A future world leader in anatomy has been taken from us.

Gentle giant - Genteel - Gentleman
Humble modest man - with an innocent radiant smile and quirky raised eyebrows whose beaming face brought light into any place that he worked.
For me personally, Hanno was the ideal role model for medical students combining the scientifically sharp teacher/ researcher with a caring compassionate doctor of the people, for the people – who so ever they were.

I first met Hanno only six years ago when his paper presentation at a meeting in Kentucky so impressed me that a year later I was thrilled to meet up again and hike through the woods of Iowa whilst planning his PhD, which eventually I was to supervise in Cambridge, England. My biggest academic treat was every Friday when he would come to my office for a tutorial where his razor sharp and totally focused mind would teach me more than I ever gave back to him. By 2003, in a period spanning less than five years he had built up such an international reputation by winning the British Association of Clinical Anatomists (UK) Conrad Lewin prize that he was invited as guest teacher to help run a post-graduate course for surgeons and teachers of anatomy from over 20 different countries at the joint American and European anatomists meeting in Graz, Austria. His teaching course had developed from topics that he had covered in his PhD thesis.

Last year I had to find a co author for a popular international anatomy atlas and trawling the world of young academics it did not take long to realize there was none to match him. Even my publishers questioned his youth for such a task – my insistence on his selection was vindicated by his winning the Presidential award in San Francisco at the recent American Association of Clinical Anatomists meeting - a rare honour for a non-American. In fact, so admired were his talents overseas that the Editor in chief of the journal Clinical Anatomy wanted to bring into the Journal the ASSA Anatomical Society of Southern Africa with Hanno Boon as its African Editor.

Just last month I was also asked to assess the anatomists in South Africa for the National Research Foundation, where in Hanno’s report I referred to him as “A Shooting Star” of world anatomy.
The world of clinical anatomy will be a much poorer place.
In his 34 years he has achieved as much as many men twice his age.

My many memories of Hanno are not however limited to Academia as only five months ago, preceding the San Francisco meeting, he and I had such fun together working on the atlas at night and hiking every daytime to achieve a real hiking zenith by reaching the top of Half dome in Yosemite park, California. Many of you who have seen the pictures will realize why his long legs suffered more than mine. The next day we were laughing out loud as we hobbled around the camp like two grumpy old men in need of walking sticks.

It was in that campsite whilst chatting at night that I realized the strength of his religious convictions, as each night he would read his bible and we would then discuss its relevance to our own modern world, before settling down for the night.
In this terrible time my only slight comfort is that both you - Sietske and Hanno truly trust in God

May God let his soul rest in peace.
“Amen” , dear friend

Peter Abrahams

Links to Media articles:

• https://archive.is/v0jB7
• https://apps.sgu.edu/calendars/sgugazette.nsf/GazettePastIssue?Open...
• https://apps.sgu.edu/calendars/sgugazette.nsf/GazetteFullStoryPast?...
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20786204.2005.10873163
• https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/in-remembrance-hanno-boon-phd-197...
• https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000189013562838