On 29 July 2024, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Department of Social Work pulled out all the stops to host a luncheon in honour of Dr Dianne Orton and her family. Dr Orton is an alumna and, along with her late husband, Gordon Howard, a long-standing benefactor of the Department of Social Work through various programmes and efforts.
The Department of Social Work Chair, Prof Marianne Strydom, warmly welcomed Dr Orton and her family (her sons and daughters as well as her grandchildren). She further welcomed the distinguished guests including Faculty Dean, Prof Anthony Leysen, Stellenbosch University’s Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wim de Villiers, Hugo Steyn from SU’s Development and Alumni Relations Division as well as the dedicated staff of the Department and Faculty.
Dr Orton has had a long-standing relationship with and commitment to the Department. In the past, she had conducted a number of workshops for staff, students and their supervisors. “As Diane completed her PhD, she did not forget us. She did quite a lot over the years to assist us at this Department,” said Prof Strydom. Prof Strydom mentioned that Dr Orton is regarded as a significant person in the Department. Her reputation and sense of giving are admirable.
Prof Lambert Engelbrecht took some time to travel down memory lane and reminisce about the academic and personal journey he shared with Dr Orton in various collaborative efforts throughout the years. “Dianne and I started talking about supervision through practice and those days, I was an emerging academic at the time, it seemed strange [that] I took this PhD route,” said Prof Engelbrecht. Prof Engelbrecht was drawn to collaborate with Dr Orton due to her heart for people, her passion and her engagement with people within the social work discipline. This then led to collaborations between Prof Engelbrecht and Dr Orton since 1999. He confirms that Dr Orton, on her academic journey, produced groundbreaking work that contributed to the body of knowledge in the social work discipline and education. In 2008, she completed her dissertation for her PhD in Social Work at the Department of Social Work, Stellenbosch University. Her research focused on the use of visual imagery and reflective writing as a measure of social work students’ capstone experience. The empirical component of her study employed photography and reflective writing – a novel research methodology at the time. The findings from this research provided valuable insights that could be integrated into the Department of Social Work’s future teaching and learning practice education programmes.
Dr Orton has been an instrumental philanthropist and benefactor in the Department of Social Work for more than 20 years. At one point, she sponsored an award for the best practice supervisor, which became a hugely contested accolade amongst peers in the Department. In 2015/2016, she took up the responsibility of sponsoring postgraduate (PG) students who were battling to secure funding for their studies. As a result of Dr Orton’s generosity and funding, Dr Hillary Chibaya graduated with his master’s and went on to complete his PhD. Dr Chibaya’s stellar academic career was made possible by Dr Orton’s support and donations. He was awarded other fellowships at Trento University in Italy and the University of Montreal in Canada, where he spent a year doing research, having life-changing experiences and finding professional opportunities. “In a nutshell, all this would have been impossible without the support, and I am genuinely, truly grateful from the bottom of my heart, and thank you for your continued support. May God bless you,” said Dr Chibaya.
Before Covid-19, Dr Orton also sponsored state-of-the-art teaching and learning audiovisual equipment for the Department to facilitate teaching and learning in distance and online engagement. This equipment became fundamental to teaching and learning as well as conducting meetings during Covid-19 and the lockdown that ensued, as lecturers were able to facilitate teaching and learning using this technology.
She also sponsors the journal, Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, in its 60th annual issue – one of the top open access journals in the field of social work in the world. This was necessitated by the fact that, unlike other journals, it is open access and not based on subscription. However, its contribution to social work in South Africa is immense – not just in Stellenbosch but also in the rest of Africa and the world.
Dr Orton is always there for the Department to lend a helping hand and support when a need arises. As a result, the Department of Social Work and the Faculty will forever be grateful for her generosity, support and willingness to give back to the Department and the students, and contribute towards the social work profession as a whole.
Stellenbosch University’s Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Wim de Villiers, and Dr Orton unveiled a plaque that commemorates her donation of teaching and learning audiovisual equipment to the Department of Social Work. The Department of Social Work and the Faculty genuinely appreciate her support through the years and are looking forward to further collaborations and engagement in the years to come. We wish her and her family a lovely stay whilst visiting Cape Town and South Africa.