A profound sense of sadness and gratitude suffused the Old Main Building of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Law on 5 November, as colleagues, friends, and members of the broader higher education community gathered for a memorial service to honour the life and legacy of Prof Lis Lange. She passed away on 8 October.

Led by Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Learning and Teaching, Prof Richard Stevens, the ceremony offered both solemn reflection and celebration of a leader renowned for her strength, humour, irreverence and steadfast dedication to transformation.

“Lis shaped our university and sector with her intellect, integrity, and the kind of courage that moves work forward,” Stevens said, welcoming not only the academic community, but representatives from the University of Cape Town (UCT), University of the Free State (UFS), the Council on Higher Education, and members of Lange’s family. He noted wryly, “Lis would not be impressed by today – she probably would have said we should have had a glass of whiskey instead!” 

The formal tributes began with Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Deresh Ramjugernath, who described Lange as “a scholar of depth, a leader of principle, and a colleague who shaped our thinking in meaningful and lasting ways.” What he valued most about Lange was her integrity, Ramjugernath said. “She was never afraid to tell me how it was – sometimes with the most colourful language – but always with real heart and passion.”

He recounted how Lange’s unwavering commitment to universities as institutions in service of society guided all her work. “Excellence and transformation, for her, strengthened one another. She reminded us that inclusion is not a concession, but a foundation for quality,” Ramjugernath concluded.

The service resonated with further recollections read by Stevens from former colleagues Dr Mala Singh and Prof Saleem Badat. Singh traced Lange’s remarkable trajectory from her early career at the Centre for Science Development, noting her “promising diagnostic and strategic skills” and her fierce dedication to policy transformation. “Lis did not simply contribute to conversations. She shifted their centre of gravity,” Singh’s tribute observed.

Speaking on behalf of the family and friends, Prof Jane Bennett, Lange’s life partner, delivered a heartfelt tribute that offered intimate insight into the private, profoundly dedicated woman behind the public achievements. “Lis has a very large family, one to whose well-being and health and liveliness she was passionately committed,” Bennett shared, recounting stories that revealed both Lange’s unwavering standards, dedication and deep humanity.

SU’s Chief Director of Human Resources, Miriam Hoosain, represented former colleagues from the UCT and SU. She movingly remembered Lange as “principled, ethical, critical, and unwavering in her commitment to justice and transformation.” 

Hoosain said Lange’s compassion and kindness knew no bounds. “Personally, Lis became an inspirational mentor – wise, generous and endlessly encouraging. Even after facing health challenges, her dedication remained unshaken. When urged to take more time to rest, she smiled and said: ‘Are you crazy? What should I do with myself all day? I'd lose my mind if I just sat there’!”

Lange’s legacy will live on in the structures she helped shape and the people she uplifted, Hoosain said. “She never sought to please; she sought to speak truth at a time when conformity too often threatens the purpose of a university. Lis was different. She stood out, not because she was loud, but because she was brave… Her intellect was matched by her humanity. She had the softest heart and the most open door.”

Music by the Winelands String Quartet provided moments of quiet reflection between tributes, underlining the emotional weight of the ceremony.

As the service drew to a close, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, Prof Nico Koopman, offered a concluding reflection. “Lis embraced individuality and communality, humaneness and dignity, and she did it with passion,” Koopman noted. “Some are too kind to be honest. Some are too honest to be kind. Lis was both honest and kind.”

This reverence was echoed in online tributes read at the event, with one colleague remarking, “I deeply admired her courage and strength until the end. She was a principled and fearless advocate for so many people, and a great mentor and sounding board.”

With Lange’s untimely passing, SU and the wider academic community have lost a tireless activist, intellectual and leader whose influence on policy, practice and programming has shaped higher education far beyond the boundaries of any one institution. Stevens’ parting words summed it up perfectly: “What is remembered lives not in stone, but in how we continue the work. May we continue the work to which she devoted her life.”

• On 19 November, SU and Nelson Mandela University will host a Memorial Symposium in honour of Prof Lange in the Library Auditorium. You can RSVP here.