Anthony Hitchcock Death | Passed Away | Obituary
Anthony Hitchcock Death – Dead: A great loss was made known to InsideEko. As friends and families of the deceased are mourning the passing of their loved and cherished Anthony Hitchcock.
Having heard about this great loss, the family of this individual is passing through pains, mourning the unexpected passing of their beloved.
This departure was confirmed through social media posts made by Twitter users who pour out tributes, and condolences to the family of the deceased.
We have just heard that the patient who was in my ward that contracted Covid has died two days ago. His name was Anthony Hitchcock. He was a well known horticulturist at Kirstenbosch. It’s very SAD. As I got to know him. It just makes us realize how very fortunate I was.
We have just heard that the patient who was in my ward that contracted Covid has died two days ago. His name was Anthony Hitchcock. He was a well known horticulturist at Kirstenbosch. It’s very SAD. As I got to know him. It just makes us realize how very fortunate I was. pic.twitter.com/iWRirFGGp5
— Oscar Chalupsky (@OscarChalupsky) July 10, 2020
We are deeply saddened by the death of Anthony Hitchcock who passed away yesterday afternoon 7 July 2020 of Covid19 complications while undergoing treatment for cancer.Anthony was a horticulturist at Kirstenbosch who championed search and rescue, the gardens as a tool for restoration ecology, the garden of extinction, the Erica collection, living plant collection, and growing indigenous plants.
He was particularly involved in the recovery of Erica verticillata, extinct in the wild, but sourced plants from botanical gardens around the world, propagated them and returned them to the wild.
During the 2020 City Nature Challenge while Cape Town was under lockdown, Anthony documented many of the plants in his garden while waiting for a slot for the chemotheraphy treatment for his bone marrow transplant, and was among our top 10 contributors.
We hope that through his work and legacy he will continue to be an inspiration for other lovers of plants, the outdoors and conservation.
His passing is a huge loss for the restoration community. He was a huge champion of Fynbos conservation and restoration. He will be sorely missed by the Friends of Tokai Park, and the stands of Erica verticillata at Tokai will form a living memorial to him, a wonderful man of great humility.
Goodbye Anthony, you will be missed.
It is with the greatest sorrow that we say farewell to fynbos conservation, horticulture and restoration (and my) hero Anthony Hitchcock, who died in hospital today. Our heartfelt condolences to all who knew him and admired his remarkable contributions to conservation, particularly to threatened habitats and species (he was even editing a paper on Erica turgida conservation while in hospital!).
Perhaps his greatest conservation legacy was the reintroduction of Erica verticillata to the wild, where it now lives on, largely thanks to his efforts. This flagship species raised the profile of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, and demonstrated how effective people partnerships can even revive plant-pollinator partnerships from extinction. That is why the FynbosLIFE logo depicts an orange-breasted sunbird pollinating Erica verticillata. Anthony taught us that people that care and work hard enough can not only mitigate harm to the earth, but accelerate the recovery of ecosystems. Let’s keep trying to do more of that!
I will always be grateful to Anthony for his contribution to FynbosLIFE as Director this year. He had so many great ideas and plans for our work which I hope we will still be able to implement in his honour.
Rest peacefully, and in power, Anthony. So long, and thanks for all the flowers
We are still working on getting more details about the death, as family statement on the death is yet to be released.