IN MEMORIAM – DECEMBER 2021

BARRY MICHAEL JAMMY

16 January 1932 – 11 November 2021 

 

Barry Michael Jammy passed away on 11 November after suffering a fall at his home.

With his passing we lose a friend, a colleague, loving husband to his wife of 64 years, Eve, and father to three children, Gail who lives in London, Paul who lives in Sydney and has two children, Gabriel and Rachel, and David who lives in Los Angeles with his two children, Lukas and Julian. Despite the pandemic, his sons and daughter were able to travel back to Johannesburg to be with their father prior to his passing.

Barry, I suspect, had aspirations to become a disc jockey. Fortunately, he decided to embark on a legal career which saw him graduate from Wits (University of the Witwatersrand) with a BA and Bachelor of Laws qualifications.  After completing articles with Cranko and Hyman he joined Edward Nathan and Friedland, now ENSafrica, and became a partner and thereafter a director. He had a long and distinguished career as an attorney from 1959 to 1995 during which one of his specialisations became employment law. His expertise in this field was recognised by way of appointment as acting judge to the Labour Court of South Africa during the period 1998 to 2003. He was also made an Honorary Life Panellist of Tokiso Dispute Resolution and held the office of National Vice-President of Lawyers for Human Rights from 1989 to 1990.

Barry joined the Association of Arbitrators in 1990, while still a practicing attorney with Edward Nathan and Friedland.  He became a member of the executive committee and subsequently, following the conversion of the Association to an NPC, a director.  For his contributions to the Association, which were many, he was made an Honorary Life Fellow.  He regularly accepted appointments in commercial arbitrations.

Barry would have turned 90 years of age on 16 January 2022, but despite his advanced age he continued to serve the Association whenever called upon to do so and, at the time of his passing, was assisting by marking assignments of students on the Association’s courses.

For those of you who had the pleasure of interacting with him you would, without doubt, have been struck immediately by the richness of his voice, which could truly be described as mellifluous, and which must have brought so much pleasure to so many people through his 30-year contribution to Tape Aids for the Blind.  Neither was he a stranger to taking the microphone and addressing an audience, which he did on a number of occasions on behalf of the Progressive Federal Party at their annual Zoo Lake conventions.  I can well imagine people flocking to the event just to listen to Barry as opposed to the political agenda of the PFP!

As a person he was a warm human being, easily approachable, willing to share his vast experience with others.  He was, without doubt, a gentleman of the old school and although his passing inevitably engenders sorrow, those of us who had the pleasure of interacting with him and more particularly for his family, the memories of Barry Michael Jammy will live forever in our hearts.

On behalf of the Chairman and Directors of the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa) NPC, I extend our most sincere condolences to Eve, Gail, David and Paul and families.

Chris D Binnington
Director
AOA
3 November 2021