A Legacy Written in Generosity: Roy McAlpine
- DFO
Roy McAlpine (1941-2026)
The University of the Witwatersrand is remembering one of its most generous benefactors, Roy McAlpine, who donated R70 million towards the building of the state-of-the-art Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Roy McAlpine Burns Unit at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, who passed away in January 2026, in Johannesburg, at the age of 85.
McAlpine was born in Scotland in 1941 and at the age of 22, as a young, chartered accountant who had achieved the top mark in his final Scottish board exams, emigrated to South Africa, settling in Johannesburg, and taking up a job at Liberty Life. He became known as a guru of wealth creation. His daughter Claire told mourners at his memorial that “my dad was a modest man, but Business Day tells me that he was the most high-profile fund manager in South Africa and the best investment mind of his generation”.
McAlpine went on to become the Executive Chairman of Liberty Asset Management. He was not only responsible for Liberty’s own portfolio of investments but also for the Guard Bank suite of unit trusts and for the assets of some 300 large third-party pension funds that were managed by Liberty.
A former colleague, Jamie Inglis, who spoke at the memorial, said: “Roy’s investment policy was essentially conservative preservation”; while his children Claire, David and Alistair related how their father was always telling them that “if you take care of the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves”.
He likely followed his own advice, as in 2011 he formed the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation, into which he placed half of his wealth. His own genius ability of growing this saw the Trust support several worthy causes, which included the building of a classroom, block hall and library at Deep Schools. He also supported John Perlman’s Dreamfields project, which promotes, organises and funds football and netball at 396 township and rural schools, impacting 65 000 children. Out of this sprang the McAlpine Rangers Football Club, of which he was inordinately proud. In 2021, the Roy McAlpine Charitable Foundation donated R70 million towards building the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Roy McAlpine Burns Unit at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. It was an honour for him to have been able to attend the official opening of this world-class facility on 26 August 2024.
For 16 years, Roy McAlpine suffered from a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder, which he fought valiantly with a stringent exercise regimen and with the help of medical professionals and his family.
The University sends its sincere condolences to his wife Anne, and his children, Claire, David and Alistair, and would like to express its deepest gratitude for his extraordinarily generous philanthropy, which continues to make a real difference to South African communities.