 Subsequently, he was appointed Honorary Research Professorial Fellow at the Institute, a position he held until his death.He received numerous national and international awards including honorary doctorates from UPE and Wits, the Gold Award of the Zoological Society of South Africa, The Draper Award of the Geological Society of South Africa, honorary life membership of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in the United States and the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa, and most recently the prestigious Morris Skinner Award of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.His introduction to fossils and collecting started at the age of six, when he scoured the countryside around Nieu-Bethesda, where he grew up, to find specimens for Robert Broom.