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Jacob Gideon Dorfan was born on 18 September 1938 the middle child, and second son of two sons and a daughter. His parents, Kasriel and Sonia Dorfan, immigrated to South Africa to escape persecution during the Nazi Holocaust. Although quite poor, his parents understood the importance of a good education and ensured with all their means that their children received the best education possible. My father married my mother Ray in August 1965 and the union produced three sons and a daughter, Sharon. My father and mother currently have five grandchildren. The three sons are also accountants by profession. Errol, the eldest, is both a South African and Australian Chartered Accountant. Bryan is a qualified Australian Public Accountant and I, the youngest, am a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Jacob was educated at Hatfield primary school and Pretoria Boys high school. He completed matric in 1955 with distinctions in maths and science. After school he joined Old Mutual as an actuarial scholar but after two months decided on a career in Nuclear Physics. This lasted three months and midyear he registered for accountancy at UNISA. He passed the PAAB exam in 1960 at the tender age of 21.
Jacob did his articles during the period July 1956 - July 1960 at the accounting firm De Wit and Wapnick whereupon he joined Schwartz Fine and Kane, a large Johannesburg firm of accountants. After a year he was offered a partnership at his old firm De Wit and Wapnick. In 1963 he started his own practice under the name Dorfan & Co. In 1965 they merged with other firms to form Weiner Dorfan and Forbes where he remained a partner until 1974....