David Chudy lived in the moment… and for the future. The odysseys of his past had little influence over his actions. A self-made man, he countered his lack of formal education with a prolific talent.

There is scant information about Chudy’s early life. The youngest in the family, he was born in Wohyń in Poland but appeared to have received his limited education in the Freeport of Danzig, where his father had a confectionery business, The precise number of his siblings is unknown. Almost all of the extended family perished under the Nazis. Chudy was granted a visa to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) in 1938 where he settled on the Copperbelt near the Belgian Congo. He and his wife moved to Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1947.

He achieved much in his relatively short life, a home taught polymath. His contemporaries – in keeping with the intellectual climate of the times – were astonished that an individual could be comfortable in the then compartmentalized areas of science, art and culture.

In his lifetime, Chudy was successful entrepreneur, an artist and a self-taught scientist who frequently broke new ground. He self-funded research into bats’ echolocation. He developed sonar blind-aids and prototype sonic burglar alarms. At the time of his death (aged 51) his bat research was due to for publication in Nature magazine and he was being drawn to applying his theories to dolphin speech.