Coert Smit Grobbelaar was born on 16 July 1886 at Middelburg. He matriculated at the Boys High School in Paarl in 1902 and attended Victoria College in Stellenbosch (passed the Intermediate Examination in the first class)
He interrupted his studies for some time and taught at Ficksburg before he enrolled at the Rhodes University College in Grahamstown (BA Hons in Zoology).
1911-1913: Teacher at Lindley and Boshof
1913: Lecturer at Victoria College
1914: MA, University of the Cape of Good Hope
1922: Left for Europe to study at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin, where he obtained a PhD, cum laude, a year later. Thesis: Beiträge zu einer anatomischen Monographie der Xenopus laevis, (Cape Platanna). (Later one of his students, Lulu Latsky, would take up the topic for her PhD thesis).
Back in Stellenbosch, Coert Grobbelaar obtained a Higher Secondary Education Diploma and was promoted senior lecturer.
1939: Study leave in Germany to read anthropology in München. The war broke out, he was forced to return and he continued his studies at the University of Cape Town.
Coert Smit Grobbelaar was married to Elsie Bergh, née Bresler. They had a daughter: Philippina Elisabeth.
Coert Grobbelaar was senior lecturer at the Department of Zoology, Stellenbosch University, until his retirement in 1956. He remained in Stellenbosch until 1971, when he moved to Bloemfontein. Coert Smit Grobbelaar died on 15 January 1976.
He was a great lover of arts and sculpture and enjoyed hiking and mountaineering.

Memberships:
Helpmekaarvereniging, Stellenbosch
South African Society for the Advancement of Science
Royal Society of South Africa
Berg en Toerklub, Stellenbosch and Life Member of Mountain Club of South Africa

Award: Havenga Prize of Zoology 1956

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