Nicolaas Diederichs served as the third State President of South Africa from 1975 to 1978.

An economist, Diederichs obtained a doctorate from the University of Leiden. During the 1930s and 1940s he became a prominent figure in Afrikaner

Afrikaner

Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

 nationalist circles. He founded the Reddingsdaadbond organisation to promote the economic wellbeing of Afrikaners.

Diederichs was a National Party

National Party (South Africa)

The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...

 member of Parliament from 1953 to 1975. He served as Minister of Economic Affairs from 1958 to 1967, as Minister of Mines from 1961 to 1964, and as Minister of Finance from 1967 to 1975. In the latter capacity he became known as "Mr Gold." He served as the first chancellor or the Rand Afrikaans University

Rand Afrikaans University

The Rand Afrikaans University ' was a prominent South African institution of higher education and research that served the greater Johannesburg area and surrounds in from 1967 to 2004...

 and ceremonial State President from 1975 until his death, after a short illness, of a heart attack on 21 August 1978 in Cape Town.