Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
We are saddened to hear of the death of Max Loubser in Stellenbosch.
Max matriculated at the Hugenote High School in Wellington in 1966, where he achieved first place on the Cape Province's merit list. He then obtained his Bachelors in Law and LLB degrees cum laude from Stellenbosch University (SU), where he was also involved in campus leadership and served as a member of the Student Representative Council.
He was subsequently awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and arrived at the University of Oxford in 1973, where he earned his DPhil in Information, Communication & Social Sciences and wrote his thesis on The Theft of Money in South African Law in 1977.
In the same year, he was appointed as professor in the Department of Private Law at SU. Max occupied his professorial position for 34 years, until his retirement in 2011. Thereafter, he was appointed a research fellow, and in this capacity, he continued to make significant contributions to his field of research. Max authored numerous textbooks and legal publications, including Tort Law in South Africa, and co-authoring Law of Delicts in South Africa. "These works remain cornerstones in South Africa jurisprudence," SU faculty shared.
He was a practising attorney and executive consultant at Cluver Markotter Incorporated. He joined the firm as a director in 1983 and served in the capacity until 2023, when he continued his association as an executive consultant. "His devotion to his work reflect not only his discipline but his genuine passion for the law and its principles," the firm shared in a statement. They described Loubser as one of South Africa's most brilliant legal minds – "a specialist and walking encyclopaedia in several areas of law."
Born in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1965, Wolfgang was educated at Lyttleton Manor High School and Paul Roos Gymnasium before attending the University of Stellenbosch for his Bachelor of Engineering from 1984 to 1987.
He arrived at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1988, where he met Dorothea Sievers. Wolfgang and Dorothea got married in South Africa the following year, and they were active in the Trinity College and Rhodes communities until his graduation.
After earning his DPhil in Engineering Science in 1991, Wolfgang joined Siemens, Munich as a Research Engineer the following year. He had a successful and distinguished career and a happy family life with Dorothea and their three children, and he will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
We were saddened to learn that Graham Neame passed away recently at the age of 93.
Born in Port Elizabeth, Cape Province to wool merchant EE Neame, Graham was educated at St Andrew’s College (1944-47), and went on to receive his BA from Rhodes University in 1950. He arrived at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1951, joining Jesus College to study Modern History.
Graham joined University of Fort Hare as a lecturer in 1955, moving on to Natal University in 1957 and Rhodes University in 1963, eventually joining University of the Witwatersrand in 1985.
We were saddened to hear of the death of Gordon Hartford.
Born in Glasgow, UK, he moved to South Africa at the age of nine and was educated at Grey High School, Port Elizabeth, 1947-50. He then went to Rhodes University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 1954, later arriving at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1955. Here, Gordon studied Jurisprudence and earned his Master of Arts in 1960, joining Lincoln's Inn as a law student in 1957 and the Bar Association in South Africa in 1958, working as an Advocate in Cape Town until 1966. He served as Hon Sec of the Cape Bar Council in 1965-66, delegate to the Gen Council Bar of SA in 1966, and also Dep Legal Adviser to the City of Cape Town in 1966.
Gordon was a true gentleman, sharp and full of wit. He was well-read in classic literature and loved poetry, and as his career unfolded, he was an Advocate of the High Court, as well as an English Professor. He served as President of the English Association of SA in 1961-62, as well as Editor of English Studies in Africa. He joined the University of Witwatersrand as a Senior Lecturer of English in 1967, promoted to Professor in 1973 and later, Professor Emeritus in 1993. Gordon joined the Bar Association in Johannesburg in 1995, and the Eastern Cape Society of Advocates in the same year.
Gordon embodied a real passion for reading, and possessed a certain brilliance with words. His sense of humour and passion for life will be deeply missed by those who knew him.
We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Brian McHale in Seattle, Washington.
Brian was one of the world's most influential scholars of post-modern literature and culture as well as one of its leading narrative theorists. When he spoke or wrote, students and scholars around the world listened. His work was taught in classrooms on six continents, and it was cited by scholars working on authors across the span of literary history.
Born to Robert and Dorothy McHale and raised in Pittsburgh, Brian graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1970. He received his BA from Brown University (1974), where he also captained the men's track and field team. Brian was a Rhodes Scholar, earning his DPhil in English Language and Literature from Oxford University (1977). From 1977 to 1993, he taught in the Department of Poetics and Comparative Literature at Tel Aviv University, achieving the rank of Professor in 1983. In 1993, he became the Eberly Family Professor in the Department of English at West Virginia University. In 2002, he moved to the Ohio State University, where he served as Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English until his retirement in 2022. Brian served as President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN) and of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP). In 2025, ISSN awarded him the Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award.
McHale was the author of four books and more than one hundred articles as well as the co-editor of five additional volumes. He did extensive editorial work at the journal Poetics Today, serving as Associate Editor and then co-editor during the period 1979-2003 and then as Editor-in-chef from 2015-2019. He lectured across the United States and around the globe, and he did visiting stints at the University of Pittsburgh, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tampere University in Finland, and the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Brian was a beloved teacher and mentor because he was smart, witty, curious, generous, and rigorous. He was accessible and helpful, especially to his PhD students, many of whom kept in touch throughout their careers. Everyone who conversed with Brian felt that their time was well-spent, and descriptions of his style and personality invariably call him cool.
Read full obituary here.
John Owen Stone AO was a legendary leader of the Commonwealth Treasury, serving as secretary from 1979 to 1984 following his role as an intellectual driving force as deputy secretary from 1971 to 1978.
He was born in 1929, the elder of two sons of a farmer and a primary school teacher. His childhood was spent in the Western Australian wheat belt. On moving to Perth at age 12, John attended Perth Modern School, where contemporaries included Bob Hawke, Rolf Harris and Maxwell Newton.
He graduated with first-class honours from the University of Western Australia in 1950, majoring in mathematical physics, and served as president of the students’ association. While there he met Billy Snedden, who two decades later would be Prime Minister William McMahon’s treasurer, and with whom Stone would work as treasury deputy secretary.
In 1951, John was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He initially enrolled for a physics degree at Oxford, but switched to economics, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He joined Australia’s Treasury, initially in its London office, in 1954. The same year he married Nancy Hardwick, a biochemical researcher, and they would have five children.
In the 1970s and much of the 1980s, Australia was mired in rigid industrial frameworks, high tariffs, and bureaucratic overreach that threatened to choke growth and innovation. John’s push for deregulation, sound fiscal policy, and labour market reform helped steer Australia away from economic stagnation.
As a distinguished economist, public servant, and later a Senator, he brought rigour and clarity to debates on economic policy. His tenure as Secretary to the Treasury from 1979 to 1984 was marked by a steadfast commitment to fiscal discipline and market-driven solutions, earning him respect as one of Australia’s great conservative minds.
Stone was the only former head of the treasury to enter politics. He served as a National Party Senator for Queensland from 1987 to 1990, having been part of the Joh for Canberra campaign which had as its organising principle the anointing of Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen as prime minister. He was the Senate running mate to Sir Joh’s wife Flo Bjelke-Petersen.
Stone joined the Senate in 1987 as part of the Joh for Canberra campaign. In 1990, he resigned from the Senate to contest a seat in the House of Representatives, but failed to win. He reneged by nominating to return to his Senate seat before withdrawing, bringing his meteoric political career to an end.
He co-founded the HR Nicholls Society, which pressed for the deregulation of industrial relations laws, and the Samuel Griffith Society which concerned itself with states’ rights. His legacy challenges us to continue advocating for policies that empower individuals, reduce regulatory burdens, and foster a vibrant, competitive economy.
He died aged 96 and is survived by five children.
Read full obituary here.
Richard Fallon Jr was born in Augusta, Maine on 4 January 1952. On graduating from Cony High School in Augusta in 1970, he joined Yale University for his BA in History, which he earned in 1975. Richard arrived at Wadham College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar in 1975 to read for his BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He then attended Yale Law School 1977-80. Before entering teaching, Richard served as a law clerk to Judge J. Skelly Wright and to Justice Lewis F. Powell of the United States Supreme Court.
Richard was a pillar of Harvard Law School since joining the faculty as an assistant professor in 1982, was promoted to full professor in 1987, and was the Story Professor of Law and an Affiliate Professor in the Government Department.
Internationally recognized as a leading scholar of constitutional law, constitutional interpretation, and legal philosophy, he authored dozens of important works in these fields, and just recently completed his latest book, The Changing Constitution. He also served as co-author on leading casebooks and treatises, including Hart and Wechsler’s The Federal Courts and the Federal System. Colleagues around the world benefitted from his engagement with them at workshops and conferences, and particularly his generosity in providing lucid and detailed comments on their work.
He was a beloved teacher, having twice won the Sacks-Freund Award. He also regularly taught a highly popular course on American Constitutional Law for students in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Over his many decades in the classroom, he modelled excellence, curiosity, respect, and humility for his students, which is why so many of them remain devoted to him even decades after graduating.
Although Richard was serious about his work, he managed not to take himself too seriously. He expected a lot of himself and those around him, yet was also eager to listen to, and learn from, others. Even amidst earnest discussions, his wry sense of humour would often make a quiet appearance.
Read full obituary here.
James Daniel O'Flaherty served as a public policy figure at think tanks and on the U.S. Senate staff, and was an expert on South Africa and U.S. foreign trade.
Dan was born in Chicago on November 4,1942 to James C. O'Flaherty, a scholar of German philosophy and history at Wake Forest University, and Lucy Maupin Ribble, an accomplished painter. He grew up in Winston Salem, NC.
Dan won a scholarship to Williams College, Massachusetts, majoring in government and history, later serving on its board. He arrived at Oxford in 1965 as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, later earning a doctorate at Harvard and teaching for a year at The University of the South at Sewanee.
He was recruited by Senator Frank Church as a senior research analyst. Dan contributed to the Church Report on democratic reforms to U.S. intelligence agencies. His work on Capitol Hill led to an appointment at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in NYC, as a senior fellow specializing in national economics with a concentration on Wall Street, and then to a position at The Group of 30, focusing on international monetary and economic policy.
Dan served as Vice President of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) in D.C., while also directing the U.S.-South Africa Business Council. His work included U.S.-China trade relations, Vietnam normalization, and commercial relations with the former Soviet Union. Dan was a key figure in the Rhodes Scholar Alumni Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of The Cosmos Club.
Read full obituary here.
It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of the Honourable Gérard Vincent La Forest, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick in 1926, Justice La Forest went to the University of New Brunswick to study law and graduated with his BCL in 1949. He was called to the bar of New Brunswick shortly after, and named a King’s Counsel in 1968. Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, he continued his studies at Oxford University, where he earned a BA in Jurisprudence in 1951 and an MA in 1956. He also completed an LLM in 1965 and a JSD in 1966, both at Yale University.
Following a short period in private practice, Gérard served in the federal Department of Justice before embarking on a teaching career, notably as Dean of Law at the University of Alberta. He returned to government in 1970, serving as Assistant Deputy Attorney General of Canada until 1974 and later a member of the Law Reform Commission of Canada for five years.
Justice La Forest was appointed directly to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1981 and elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada on January 16, 1985. He served on the Supreme Court for more than 12 years, retiring on September 30, 1997.
“My colleagues and I mourn the loss of Justice La Forest — an exemplary jurist whose compassion deeply informed the Court’s decisions on issues that touched the lives of all Canadians,” said the Chief Justice of Canada, the Right Honourable Richard Wagner, P.C. “As a distinguished appellate judge, legal scholar and public servant, he brought unmatched intellect and experience to the Supreme Court of Canada. His eloquent judgments, spanning many areas of the law, have left a profound and enduring legacy in Canadian jurisprudence. He will be remembered with great respect and admiration.”
Read full obituary here.