Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
Prosser Gifford of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, was an accomplished scholar, author, educator, academic administrator, director of think tanks and centers of scholarship and inquiry, and sportsman.
Prosser graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut in 1947, before going to Yale University to earn his undergraduate degree in 1951. He matriculated as a Rhodes Scholar at Merton in 1951, reading English. Returning to the United States in 1953, he completed a law degree at Harvard in 1956 and then went back to Yale to gain a PhD in History in 1964. While continuing at Yale as an assistant professor he taught undergraduates and graduates and wrote about African History.
Prosser served as the first Dean of the African History Faculty at Amherst College. During this tough time of civil rights, Vietnam war and Watergate activism on American campuses, Pross was an effective champion for coeducation, equal rights, and free speech. Prosser wrote later that his proudest achievements during his twelve-year tenure as Amherst Dean were leading the commission that resulted in College Trustees admitting women in 1974 and increasing the number of women faculty members from one when he arrived to twenty-six when he left.
In 1979 he became Deputy Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Over his eight years there he brought together hundreds of scholars from around the world to collaborate on research, writing, and discussion of national and world issues.
Prosser left the Wilson Center to become the Director of Scholarly Programs at the Library of Congress, a position created for him which he held for fifteen years until his retirement in 2005. He was the first director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress that brought together some of the world’s eminent thinkers and supervised the selection of the $1 million Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences.
Luke Melas-Kyriazi, will follow his grandfather’s early voyage across the Atlantic and then to Oxford, although Luke’s may be at least initially make the trip virtually. He begins the Michaelmas term as a 2020 Rhodes Scholar at Oxford this fall.
Gérin-Lajoie served as Steelworkers Quebec Director from 1965 to 1981 and Quebec Federation of Labour Vice-President from 1959 to 1981. His union activism began as a 19-year-old worker at Montreal Cottons in Valleyfield, Que. Gérin-Lajoie attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1948 and earned a PhD in economics from McGill University.
“He greatly helped to build and bring structure to our union, the labour movement and the world of work as a whole. He has left us an immense legacy,” said USW Quebec Director Dominic Lemieux.
“The Steelworkers union is extremely privileged to have been able to count on a man of such great skill and humanity over so many years,” Lemieux said.
For more than two decades, Gérin-Lajoie was the labour movement’s lead representative on a high-profile council that advised the Quebec government on labour relations policy. He contributed to legislation introduced by five different governments, including Quebec’s first meaningful labour laws, the creation of its labour board, implementation of a minimum wage law, anti-discrimination legislation, occupational health and safety legislation.
Karl Allen Lamb grew up in Pueblo, Colorado and went on to graduate from Yale in 1954. In 1958 he achieved his Doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Karl was in the ROTC at Yale and became a Captain in the Army Reserves.
Dr. Lamb began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan from 1958-1963. From there he was invited to become one of the founding faculty members at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He enjoyed a successful and prolific career as a Professor of Political Science there. In 1985 he left UCSC to become the Academic Dean of the United States Naval Academy.
After serving as Dean from 1985-1989, he remained at the Academy, returning to his initial love of teaching until he retired in 1999.
Upon retirement, while a Professor Emeritus at USNA, Karl embraced full time writing. Having previously authored seven non-fiction political science texts and two dozen political science articles, Karl pursued his lifelong dream of writing a novel based on his father’s life in 1920’s Colorado.
Jaquelin Taylor Robertson, Architect and Passionate Urbanist has died at 87.
Jaquelin came to Oxford in 1955 to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Jaquelin was devoted to classical architecture and was equally committed to design that benefits city life and helped establish a New York agency to promote it.
Douglas was St. Bonaventure’s College 11th Rhodes Scholar (1940) and its oldest living ex- pupil. A highly respected scientist, Dr. Darcy’s entire professional career was spent at the Royal Cancer Research Institute in England where he made several important discoveries in cancer research. Though he spent all his adult life in England, he never lost his interest in, or his love for both Newfoundland and Labrador and St. Bonaventure’s College, which benefited from his generosity.
Larry Richard Grisham passed away peacefully at home May 4, 2020.
Larry attended the University of Texas, Austin, where he studied physics and worked part-time at the geology building. He often spent his free time hiking, caving, and going on adventures in Texas and Mexico. During his first two weeks of classes at UT, Larry met Jacqueline Criswell, his life partner and wife of over 40 years.
In 1971, Larry was named a Rhodes Scholar and he and Jacqueline moved to Oxford, so he could pursue his PhD in physics. They loved their time in Oxford and used Larry’s academic breaks to travel to the English Lake District, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, and Greece. Larry and Jacqueline particularly loved the Lake District, and wed there in a small ceremony in 1972.
After graduating from Oxford with high honors, Larry was offered and accepted a position at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. During his time, he worked on numerous international collaborations, including with India, Japan, France, and the UK. Upon his retirement from Princeton University, Larry was offered, and happily accepted, a position with the company Twinleaf, founded by, as he commonly said, “his two best graduate students.”
Arthur Scace (Ontario & Corpus Christi 1961), CM, QC was a Lawyer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Scace received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, and came to Oxford in 1961 as a Rhodes Scholar and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from Oxford University. He went on to obtain a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.
Scace began his career at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in 1967 and went on to be a partner, managing partner, and national chairman at the firm. Mr. Scace was also a Queen’s Counsel, and had been appointed as a member of the Order of Canada.
Scace was also the Canadian National Secretary for many years and a winner of the George Parkin Service Award.
Heyward Dotson, who went on to experience Hall of Fame hoops careers at both Stuyvesant HS and Columbia University before becoming the Island’s first Rhodes Scholar, died on Friday 1 May 2020.
Following graduation from Columbia, Dotson was drafted by both the NBA (Phoenix Suns) and ABA (Indiana Pacers) in 1970, but he declined to join either franchises after becoming the first Islander to earn a Rhodes Scholarship.
He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1972, leading it to the All-England basketball championship in the process.
In addition to being voted into Columbia’s Athletics Hall of Fame two years ago, other accolades included being named the Advance’s History Award winner (1996); becoming the first African-American voted into the Staten Island Sports Hall of Fame (1976) and being elected into the Harlem Sports Hall of Fame.
From 1976 to 2006 David played a pivotal role serving as National Secretary. He was involved in selecting over sixty scholars. Many of us have fond memories of being welcomed by David into his home for the cocktail reception that started off the interview process. David was always warm, had a special way of putting you at ease at a time of significant nervousness, and was professional throughout the process. He was steeped in the history of the scholarship and contributed a chapter discussing in detail the trajectory of the Rhodesian/Zimbabwe scholarships to The History of The Rhodes Trust edited by Sir Anthony Kenny. David’s commitment to the Rhodes Scholarship and the Zimbabwe scholarship community was longstanding, and touched so many of our lives. He steered the scholarship program through some of the most challenging periods in the country's history, from independence through socioeconomic collapse, ensuring that the integrity of the scholarship remained intact and sustaining the commitment to the selection of talented people from Zimbabwe.
Outside of the scholarship community David was a respected lawyer practicing in Zimbabwe for decades, and serving as a Senior partner at the prestigious firm Coghlan, Welsh and Guest. He had a longstanding commitment to sports in Zimbabwe, serving as the President of the Zimbabwe Rugby Union and former Chairman of Old Hararians Sports Club. David was also a beloved father and leader in the community. He is survived by his wife Colleen, 4 children, their spouses and 8 grandchildren.
David will be greatly missed in the Zimbabwe Rhodes community and leaves behind a proud legacy of leadership and service to the Trust and the Scholarship in Zimbabwe.