Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
Desmond Dillon Paul Morton was born on September 10, 1937 in Calgary, Alberta. He died peacefully at home on September 4, 2019 in Montreal Quebec at 81 years of age. Beloved husband of Gael Eakin; father of David and Marion; granddad to Ava. Remembered fondly by Gael's children, Fay Plant (Tom), Lorna St. Louis (Paul), Brenda Plant, Margo Plant (Sevak); and grandchildren, Christian and Charles St. Louis, and Aiden and Gregory Burgess. Desmond was a graduate of the Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean/Royal Military College of Canada, as well as University of Oxford (a Rhodes Scholar) and the London School of Economics (LSE) at University of London. He was a respected professor of Canadian and military history for over 2 decades at both University of Toronto and McGill University. Desmond was also Principal of Erindale College (now UTM) in Mississauga and Founding Director of McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) in Montreal. Desmond was known for his intelligence, wry sense of humour and his talent as an orator and as a writer authoring over forty books. In his free time, he enjoyed spending hours in his workshop making handcrafted wooden models of military vehicles, vessels and personnel. A diligent correspondent, he faithfully wrote weekly letters to family members and close friends about current topics. Desmond will be dearly missed by all who knew him. A Celebration of Life will be held for him at the Faculty Club of McGill University on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 at 11 a.m. Donations in lieu of flowers to Canadian War Museum or McGill University (for MISC or Friends of the Library).
Richard D. Nehring passed away on August 27, 2019, at age 76 in Colorado Springs. Richard earned a B.A in History at Valparaiso University (1965) and attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1965. He went on to become a Danforth Fellow at Stanford University, where he pursued his doctorate in Political Science (1967-72). During that time he also worked at the office of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Interior before joining the Rand Corp., where he spent a decade as a project director of fossil fuel supply issues in their Energy Policy Program.
Born and raised in Brisbane, Tom Baxter was educated at Brisbane Grammar School. He played his club rugby for the University of Queensland from where he was selected to make his senior representative debut for Queensland against the Springboks in 1956.
In 1968, Baxter was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. Baxter received two Blues for Oxford in 1958 and again in 1959. During his time in England, Baxter also played club rugby for Blackheath.
Christopher Suits studied Modern Languages (Russian) at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1984.
In 1966 he was appointed a Career Officer in the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service, serving tours abroad in Berlin, Vienna, Moscow and Budapest. The Foreign Service Institute certified him to be fluent in Russian, German, Swedish, Hungarian, French and Italian, with a working, speaking and reading knowledge of Norwegian, Dutch and Polish.
Howard J. Burnett, 89, passed away peacefully on June 16, 2019, at his home in Mt. Lebanon. As a Rhodes Scholar, he studied at Queen's College, Oxford University (1954), completing B.A. and M.A. degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Dr. Burnett received his doctorate in Government and International Relations from New York University (1965). Dr. Burnett served in the U.S. Navy from 1954 to 1958, for which he was honoured as a Distinguished Alumni of the Navy Supply Corps School in 2010. After serving in the Navy, he worked for Booz Allen & Hamilton, A. L. Ransohoff & Company and Texaco.
On July 1, 1970, Dr. Burnett became the 10th president of Washington & Jefferson College, leading the college until his retirement in 1998.
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Girish Karnad graduated with a BA in Maths and Statistics from Karnatak University, then went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar to study for an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1962. He worked at Oxford University Press in Madras (now Chennai) until 1970. In 1989 he and his family settled in Bengaluru (the capital of Karnataka, formerly Bangalore). India’s foremost playwright, as well as a successful film director and popular actor, Girish Karnad also wrote plays in the Indian language of Kannada. Many of his plays were translated into English by Oxford University Press as well as into several other Indian languages. Karnad served as director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974-75), and chair of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Performing Arts (1988-93). From 2000 to 2003, he was director of the Nehru Centre, the cultural wing of the high commission of India, in London. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.
For four decades Karnad composed plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues, and his writings marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada.
Professor David Beim attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Stanford University and Oxford University, where he was Rhodes Scholar. He spent the first twenty-five years of his career in investment banking, including ten years on Wall Street at The First Boston Corporation and executive roles at the Export Import Bank, Dillon Read & Co. and Bankers Trust, where he built the company's Corporate Finance function. He spent the next twenty-five years as a Professor of Finance and Economics at the Columbia Business School, where he taught courses on finance, banking, emerging markets and business ethics. He was very active philanthropically in both civic and educational causes. For seventeen years, he served as the Chairman of Wave Hill, which he helped become financially sustainable by establishing its first endowment. Driven by his passion for the outdoors, he served on the board of Outward Bound, including five years as Chairman. He served as a Trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy, where he wrote an influential paper that encouraged Exeter to increase the financial aid it provides to lower-income students. He was also an active member at the Council on Foreign Relations.
After earning a B.A. from Princeton University, Edwin was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for two years' study at Oxford University. There at New College, Oxford, he received the degrees of B. A. and M.A. in English Language and Literature. On leaving Oxford, he served in the army as an artillery lieutenant (R.O.T.C.) with the 2nd Armored Division in Germany. He treasured a rare opportunity to study under Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa. He later received the LL.B. degree from Harvard Law School and practiced law in New York City for three years. He then returned to Princeton, where he earned a Ph.D. in English Literature, after which he taught English at Georgetown University, specialising in Victorian fiction, before retiring in 1974 to pursue further his own writing. Doubleday published his first novel, The Gun and Glory of Granite Hendley, in 1969, after which he went on to write and publish numerous books of stories, poetry, and plays.