Obituaries

We were saddened to hear of the death of Langley Keyes, professor emeritus of urban planning and former head of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at the age of 86.

Keyes studied at Harvard University for his undergraduate education, earning a bachelor of the arts in History, Magna Cum Laude, in 1960. Upon graduation, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, traveling to Oxford University where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics from 1960 to 1962. Returning from Oxford, Keyes continued his studies, completing a doctorate in city planning in 1967, joining the MIT faculty shortly thereafter. Keyes’ work challenged the conventional thought that communities were the subject of the planning process and recast communities and neighborhoods as agents of change; able to resist, negotiate, and shape the outcome of city planning and development processes.

Keyes served as department head for DUSP from 1974-1978. During his time on the MIT faculty, Keyes was named a Ford Professor. The Ford Professorships are awarded to tenured faculty to recognize their outstanding contributions as leaders and innovators in their field. His scholarship wove together practice, theory, research, and teaching: often occurring in real time as he and students engaged in events shaping the Greater Boston region.

In addition to his work at MIT, Keyes served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Government Land Bank; Special Assistant for Policy Development at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Communities and Development; the Director of the Housing Development for Boston Model Cities Program; and as Associate Director of the Greater Boston Community Development, Inc.

Keyes was predeceased by his older brother Eben Wight Keyes. He is survived by his loving family: his wife Nancy Gray Keyes; his sons Cameron and Justin; daughters-in-law Kris and Maura; and granddaughters Tegan, Tess and Grace, to whom he was known as Papoo.

Read full obituary here.

David L. Boren passed away at the age of 83 in Norman, Oklahoma. Raised in Oklahoma and educated at Yale University, David arrived at Oxford in 1963 to study philosophy, politics, and economics. He later received a law degree from the University of Oklahoma. 

David began his political career in the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1967. In 1974, he became one of the youngest governors in the country and served as the 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979. He also served three terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994 and was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

He was widely respected for his ability to work across party lines. His 2008 book A Letter to America argued in favour of his philosophy of bipartisanship. David was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1988. When he retired from the Senate in 1994, he became the last Democrat to represent Oklahoma in the Upper House.

He followed his time in Washington at the University of Oklahoma, where David served as the 13th and second-longest serving president from 1994 to 2018. Years prior, in 1985, he had founded the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, dedicated to recognizing and supporting public school students and teachers. David officially announced his retirement as president of the University of Oklahoma in 2017, and stepped down in June 2018.

We are deeply saddened by the news of Professor Jean Le Tourneux's passing in Montreal. He arrived at Oxford in 1959 to study Physics.

It is with sadness that we learned of the passing of Mr John Brett Gardener (1930-2025). He died peacefully on 13 February 2025. 

In 1948, in his first year at UCT, he was elected as the Diocesan College Rhodes Scholar and took up his place at Magdalen College, Oxford between 1950 and 1951. Sadly, a combination of ill-health and acute homesickness cut short his Oxford studies under CS Lewis and he picked up at UCT again in 1951. There he obtained a BA with distinctions in Classical Culture and English and went on to complete an MA and a BEd before joining the Wynberg staff, where he remained for seven years.

In 1962 he joined the Bishops staff and taught English and Latin there until 1970 when he was appointed Headmaster of Kingswood College, Grahamstown (today, Makhanda.) His Bishops career resumed in 1975, serving as Vice-Principal from 1977 to 1988. At the end of 1988, he succeeded the late John Peake as Principal, becoming the first OD, the first South African and the first grandfather to be appointed to that office. In 1992 he retired but retained a keen, undimmed interest in the school serving on the College Council and numerous of its sub-committees and becoming an honorary Vice-President of the OD Union.

Our condolences go to Sue, his wife, and to his sons James and Andrew, and their families.

Read full obituary here.

We were saddened to hear that Derek Bostock, a prominent figure in the life of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), has died aged 81.

Born in 1943, Derek Stanley Leslie Bostock was schooled at Pridwin School and then at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal, where he matriculated in 1960 with a distinction in History.

He was elected president of the Students’ Representative Council of the University of Witwatersrand in 1963, and, a year later, was awarded the Transvaal Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Jurisprudence.

He completed his articles of clerkship at Webber Wentzel before embarking on a career as an international mining lawyer, first working for TotalEnergie in France and thereafter for Transocean Sedco Forex Inc in Iran, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates.

He returned to South Africa in 1980 to take up the position of legal advisor – and, later, Commercial Director − at Rand Mines, which had been recently purchased by the then Barlowrand Group.

In 1993, he joined Gencor Limited as the General Counsel, where he was integrally involved in the ground-breaking acquisition by Gencor of the Billiton mining assets of Royal Dutch Shell. He later joined Anglo American Platinum, also as General Counsel. He retired as the General Counsel for Anglo American Platinum in 2002.

He was the IRR’s Honorary Legal Adviser from 2005 to 2015, Chairman of the Social and Ethics Committee from its inception in February 2012 to 2015, and a member of the Audit Committee from 2012 to 2015.

His daughter, Veronica, cited Michael Katz, Chairman of ensAfrica, with whom he worked on the Billiton transaction, as saying of her father that he was “a very good lawyer, a decent man of great integrity, refinement and humility”.

Bostock is survived by his wife, Lilian, his daughters Veronica and Caroline and his sons Mark and John.

Read full obituary here.

It is with sadness that we have received news of Dr Graham Windrum's passing.

Born in Brisbane in 1928, he was educated at the Church of England Grammar School in East Brisbane. Graham graduated with a Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Queensland in 1951, following which he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. He arrived at Oxford in 1951 to read for his DPhil in Clinical Medicine.

In 1954, Graham joined the Central Middlesex Hospital as a physician, then moving on to Whittington Hospital in London as a surgeon the following year. He returned to Brisbane in 1956 and joined the Brisbane General Hospital as a senior pathologist, briefly working at the Prince of Wales Hospital before opening his private practice in Sydney, in 1960. Graham was a foundation member of the College of Pathologists of Australia, incorporated in 1956.

We were saddened to hear of the death of Tony Wallace in Brighton at the age of 78. Tony arrived at Oxford to study at Balliol College in 1969.

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Barry May, who died in Cape Town on 30 November 2024 shortly after his 80th birthday. Whilst at Oxford in the 60's and 70's, Barry studied a BPhil in Management Studies, captained the Oxford cricket first XI for two years and also held a blue for hockey. He leaves behind his wife, Mary, his two sons and 6 grandchildren.