Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
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.
The Rhodes Trust is deeply grateful that Douglas remembered the Trust in his Will.
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.
We are saddened to hear of Remington's passing.
Allan Gotlieb, a long-time public servant who was Canada’s ambassador to the United States, has died aged 92.
A long-time public servant and companion of the Order of Canada, Gotlieb became deputy minister of the department of communications in 1968 and was later named deputy minister of manpower and immigration. He became the ambassador to the United States in 1981.
Clark earned a BA (on full scholarship) from Yale University and went on to study philosophy at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1957. Clark started his career at the University of Illinois as a lecturer, joining the Anthropology department in 1963. He advanced to full professorship in 1972 until his retirement in 1995. Clark's main focus was anthropology in Southeast Asian culture. After retirement, he continued his studies and wrote extensively. He was proud to be a part of the Spurlock Museum in Urbana, where he served as a trustee, president and curator.
After graduating from Louisiana State University with a BA degree, Elmus served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
When discharged, he enrolled as a graduate student in economics at LSU obtaining his MA degree in 1948. From LSU he went to Queens College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he studied with Sir John Hicks, Nobel Laureate in economics and received the BPhil degree in economics in 1951. When he returned to the U.S., he completed work for the PhD of economics at Duke University.
Wicker joined the Economics department at Indiana University in 1955. His entire academic life was spent at Indiana University. In the mid 70’s he served a stent as Chairman of the Economics Department.
In 2012 the Department of Economics and the College of Arts and Sciences announced the Elmus R. Wicker Professorship in Economics established through the endowed gift from a former student, E. Scott Thatcher of Kokomo.