Obituaries

Murray Hofmeyr was a South African sportsman who played international rugby union for England. Hofmeyr moved to England in 1948 as a Rhodes Scholar at Worcester College. He represented Oxford University in both cricket and rugby union. From 1949 to 1951, Hofmeyr made thirty five first-class appearances for Oxford University and scored 2495 runs. He had his most prolific year in 1950 when he scored 1063 runs at 55.94. Hofmeyr appeared in three of England's four Tests in the 1950 Five Nations Championship, against Wales, France and Scotland. He played his club rugby for Harlequins and also represented the Barbarians. He captained the Oxford University Cricket Club in the 1951 season and then returned to South Africa.

A Rhodes Scholar who gained a first class in Mathematics at the University of Oxford.

Emeritus Professor in economics and vice-chancellor of the University of New England. Ronald was also a senior economics adviser at the United Nations.

An esteemed professor at the Boston University School of Law for more than 30 years. He wrote numerous books and articles and was a distinguished trial attorney and trial advocacy expert.

Professor Jim Brown, Emeritus Professor of Experimental Physics, died in April 2018. Professor Brown was appointed to the Readership in Experimental Physics from 1 September 1965 and appointed Professor of Experimental Physics from 1 April 1971. He was appointed Director of the Physics Laboratory in 1976 and he remained Director until 1982. He was appointed Emeritus Professor in 1985 following his retirement. After 1985, he continued to be closely associated with the University, acting as internal examiner in 1991, and still teaching for many years.

As he often reminded students in his lectures on magnetism, during World War II Professor Brown worked with the Royal Canadian Navy on degaussing ships and on underwater sound, including the trials of the new hydrophone array on the captured U885. The Rhodes Scholar was demobilized in Scotland as Electrical Lieutenant RCNVR in October, 1945 just in time to begin his doctorate in Low Temperature Physics at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford. Then, wanting adventure and to explore, he went to Lingnan University in Canton, China. He used to happily regale colleagues with stories of his time in China, of which he clearly had many fond memories. As with all his stories, there was often a deep respect for others.

He then spent two years on liquid helium research at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. From Ontario he returned to British Columbia, publishing work on liquid helium and superconducting thin films. He was proud of this time in British Columbia, and enjoyed receiving updates from there.

Arriving in Kent with the first undergraduates in 1965, he established the Low Temperature Laboratory here. With colleagues, the first application of the quartz microbalance to measure thickness of the helium film was effected and measurement made of the Bernoulli effect in the flowing electronic fluid of a superconductor, as well as other work to elucidate the contact potential of metals under stress. An NERC investigation of acoustic imaging to explore its feasibility for use in coal mines was carried out on large scale in the air. More recently, Professor Brown has been a member of the Applied Optics Group and still attended meetings on campus in his 90s.

Professor Brown used to visit the campus regularly until earlier this year. He was popular with students, with some of the "First 500" holding him in high regard and still in touch with him all these years later.

Obituary taken from Kent University’s website, by Professor Mark Burchell.

Mark Edwin Turcot passed away in Montreal, on March 12, 2018, at the age of 67. As a Rhodes Scholar, Mark studied Law at the University of Oxford. 

George was Fellow and Praelector in Ancient History from 1949 to 1987 and thereafter an Emeritus Fellow at University College, Oxford. He held most of the offices of the College at some point in his lifelong association with Univ. To describe his life in such terms, however, does not do full justice to the respect and affection in which he was held throughout the College and by the students whom he taught, mentored and looked after over the course of more than forty years and with whom he stayed in close touch in his retirement.

Obit taken from University College’s website.

Peter graduated from Oxford with a doctorate in nuclear physics and, he was the son of Clarence Gates Myers and Isabel Briggs Myers. Isabel and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, created the MBTI instrument as a practical application of the personality type theory of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, beginning their work in the 1940s. After Isabel died, Peter was instrumental in turning the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment into the worldwide success that it is today. Read more.

Nicholas studied anthropology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then volunteered for the army and served a tour in Vietnam before moving to Aspen in the early 1970s. Nicholas was a noted mountaineer. He climbed Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam, and a number of other Himalayan peaks, as well as Mount McKinley and Aconcagua. His climbing in the United States included the north face of the Grand Teton, the Ames Ice Hose, and many routes on peaks in the Elk Range.