Obituaries

We were saddened to learn Paul Sheats died in Los Angeles on August 23, 2024, at the age of 92. 

He was born June 17, 1932, in Albany, New York, to Paul Henry Sheats and Dorothea Burns. Paul H. Sheats would later serve as a UCLA professor and was the final dean of University Extension to oversee the program when it was statewide. The younger Sheats moved several times during his childhood — living in Ohio, Connecticut, Maryland and Florida.

After earning bachelor’s degrees in biology, in 1954 from Harvard College — where he also ran track — and in English, in 1957 from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Sheats taught English at Haverford College, from 1958 to 1960. He returned to Harvard for his master’s (1963) and doctorate (1966), both in English. Paul specialized in English Romantic poetry, particularly the works of Keats and Wordsworth, and he published fresh editions of their poems. His major scholarly contribution was his book from Harvard University Press on Wordsworth’s early work, The Making of Wordsworth’s Poetry, 1785-1798. He was also much invested in that poet’s great posthumous poem, The Prelude, especially its environmental concerns.

Sheats joined UCLA as an assistant professor of English in 1966, eventually reaching the rank of full professor in 1978, when he also began a five-year term as English department chair. He wrote introductions for new editions of poetry collections by both Wordsworth (1982) and John Keats (1975), both published by Houghton-Mifflin.

He was a great outdoorsman himself, and much dedicated to studying the life and achievements of John Muir. Paul served as Chair of the English Department from 1978 to 1983, and, after his retirement, he was President of the UCLA Emeriti Association. He was married to Barbara Packer, also a Professor in the English Department, and after her death in 2010 he established an annual lecture series in her honor.

Read full obituary here.

Fred L. Morrison passed away on August 16th at the age of 84. He was born in Salina, Kansas, the only child of Earl F. Morrison and M. Louise Morrison (Glass). Fred is remembered as an engaging, soft spoken family man, dedicated to his wife Charlotte and their children.  

He graduated from high school in Colby, Kansas in 1957, and proceeded to the University of Kansas, receiving an A.B. degree in Mathematics, German, and Political Science in 1961. There he won a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied at Oxford University, receiving B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1963. He continued his studies back in the United States, receiving M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from Princeton University in 1966 and a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1967.

After teaching law at the University of Iowa for two years, he joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School. There he taught constitutional law, international law, local government, and comparative law in a teaching career that spanned more than 50 years and many thousands of students, and included two periods of service as acting Dean of the Law School. In addition to his role as a teacher of law, he served the University at large on multiple faculty committees. He was instrumental in developing the Law School's LLM and SJD degrees and developing its visiting scholars program.

He applied his talents outside the University as well, serving as visiting faculty at the University of Bonn and the University of Kiel, both in Germany, and Tsinghua University, People's Republic of China. He served as Counselor for International Law at the US Department of State, and helped represent the United States before the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands. He served on or participated in multiple other committees and organizations, including the Board of Curators of the Max Planck Institute on Foreign Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany; the International Advisory Board of the Walther Schücking Institute of International Law at the Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany; a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Ritsumeikan Law Faculty in Kyoto, Japan; and the International Advisory Committee of Frontiers of Law in China. He also served as a Director of the American Society for the Comparative Study of Law and was an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Society of International Law. He was involved in the process of creating the constitutions of Kosovo and South Sudan as they moved towards independence. 

A British historian who was a beloved mentor and teacher, he leaves a half-century legacy of service to Grinnell College, having joined the faculty in 1970, moving from his post as assistant professor at Yale University. A native of Cleveland, Tennessee, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt University, bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar (with specialisations in both British and French history), and a doctorate at Yale University.

As a faculty member in Grinnell College’s Department of History, Don offered courses in British history, and he partnered with faculty colleagues across the curriculum to team teach interdisciplinary courses, such as a celebrated course on The Enlightenment, in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2000 he was named L. F. Parker Professor of History. He considered his tutorial and his seminar on Alexis de Tocqueville, designed and taught as a senior faculty member, among the highlights of his teaching career.

Don’s service to the academic mission of the college was extraordinary. He was chair of the faculty from 1986-1988. His service also included multiple terms as chair of the Department of History and as a member of the Executive Council. He was on the initial faculty planning group that, under the leadership of President George Drake and Professor Andrew Hsieh, established the College's institutional partnership with Nanjing University in China – one of the first U.S. colleges to do so. Over more than two decades, “Lao Shi Smith” taught courses and delivered lectures at Nanjing University, where he was revered by his Chinese colleagues.

From 1970-2001 Don was the college’s adviser for Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships. In addition to his service to the Grinnell College’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, he served in different leadership roles – including president of Beta of Iowa. A long-time member of the Public Events Committee at the college, he – collaborating with Georgia Dentel, the college’s liaison to performing arts professionals – brought prominent classical musicians to the community. His interest in opera infused the arts programming that he championed. He was also an advocate of the architecture on the Grinnell College campus, with a keen appreciation of The Forum, even interviewing famed architect Walter Netsch who designed The Forum, as part of a recognition of the building and its legacy.

Don was a life-long Democrat, and his involvement in and leadership of the Poweshiek County Democratic Party extended over his decades in Grinnell. Through his work in party politics, he established friendships with Iowans from all walks of life, taking great pride in his connections to people in the small communities of Poweshiek County and his ability to traverse the back-roads of the state like an Iowa native. He was devoted to the Iowa Democratic caucuses. In the 1992 presidential election, he was a member of the Electoral College, casting his electoral vote for the Clinton/Gore ticket.

Sir Colin Maiden, ME DPhil, attended Auckland Grammar School from 1947 to 1950. He was in the A-stream throughout his four years at the School, playing rugby and tennis. He was in the Senior Tennis team and was the senior doubles champion in 1950. He finished 2nd in 6A in 1950, earning the Tibbs Memorial Prize for Mathematics. Sir Colin then attended Auckland University College, studying a Bachelor and Master of Engineering. 

In 1955, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, studying at Exeter College, Oxford for his doctorate. 
He was awarded an Oxford Blue for tennis during this time.  

Sir Colin specialised in the field of hypervelocity flight and used his knowledge first at the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment in Quebec before moving to General Motors in 1961.

In 1971, Sir Colin was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Auckland, serving until 1994. At the time, he was the youngest Vice Chancellor in the university’s history. 

Sir Colin was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1997 and Medal of the University of Bonn in 1983, and the Thomson Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand for ‘organisation and support’ of sciences and humanities in New Zealand in 1986.

In 1990, Sir Colin was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford and was named Auckland Grammar School Old Boy of the Year in 1994. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers and a recipient of the Symons Award by the Association of Commonwealth Universities in 1999.

Sir Colin’s life of public service included serving on numerous government boards, including ten years on the Board of Transpower and chairing the State Owned Enterprises board for seven years from 1997.

Sir Colin also held directorships for many major New Zealand companies, including ANZ Banking Group, New Zealand Steel, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare among others.

He was appointed as a Knight Bachelor for ‘services to education and business management’ in the 1992 New Years’ Honours. In 1994, he was granted an honorary LLD by the University of Auckland.

BSc (Hons) from Melbourne University, he read Mathematics (D Phil) and then became a senior investment banker with Morgan Stanley in London for 16 years, before becoming a co-founder and managing partner of Longwall Ventures LLP, an Oxford-based venture capital fund specialising in early-stage science and technology commercialisation. He was a passionate, competitive and highly accomplished skier and played village cricket into his 60s.  He died of gliobastoma, diagnosed 14 months ago. He married Frances Kirwan, a fellow maths student, now DBE FRS and Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford: her maths was streets ahead of his, he always said. Michael regularly visited Australia, both professionally and to see family and friends. His illness cut short his dream to build a family retreat on the Delatite River in northeast Victoria. His three children are each outstanding scholars, variously in maths, medicine and physics, based in England, Sydney and California. Born in England, where his Australian-born father was a doctor, the family moved to Melbourne in the late 1960s; his father became a Professor of Medicine at Melbourne University in 1970 (and later Vice-Chancellor: Prof David Penington). Of his siblings, one sister lives in England; a brother and sister live in Melbourne.

We are saddened by the news of Donald's passing. He came to Oxford in 1953 to study Modern History and Theology.

We were saddened to hear of Robert's passing. His daughter, who shared the news, wrote: "Dad's Rhodes scholarship provided him with so many opportunities, including pursuing both academic and sporting passions during his years in Oxford. We know he valued his association with the Rhodes Trust all his life, and he greatly enjoyed your reunions and reading your magazine over many years."

A full obituary will follow.

We were saddened to hear of the demise of Professor Robert Bolton, who was a renowned expert on Aristotle and published on Aristotle’s philosophy of science, philosophical methodology, epistemology, and metaphysics.

After earning his B.A. at Princeton, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where he worked with G.E.L. Owen, writing on Plato’s Cratylus during his MLitt in Philosophy. Rob earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, and went on to teach at Rutgers University for 52 years.

Read full obituary here.

Justice Laurie Ackermann made significant contributions to South Africa's transition to constitutional democracy. Appointed by President Mandela to the first Constitutional Court of South Africa, Ackermann played a pivotal role in shaping human rights law and constitutional jurisprudence. His landmark judgments, most notably cases regarding human dignity and equality, have left an indelible mark on South Africa's legal landscape. In addition to his judicial contributions, we are grateful for his service as National Secretary for the Rhodes Scholarships in Southern Africa from 1988-2002.

Read a tribute to Laurie Ackermann by Sandra Liebenberg at Stellenbosch University.