Obituaries

Beloved husband of Jane Casey Hughes died January 2, 2023, age 97. Supremely knowledgeable about world history and U.S. foreign affairs, Hughes was a voice of reason inside the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War. He came to Washington in 1955 as legislative counsel to Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Hughes then served Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, 1961-1969, as Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. From 1971-1991 he was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1965 Hughes helped compose a memo from Vice President Humphrey to President Johnson warning about the negative effects of the proposed intensification of the war in Vietnam. Johnson did not take the advice. Hughes's off-the-record speeches during that period have been published in Speaking Up and Speaking Out. Several of his speeches to Anglo-American audiences have been published in Oxford After Dinner. The lighter moments of his career in diplomacy and the foundation world have also appeared in book form as Anecdotage. In person as well as in print, Hughes was known for his intelligence and charm. (A full biography of Hughes, by intellectual historian Bruce L.R. Smith is entitled The Last Gentleman.) Hughes's friend Sanford Ungar, former director of the Voice of America, once wrote, "If there is anyone in Washington who can credibly lay claim to the moniker of "smartest person in the room"-any room, anytime-it is Tom Hughes. There is also a good chance, in most rooms he steps into, that he is the funniest, the best piano player, and has the clearest memory for historical detail." A native of Mankato MN, Hughes was immensely proud of his small-town roots and of his Welsh and German forebears. A national debate champion in high school and college, Hughes in 1944, age 18, was elected national president of Student Federalists, working for a postwar union of democracies. In 1944 he spoke at both the Republican and Democratic conventions, and in 1945 attended the founding conference of the United Nation in San Francisco. After graduating from Carleton College in 1947, Hughes was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (Balliol). (Under President Nixon in 1969-1970, he was Deputy Chief of Mission in the American Embassy in London, a short but happy return to England.) Following a Yale Law School degree and Air Force service, Hughes made the move to Capitol Hill first as legislative counsel to Rep. Chester Bowles (D-CT) before joining Senator Humphrey's staff. Hughes's first wife, journalist and designer Jean Hurlburt Reiman, died in 1993. In 1995 Hughes married Jane Casey Kuczynski, a former reporter for the Voice of America, who survives him. Also surviving are a sister Mrs. Marianne Hughes Nordholm of Oak Park Heights, MN; and two sons from his first marriage - Thomas Evan Hughes (and wife Lynn McCary) of Brooklyn, NY and Allan Cameron Hughes of Athens, GA. Also surviving are a nephew and nieces Bradford Nordholm, Sarah Davis, Karen Anderson, and their children. Three Kuczynski stepchildren and five step-grand- children also survive.

A former environment minister for the Progressive Labour Party was a stalwart – and occasionally outspoken when he disagreed with colleagues.

Arthur Hodgson was also the island’s first Black Rhodes Scholar, as well as a lawyer and former magistrate.

David Burt, the Premier and finance minister, this afternoon called Mr Hodgson “one of the leaders of a generation of social justice champions”.

He added: “Mr Hodgson was an outstanding scholar and served at the vanguard of the earliest days of party politics in Bermuda.

“He brought an unparalleled commitment to public service as an educator, parliamentarian, Minister of the Environment, lawyer and Magistrate.

“With his granddaughter [Arianna Hodgson] serving in the Senate, Arthur Hodgson’s legacy is a source of pride and inspiration.

“On behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda, I express my sincerest condolences to his family on his passing.”

Mr Hodgson worked within the PLP through the 1960s, becoming a branch chairman for the party in Hamilton Parish.

He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1980, representing Hamilton West until 1983, during which time he served as shadow transport minister.

Mr Hodgson entered the House in the same year as Lionel Simmons of the PLP, who assisted him with the shadow portfolio and recalled him keenly investigating transport issues.

He went to law school after losing his seat, earning his degree in law from the University of Buckingham. He then attended the Middle Temple in London, where he was Called to the Bar of England and Wales.

He returned as an MP in the landmark General Election of 1998 that launched the PLP to power.

Returning to politics required him to step down from the courts to campaign, after three years as a magistrate.

Running in Hamilton West under the dual candidate system, Mr Hodgson and Randolph Horton of the PLP ousted United Bermuda Party incumbents Wayne Furbert and Maxwell Burgess, who were then Health and Family Services Minister and Home Affairs and Public Safety Minister respectively.

Mr Hodgson was appointed environment minister by Dame Jennifer Smith, the former premier – a position he relinquished just days after unsuccessfully challenging Dame Jennifer for leadership in 2000.

Mr Hodgson later backed Ewart Brown in his leadership bid.

Dr Brown, who served as Premier from 2006 to 2010, said: “Arthur was my friend and political colleague for more than 30 years. His contributions to the PLP and Bermuda were historic and memorable.

“Arthur was a man of devout faith and a unique combination of brilliance and stubbornness. I miss him already – and Bermuda will miss him more as time goes by.”

The Rhodes Trust is deeply sad to hear of the passing of Thomas Böcking (Germany and University 1970). Our thoughts are with his family at this time.

Oxford, Rhodes House, and University College were formative places for Thomas. He felt lucky to be able to give his service and experience back to a place that had given him so much, and where he had spent the first year of his long, happy married life. Thomas returned to Oxford frequently and gladly throughout his remarkable 31 years of service as the German National Secretary. In this, as in everything else he did, he was one half of a truly exceptional double act, together with his wife Silvia. They were especially close to Rhodes House Warden Robin Fletcher and his wife Jinny, but also spoke with great affection (and a little awe) of Warden Bill and Gillian Williams. His work as the German National Secretary was a source of pride, joy, and fulfilment for Thomas, and so were the many visits, cards, and emails over the years from German alumni and alumnae, up until his last days. Si momentum requiris, circumspice.

American Secretary Elliot Gerson (Connecticut and Magdalen 1974) says of Thomas: “He was a remarkable man and a dear friend to many, and I'm privileged to be one of those".

David Francis (University 1970) writes: "He had both a gentleness of spirit and great strength of character. He had a keen intellect, but more than that he was wise. And all of that was balanced by a wonderful sense of humour, personal warmth, and a total lack of pretence. We were privileged to have had him as a friend."

In 2011, Thomas was recognised as a “Distinguished Friend of Oxford” for his services to the University, and in 2013 he was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande

(the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) which is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellectual or honorary fields.

May he rest in peace.

Elizabeth Kiss                                                              Nils Oermann

Warden and CEO of the Rhodes Trust                    National Secretary, Rhodes Scholarships for Germany

A prominent lawyer who served on various public boards and tribunals and advised the Government on business became the first Black partner at one of the island’s main law firms.

Kenneth Robinson began his career working for Sir Edward Richards, a lawyer who went on to become the first Black Bermudian to lead the Government.

Mr Robinson attended Yale University in the United States, followed by Oxford University as a 1972 Rhodes Scholar.

Mr. James Covington Parham, Jr., gracefully departed his earthly body on March 6, 2023 at age 92. Known to most everyone as “Poss,” he was born in Sumter, South Carolina on October 1, 1930 to the late Alice Witherspoon Wilson Parham and James C. Parham, Sr.  Poss graduated from Edmonds High School (now Sumter High School) in 1948, where he was valedictorian, student body president, and lettered in baseball and football.  In 1952 he graduated from Princeton University, where he was elected class president for three consecutive years, played football and baseball, won the Detwiler Prize, the thesis prize, and led a social revolution called the “100-percent-or-none” movement that demanded inclusivity in the university’s eating clubs and permanently changed the fabric of students’ cultural experience. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar, he received a BCL from Oxford University, Magdalen College in 1956 and graduated with an LLB from Yale Law School in 1957.  

Poss became a fighter pilot, flying the F-104, F-102 and F-86 with the South Carolina Air National Guard, 157th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, and retained a close kinship with his fellow “Swamp Fox” pilots throughout his life. But his affinity for flying led him to meet the true love of his life, Margaret “Peggy” Kinley, as a young cadet in San Antonio, Texas.  They married in 1958 and shared 64 years and five children together. 

Following his clerkship for the Honorable Ashton Williams, United States District Court in Charleston, he joined Wyche, Burgess, Freeman & Parham in 1960, where he practiced law up until the very last years of his life.  In 1964, he represented the Greenville County School District in desegregation litigation and was integral in ensuring the voluntary, expeditious and peaceful integration of over 55,000 students in only two weeks, an event so historic it was reported in the New York Times. He was known as a quintessential lawyer, mentor, and gentleman, leaving a lasting impression of kindness, humility, and generosity on all who knew him and inspiring countless young people to become lawyers, to become better lawyers, or to become better people.  

His innumerable professional and civic contributions include service as President of the South Carolina Bar, the Greenville County Bar, Greenville Rotary Club, Greenville United Way, Greenville Symphony, and board member of many other community organizations.  From 1977-1983, he served on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, Fourth Circuit Member.  For over twenty-five years, Mr. Parham served on the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee.  In addition to serving on the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School Association, he served on the Princeton Board of Trustees from 1976-1980, the Executive Committee in 1980, and was Chairman of the Princeton Alumni Association from 1989-1991.  

In 2002, Poss received the Tommy Thomason Award from the Greenville County Bar Association, In 2022, he received the DuRant Public Service Award from the South Carolina Bar Foundation for the culmination of a lifetime in the law marked by integrity, character, and active pursuits to ensure justice.  An active member of Christ Episcopal Church, Mr. Parham served on the Vestry as well as various committees.  Second only to his devotion to his family, perhaps his most lasting legacy was his unflinching faith in the ultimate goodness of humankind.

In addition to his wife Peggy, Poss is survived by five children: the Reverend James C. Parham, III (Christine), Arthur Bradley Parham, Tally Parham Casey (Matthew), Maggie Parham Murdock (Scott), and John Gregory Kinley Parham.  Also surviving him are his 14 grandchildren: Chris Owens (James), Isabelle Davis, Harriotte Davis, Margaret Parham, Mary Tindall Parham, Arthur Bradley Parham, Jr., Jaxon Alexander Casey, Wyatt James Kosciusko, Mia Witherspoon Kosciusko, Breanna Shannon, Jacob Scott Murdock, Henry James Murdock, Abigail Toeko Murdock, and Kaya Logan Parham.  He was predeceased by his brother, John Snowden Wilson Parham. 

In Honor of Professor Emeritus of English Literature Tom Blackburn

Thomas H. Blackburn, the Centennial Professor Emeritus of English Literature, died Thursday, Feb. 16, at age 90. With his passing, Swarthmore has lost an inspiring teacher and scholar and a tireless and devoted champion. 

“Tom possessed some rare and precious gifts,” says Associate Professor and Chair of English Literature Eric Song. “He had the ability to make intellectual work seriously fun, to be incisive in thought, and unflaggingly generous. As a teacher and mentor, Tom worked with students not just to develop their skills as thinkers and writers, but also to nurture a shared confidence in their ability to enhance the community around them.”

“My appreciative memories from several decades of colleagueship with Tom evoke both his versatility and his consistency,” says Provost Emerita Jennie Keith. “He was versatile in the ways he served the College and consistent in his support for those in challenging roles at Swarthmore.”

“Tom will be remembered for what he was, the best that Swarthmore is all about,” says Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Steven Piker. “In the Swarthmore world, Tom was truly a Renaissance man, deeply and creatively into so much, unfailingly fostering engagement from those he was with, and withal, warmly appreciative of others. A true Friend for all of us.”

Blackburn was born and raised in Teaneck, N.J. After high school, he excelled at Amherst College, where he lettered in three sports, was elected co-president of the Class of 1954, awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude with a B.A. in English. At Jesus College, Oxford University, he earned another B.A. and an M.A. before completing his Ph.D. in English at Stanford University. 

Blackburn taught briefly at Stanford and Bryn Mawr College before joining Swarthmore’s faculty in 1961 to teach Milton and early English literature. He received support for his work, including on the relationship between history and literature during the Renaissance, from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Folger Shakespeare Library, among others. 

“His Honors seminars on Shakespeare and Milton introduced generations of students to the pleasures of reading and critical research,” says Professor of English Literature Nora Johnson. “He never lost the sense that one of the greatest joys in this profession is the opportunity to think through a text with a group of great students.”

As an expert in Renaissance literature, Blackburn published widely about Shakespeare and Milton, as well as about less canonical writers, such as the English historian and poet Edmund Bolton.

Focusing on Bolton “gave Tom a venue for reflecting on some tensions between the uses of poetry and the uses of history,” Johnson says. Those tensions, she adds, would go on to become “central questions in the ‘historical turn’ in literary studies.”

Offering advice and support to younger colleagues came naturally to Blackburn. “Tom was a great friend and mentor to me,” says Craig Williamson, the Alfred H. and Peggi Bloom Professor of English Literature. “To borrow a line from an elegy in Beowulf, ‘He gave me treasures, tokens of his trust.’"

In 1985, Blackburn successfully piloted the College’s Writing Associates Program, his commitment to supporting students’ writerly interests also serving as a force for writing on campus. He also chose the name, determining that “associate” best connoted a peer relationship between students. For 15 years he led and directed the program, now a national model.

“Tom was a pioneer for the College in support of faculty across the disciplines in integrating writing into the curriculum,” says Tom Stephenson, the James H. Hammons Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “He was a tireless advocate for the program and the curricular structures that supported it, and pushed those of us in the natural sciences to find creative ways to integrate writing into our curricula.”

​​”I remember Tom's own careful articulation of the ways in which the subordination of one clause to another in a sentence requires the same work as the subordination of one idea to another in an argument,” says Betsy Bolton, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Literature. “Wrestling with grammar and syntax is always also a wrestling with logic, implication, and progression.”

As Blackburn once said, “For Milton, to write badly is a sin against the gift of reason itself.” Of the Writing Associates program: “Our aim was never better papers, but better writing.”

Blackburn further distinguished himself in service to the institution, as chair of his department and on committees that examined Black studies and student life, among other areas. But his most significant service was as dean of students — the first to report to the president.

Before Blackburn took on the role, women and men had separate deans. When he accepted the expanded position in 1975, which he held for six years rather than the traditional five at the time, his responsibilities included not just academic advising and student life, but also admissions, financial aid, and athletics.

“His was a voice of heightened common sense,” says Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor Emeritus of English Literature, “a shrewd capacity to grasp which issues mattered more and which mattered less as the College moved from the turbulent 1960s into the new century.”

As dean, Blackburn convened a committee to study and improve Black student enrollment. He reorganized the Dean’s Office and revamped the counseling services then offered by the Health Center. He also initiated a form of institutional self-evaluation by enlisting more than three dozen administrators to interview about 10 seniors each in individual hourlong sessions.

A lifelong athlete, Blackburn was long considered Athletics’ biggest booster among the faculty. His stalwart support of student-athletes included helping coach and advise lacrosse, football, wrestling, and track (the latter three his own college sports, along with rugby at Oxford), and regularly showing up to a variety of varsity, intramural, and recreational events.

Blackburn was also concerned with equity between the men’s and women’s physical education programs. As dean, he oversaw a reorganization of the College’s separate programs for men and women into a single, unified department. He also testified on behalf of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in its federal antitrust suit against the NCAA over the latter’s attempt to administer women’s intercollegiate sports.

“He supported the College’s athletic mission — a lonelier and more courageous role than one might imagine,” Weinstein says.

“Working with students in other areas — whether it’s athletics or drama — helps you understand what’s going on with them academically,” Blackburn once said. “It’s one of the traditional ideals of the liberal arts college: to understand the whole persona of a student, not just the intellectual aspect.”

Blackburn’s service to the College continued after his term as dean ended. He was an early computer enthusiast, teaching introductory computer courses to faculty and staff. He served on committees that reviewed the curriculum and that selected faculty members to serve as associate deans. In the early 1990s, he helped reevaluate the Honors Program, now celebrating 100 years, to give students and faculty more flexibility for off-campus study, independent research in the sciences, and interdisciplinary concentrations. In 2000, he served on an ad hoc committee to again review the role of Athletics, and was deeply disappointed in the decision to eliminate football and wrestling.

Blackburn also frequently contributed to the College’s social life. He and his wife Ann regularly hosted students and colleagues in their home near campus. He taught a course on science fiction and once hosted a campus dinner for Ursula Le Guin. In 1996, he even joined the faculty’s College Bowl team that lost to students, 595-330. “I felt [our] team earned a moral victory,” he told The Phoenix, “by not preventing the students from doubling our score.”

"In all my years at Swarthmore, I never met anyone who loved the College as much as Tom,” says Barry Schwartz, the Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor Emeritus of Social Theory and Social Action. “He served many roles in his long career, all of them with devotion to Swarthmore."

Blackburn’s service to his community extended beyond campus. For several years and while still on the faculty, he served on Swarthmore’s Borough Council, including as president.

“Swarthmore faculty, by and large, do not take part in local government,” says Professor of Economics Mark Kuperberg, who Blackburn recruited to run for Council when he stepped down in 1993. “Tom, therefore, was unusual in his commitment to giving back to the community in this way.”

“Tom never made big speeches on behalf of his values, yet he never ceased to labor on behalf of the College’s best interests,” Weinstein says. “A big man who took delight in the play of the body as well as the reaches of the mind, Tom was capable of great finesse and intricate distinctions. His stewardship, on several fronts, sustained and enriched Swarthmore College, making it a better place.”

Blackburn did give one speech, when he retired from full-time teaching. In his Baccalaureate address to the Class of 2000, he turned to Milton, to compare the author’s idea of education to the graduates’ experiences, and to Shakespeare.

“To my mind, the great soliloquies by Shakespeare, like Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ … remind us that we must inevitably make choices in a universe where the consequences of those choices are always hidden in the future,” Blackburn said. “I’m grateful that I was chosen to go to Oxford, and [grateful] to meet there my best choice ever, Ann, who became my wife. ... Only in that context does my choice to teach at Swarthmore come second.”

George Bryson Thomas Jr. died at home on March 10, 2023. George was born on August 2, 1935, to Catherine McPherson Thomas and George Bryson Thomas in Norfolk, Virginia. He had happy memories of growing up on Willoughby Spit and elsewhere in Norfolk. He is predeceased by his sister, Anne T. Thomas who was one year younger and an important part in that happy childhood.

He graduated from Granby High School and went to University of Virginia on a newly-created Congressional Regional scholarship. He delighted in academic and other activities at UVA. A favorite memory when president of the Jefferson debating Society was getting the authors William Faulkner and John Dos Passos together, even though the expected witty repartee didn't materialize. Fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, the Raven Society, sports editor for Cavalier Daily, managing the men's lacrosse team, living in room 27 on the Lawn, summers selling shoes and other eclectic activities filled those 4 years, graduating in 1957. A few collegiate honors included honorary Omicron Delta Kappa, Pi Delta Epsilon, Phi Eta Sigma, and Phi Beta Kappa. He credited a particular undergraduate seminar with making him realize that what he wanted was a life in academia.

As a 1957- 59 Rhodes Scholar at St. John's College in Oxford, George cemented his love of the study of Philosophy as well as European political history. He joined the men's crew team at St. John's. He also gained skill at climbing the college walls when games of bridge got him out past the deadline. Although he didn't play bridge for over 50 years, he returned to it in his last year, thanks to friends at University Village.

A PhD in Philosophy followed at Harvard University in 1963. He and Sally Hyde got married that summer in her parents' home in Oregon and he joined the University of Virginia Department of Philosophy and started his 40-plus years of teaching and writing there. He often said that he could hardly believe he was getting paid to do what he so thoroughly enjoyed doing. Countless students over those years were challenged to think through ancient puzzles like whether there is free will. His seminars on Emmanuel Kant were particularly well-known. He served as Chair of the Philosophy Department for many years. He retired from the Philosophy Department in 2002 but continued to teach for the Philosophy Department until 2010 as well as at OLLI.

In his whole life, George was most proud of his daughters, Laura Gwen Thomas and Nancy Ellen Thomas, of San Francisco. Nancy died in 2021, and our daughter-in-law, Kanani Kauka died in 2018. Nancy's partner Todd Weaver remains a part of our family.

A quick student of languages, and a devotee of history, George was a extraordinary traveller to foreign countries, especially if there were operas to attend. Operas were a life-long passion, from listening to the Metropolitan Opera every weekend to surviving the full Wagner Ring cycle in San Francisco. He was a long-time supporter of the Charlottesville Opera (including hosting visiting musicians every summer). The sister-city relationship with Poggio a Caiano, Italy, especially, provided delightful excursions and friendships.

A life-long athlete until his mobility declined in later years, he enjoyed running, tennis, and squash. He went bungee jumping in Bergen, Norway for his 61st birthday and sky diving for the first (and last) time at 63. After retiring, he volunteered for many years with the Emergency Food Network. He was a dedicated political spouse supporting his wife Sally's campaigns and lengthy career on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.

George loved the many cats the family lived with over the years, from Pariah, the cat that Sally and George adopted as newlyweds, through Sam, who just showed up at the house one day, and Teddy, the cat who was with him when he died. He insisted in speaking Italian to the cats, as they seemed to understand that just as well as they did English. He was notorious for attempting to reason with the cats, carefully explaining to them exactly WHY they should not be on the table. That worked as well as you would imagine it did.

Although George loved the family's old home in West Leigh, and his pioneering of organic vegetable gardening, he discovered that condominium life was a delight for his final years: so many friends, so many conversations. Thank you to University Village residents for his final happy years. And thank you to UVA doctors for helping him deal for 62 years with Type 1 diabetes and all its effects and to the Hospice of the Piedmont for making the last year of his life more comfortable.

Malcolm (Mick) passed away peacefully with his family in attendance at North Shore Private Hospital.

Loved husband of Meryl (deceased). He is dearly missed by his children, Elizabeth, John and James, and their partners Mark, Karen and Kath as well as his grandchildren Henry (and his wife Natalie), Mathilda, Alex, Emily, Stuart, Scott, Alice, Evan and Julian.

Also by many relatives and friends including his siblings: Doug and Eddi.

Passing of eminent Gold Coast neurologist, Professor John Corbett

One of the Gold Coast's most respected medical practitioners, Professor John Corbett, has died.

An eminent neurologist, Rhodes Scholar and founder of Corbett Neurophysiology Services, 82-year-old Professor Corbett served the Gold Coast for three decades in the fields of neurology, neurophysiology, and sleep medicine.  His passing closes a medical, scientific and business career that spanned more than 50 years in the UK, US and Australia.

Born in Brisbane in 1940, John Corbett excelled in his early studies becoming Dux of his primary school and a captain of Gregory Terrace. The recipient of an Open Scholarship to the University of Queensland, he graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery.

In 1965, Professor Corbett was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and spent the next nine years at the University of Oxford, where he completed his PhD in Neurophysiology. He also became the inaugural BMA Research Fellow, an Oxford Don and published more than 50 articles in learned academic journals.

New opportunities tempted him away from Oxford and in 1973 he took up senior neurology appointments at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in the US.

Returning to Australia in 1974, he fulfilled a Senior Neurology role at the Royal Brisbane Hospital before launching his private neurology clinical practice in Sydney. His expertise proved invaluable in the medical arena and the law, culminating in more than 5,000 medico-legal reports and regular appearances as an expert witness. He was involved in placing the first ever CT machines in Australia into the North Shore Private Hospital and other locations.

In the 1980s, Professor Corbett decided to try his hand at business and industry.  To this end he worked in the field of mining of minerals – clay, tin and gold and he was an innovator in the development of ultrasonic engineering applications for piling, earthmoving, mining and mineral processing.  His next foray was Weapons Training Systems, involving high level contracts with the Australian Army and various international contracts, such as the USA Army.  He was regarded as the saviour of the Kemtron and Lomah groups.  Like everything he turned his mind to, he proved to be a successful businessman but he missed the challenges medicine had given him and ultimately, resumed his medical career. 

Professor Corbett launched Corbett Medical Services on the Gold Coast in 1994, operating out of the magnificent family home, Surrey House, in Southport. He was also a founding member of SNORE Australia, which became Australia’s largest provider of Level 1 sleep studies.

In 2000 John and Lorraine purchased a 156-acre botanical estate at Springbrook adjacent to the World Heritage Rain Forest and spent 22 years fulfilling his love of nature, he worked tirelessly on beautifying the land.  He could then be found on the weekends on a tractor plowing fields and planting tree farms.

He received the Australian Centenary Medal Award in 2001 for Distinguished Service in the Field of Medicine. In 2011, Epilepsy Queensland presented him with its Flame Award for his years of services and support.

In 2021, Professor Corbett was diagnosed with the terminal condition Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He is survived by his devoted wife Lorraine, much loved daughter Vanessa, son in law Sean, and grandchildren Brooke and Harrison.

A true gentleman of wisdom and compassion, who will be greatly missed by all who knew him