Obituaries

Dr. Rotman was born in Toronto, Canada, the son of the late Samuel Rotman and Hannah Miadovnic Rotman. 

He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Maggie Rotman; children Sara, Rebecca, and David; and grandchildren.

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

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.”

Paul was born and raised in Palmyra, NY; graduated from Hamilton College; and continued his studies as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. There he met his beloved wife of nearly 50 years, Elizabeth (Betsy) Baker. After their marriage in 1960, Paul and Betsy moved to Minneapolis, MN, where he began his long and distinguished career in university administration. Paul joined Columbia University in 1962, and (save for two years at his alma mater, Hamilton) served the University for many years—most notably as Executive Vice President for Administration—until his retirement in 1994.

After Paul retired, he and Betsy had many adventures—travel, volunteer work, and bringing to publication Emerson Among the Eccentrics, the final work of Betsy’s late father, Carlos Baker. As a longtime Trustee, Paul remained involved in the work of International House in New York, as well as in the intellectual and social community at Columbia.

After Betsy’s death in 2009, Paul joined St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Ridgewood, NJ, where he served on the Vestry and on many committees in support of this vibrant and loving community. He particularly enjoyed volunteering with the young students at Philip’s Academy Charter School (PACS) Paterson, and even more recently, mentoring a student via Zoom, with whom he developed a warm friendship.

Paul loved music and was a gifted singer, pianist, and (in his early years) trumpeter. Track and basketball were his sports in high school and in college, and in retirement, he enjoyed perfecting his tennis game.

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.”

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.

Mary Skinner was a remarkable woman who had an extraordinary life. Mary was born in New York in 1936. Mary’s mother (Maidee) had been born in Bremen in 1913, but the family emigrated to the United States during the first world war. After the war Mary’s mother returned to Germany to stay with relatives and friends; in 1933, however, her mother decided to bring her back to New York City. Mary’s father (Joe Moore) was a medical practitioner who started his long career working for the US Government eradicating malaria in the Georgia Sea Isles and then with the health provider Kaiser Permanente before going into private practice. Both of Mary’s parents had strong sympathies with the political left, despite coming from affluent backgrounds. After a brief period in upstate New York, they moved to California, settling ultimately in Inverness on the beautiful Port Reyes coast.

Mary was such a cosmopolitan figure – in the course of her life she was to live in America, Africa and Europe – that it would be foolish to associate her too closely with any particular place. Yet I am sure that California was a key element in her complex personality: apparently ‘laid back’ yet dauntingly energetic, pleasure-loving yet highly principled, unfazed and eternally optimistic.

Politically, Mary was always a Rawlsian liberal and quite to the Left of the Democratic Party. Anyone who thinks that Buckingham was the exclusive preserve of hide-bound reactionaries should remember Mary Skinner.

So, after study and teaching in the United States, research with her then husband David in Africa and research in Oxford, Mary came to Buckingham, and it is on her time with us that I want to concentrate. Perhaps the thing that most impressed lazy British colleagues – like me – was Mary’s amazing energy. She thought nothing of rushing up to London for a party, catching an early train back to Buckingham, teaching all day and then returning to London for another social event.

Read the full obituary here. 

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.

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.