Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
Dr Prendergast was a force in science and medicine and a trailblazer in civil rights. In 1995, just 28 years ago, he became the first Black director of an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Prendergast was a role model who encouraged young men and women to pursue careers in science and medicine at mainstream institutions. When asked by a young Black physician about it being unusual for a Jamaican to settle in Rochester, MN, he interjected humor, saying, “It’s easy once you get used to the fact that they put white cream sauces on everything.”
Prendergast laughed, further reflecting on the Nordic cuisine, predominantly Nordic population, and snow-covered landscape.
He then added: “I am talking about more than just food.”
Dr. Prendergast and a very small number of peers literally opened doors, creating opportunities for minorities in medicine. One should not underestimate the importance of men and women like Prendergast, who demonstrated what Black people and minorities could accomplish with utmost competence. His opening of minds and widespread acceptance created opportunities for others.
Read the full obituary here.
Samuel Clark Oliver Holt, a former radio and television executive who made significant contributions to public broadcasting.
Sam Holt was born January 18, 1936, in Birmingham, AL. He graduated from Episcopal High School in 1953 and Princeton University in 1958, after taking a year off to work for CBS News in New York. From there he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar; he later remembered his three years there, at Christ Church college, as among the best of his life. Sam was in ROTC while at Princeton and after returning from England in 1961, he served in the Army as an artillery officer, stationed at Fort Sill, OK. He was honorably discharged as a captain in 1963 but remained in the Army Reserve until 1970. After finishing his active military duty, he taught for a year at Southern Methodist University, then attended Harvard University for graduate work in history.
In 1970, Sam married Jane Elliott Mansfield, whom he had met in Cambridge, and moved to Washington to work for the Public Broadcasting Service. As the first programming director at PBS, Sam helped create programs including "Masterpiece Theater" and "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report" (now "PBS Newshour"). In 1977 he joined NPR as Senior Vice President for Programming and helped launch programs such as "Morning Edition." He directed NPR's programming until 1982. The following year he won the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Samuel C.O. Holt papers, related to his years in public broad-casting, are housed in the archival collections at the University of Maryland.
After leaving NPR, Sam continued his career as a media and broadcasting consultant; over the years, he worked for HBO, Discovery, and WorldSpace (the former satellite radio company). A devout Episcopalian, Sam served as an acolyte for many years and was a member of the vestry of Christ Church, Georgetown. In recent years, he attended services at St. David's in Washington and St. Andrew's in Boca Grande, FL. He cherished his memberships in the Cosmos Club and the Literary Society of Washington, as well as in "Leo," a book club that has met regularly since he and a handful of other men founded it in 1975.
Read the full obituary here
We are saddened to hear about the passing of Barry Forman who came up to Oxford in 1967 to study a DPhil in classics.
We are saddened by the news of Jan's passing. Jan came up to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1968 and studied for a DPhil in Biochemistry.
Anthony (Tony) Ardington lived a life of service, of leadership and extreme empathy for those less fortunate than himself, but at the same time, according to those who knew and loved him, he wasn’t one to easily suffer fools or time wasters!
Born in 1940 to a farming family near Mandeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Ardington was first schooled at Cordwalles in Pietermaritzburg before moving on to Michaelhouse in 1954.
In the Michaelhouse archives, Ardington is described as a student of “modest” academic achievement and a “distinguished cricketer”. However, by the time he came to write his school-leaving exam he had allegedly “re-arranged his priorities” and attained a first class matric!
Ardington played for the First XI and was elected as vice-captain of the team before a knee injury interrupted his sporting career for a brief period. During his final year at the school, he was appointed a prefect and given a white badge – a coveted award – which recognised his exceptional leadership qualities. It was also during his early life that his characteristic concern for those less fortunate than himself came to the fore.
Scholar, diplomat and sportsman, Rawdon Dalrymple was, above all, a thinker who contributed greatly to Australia’s search for identity in the Asia-Pacific.
Dalrymple’s ancestry was a mix of Scottish, English and Polynesian. His great-grandfather on his mother’s side sailed from South America to Pitcairn Island. He subsequently took many of the Bounty mutineers and families to settle on Norfolk Island.
Dalrymple’s parents, both of whom served in World War I – his mother as a nurse and his father as a sapper – were of modest means. Through a mix of scholarships and his mother’s determination, Dalrymple attended Shore after Warrawee Public School.
Indeed, Dalrymple’s academic brilliance constantly ensured the opening of opportunities which otherwise would have been out of financial reach.
Studying philosophy at Sydney University in 1948-51, Dalrymple spent his final year at Wesley College off the back of a scholarship from the Ku-ring-gai Branch of the RSL, in recognition of his parents’ war service.
Importantly, Wesley College introduced him to rowing, at which he excelled, and which was central to him being awarded the NSW Rhodes Scholarship for 1952. At University College, Oxford, Dalrymple became captain of the college boat club and rowed in the Isis Eight, Oxford’s second crew. He graduated with first class honours in philosophy, economics and politics.
Attending University College at the same time was a Rhodes scholar from Western Australia – future prime minister Bob Hawke. Dalrymple and Hawke became firm friends, their lives intersecting regularly thereafter both personally and professionally.
Read the full obituary here.
Raymond C. Mjolsness was a fine theoretical physicist and applied mathematician, a patient mentor and insightful collaborator to colleagues, a longtime member of the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and an excellent trombone player.
Raymond Mjolsness was born in Chicago on April 22, 1933. He grew up in several places including St. Louis, Missouri and Helena, Montana. He was an American original, a son of a school teacher who went on to excel in science and music. He was educated at Reed College, at Oxford under a Rhodes Scholarship, and at Princeton. While at Oxford he studied trombone in London with Sidney Langston of the Royal Academy of Music.
While at Princeton Ray met his future wife Patricia, with whom he moved to Los Alamos and raised three children while working at the Laboratory and publishing dozens of scientific papers on plasma physics and related topics. His other interests included chess, finance, and running; also geopolitics and his Norwegian heritage. He owned and read an extensive and ever-growing collection of books, and was a regular customer at the Mesa Public Library.
Ray lived in Los Alamos from 1958 to 2014, with the exception of short forays into academia. From 1967-1969 he was on the faculty of Astronomy at Penn State, doing theoretical cosmology. He brought the family back to Los Alamos in 1969, just in time for the moon landing, moving into a house near the school on Barranca Mesa where he lived until 2014. He then moved to Enumclaw Washington where he kept reading despite health challenges.
The managing partner of Malabar Coast Products and former chairman of Gandhi Peace Foundation, Kottayam, he was the first Rhodes scholar from Kerala. His brilliant academic track record, unique business skills and enviable contacts made him a spectacular personality.
The areas of his studies spread out from political science to philosophy and economics and had degrees in all these subjects. He was an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, Madras Christian College, Chennai and the famous Balliol College, Oxford, UK. At Balliol, he studied with the Rhodes Scholarship, a rare academic honour and opportunity a talented student gets to carry on his studies at the University of Oxford.
He was a member of the rowing team there and the vibes of those dynamic days can be traced from the propeller of his Balliol days that has been kept there.
Read the full obituary here.
Jim was born on March 13, 1930, in Lexington, Virginia, and he was educated at Davidson College (1947-1951) and Merton College, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar, 1951-1954). He served in the US Army (1955-1956) and then taught for two years at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, before returning to Oxford to earn a D.Phil. in Zoology. In 1962, he joined the Biology faculty of the University of Virginia.
Jim's main research interests were ecological genetics and the evolution of animal populations. His research on land snails took him to the British Isles, Australia, and on many trips to Polynesia, where he studied the native snails of the genus Partula. At UVA, Jim chaired the Biology Department from 1984 to 1987; served as director of the Mountain Lake Biological Station for thirteen summers between 1964 and 1990; and mentored several generations of graduate students. He was a Fellow and former President of the Virginia Academy of Sciences and a board member of the Virginia Museum of Natural History. He also chaired the University's Arboretum Committee for over 20 years, often saying that this was his favorite University committee.
Jim was an active mountain climber and lifelong conservationist. He spent many happy days exploring peaks and valleys from the Himalayas to the Alps to the Appalachians of his native Virginia.
Read the full obituary here.