Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
Henry Ronald Kloppenburg died October 12, 2022 at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was born June 21, 1945 at Humboldt, Saskatchewan. He attended elementary and secondary schools in Humboldt, then moved on to the University of Saskatchewan where he obtained an Arts and a Law degree. In 1968, Henry went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Laws in 1970. After returning to Canada, Henry served as a Law Clerk to Justice E.M. Hall at the Supreme Court of Canada and was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1971. Henry continued to practice law until the time of his death, the last several years in semiretirement. Since 1977, Henry practiced law with his wife, Cheryl.
We are saddened to hear of the passing of David. He came up to Oxford in 1962 and studied a BA in Forestry.
Robert had a long and illustrious career as a surgeon, specializing in Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat) and Head and Neck surgery. He was on staff and Chief of Surgery at the York-Finch/Humber Hospital in West Toronto. He practised medicine in the Jane and Finch area for 45 years.
A conscientious student, Robert was educated at: Holy Innocence Elementary School in St. Andrew's Grenada, St. Andrew's Anglican Secondary School, Grenada Boys Secondary School, University College of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica and Jesus College, Oxford University, England. In 1962, Robert was selected for the Rhodes Scholarship for the Caribbean and completed his medical training at Jesus College, Oxford University.
In his youth and early adulthood Robert was a cricketer, a spin bowler specifically. Later on his energies became focused on golf and he joined Spring Lakes Golf Club in Stouffville.
Paul was born on November 1, 1962, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Saverio Paul and Barbara (Merli) Giordano. He grew up in an extended Italian American Catholic family that also included his sister, grandparents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides who frequently gathered on Sundays and other days to celebrate special events.
Paul attended Trailwood Elementary School and Indian Creek Junior High in Overland Park, Kansas. In 1981, his senior year at Shawnee Mission South High School, he was the catcher on the baseball team that won the state championship. That fall he enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia where he met his future wife and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, where he made many lifelong friends.
That same year he was accepted into Harvard Law School and simultaneously awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, one of only 32 U.S. residents to receive the prestigious award that year. He deferred his Harvard acceptance for two years and put his Rhodes study at Oxford University on the fast-track, completing three years of courses in two years.
On August 16, 1986, he married Mary Margaret Sterner in Kansas City, Missouri, and she joined him in Oxford. In 1987, Paul graduated from Oxford University with a master’s degree. That autumn the young couple returned to the U.S. and Paul entered Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1990, Paul received his jurisprudence doctorate cum laude and then began a career in law, banking and insurance that spanned more than three decades.
Read the full obituary for Paul Giordano.
John H. Chettle passed away on Sunday, September 25, 2022. He was 84 and leaves behind his wife, Judith, his children Anne and William, grandsons, Will and Wyatt Reinke, and more than 10,000 books. Born in South Africa, he was a Rhodes Scholar and lawyer for many years with Freedman, Levy, Kroll & Simonds, specializing in International Trade Law. He loved his family, books, art, antiques, and a good—but always polite—argument.
Pete MacVeagh passed away on September 19, 2022, at age 90.
Graduate of Webster Groves, Missouri, High School Class of 1949, received an academic scholarship to Harvard University, awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a Master's Degree in History and Literature from Balliol College at Oxford University.
Served in the United States Army, going through Officer Candidate School "OCS", and was a Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He then worked for the St. Louis, Missouri, office of Price Waterhouse, studied at night school to earn his CPA, and enjoyed many years of consulting work in the Midwest. Was transferred to the Washington, D.C., office of Price Waterhouse to do international consulting, including consulting projects for the World Bank. His work carried him to Japan, South America, the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, and he enjoyed the interesting people he worked with and learning about their cultures. After retirement from Price Waterhouse, he and his son, Chip, worked on consulting with the goal of remediating coal mine land using agricultural waste to renovate the bare land. He enjoyed spending time with his wife, Patricia, whom he adored throughout their entire marriage, and whom he thought about every day after her passing. He was an avid organic vegetable gardener, and enjoyed travel, walking and hiking outdoors, horseback riding, and reading. He had wide-ranging interests in books, and read about science, history, military history, and biographies.
One of Cornell College’s only Rhodes Scholars and a longtime Coe College professor of philosophy and computer science, Peter McCormick ’65 died Aug. 29, 2022, in Durango, Colorado. He was 79.
He held a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in computer science from the University of Iowa, and B.A.s from Cornell College (in philosophy and German) and Oxford University. At Cornell he played violin, sang in Oratorio, and joined the swim team.
McCormick taught at Coe from 1974–2018, helping to establish Coe’s honors program in 1982. He played a critical role in integrating the internet to campus operations as Coe’s first director of academic computing in 1994. He firmly believed in a liberal arts education and vibrant campus experience, and in addition to constantly advocating for the importance of developing a breadth of knowledge, was a familiar presence at athletics and campus events. “Beyond his incredible intellect, Peter was a gifted athlete, and for many of us, he good-naturedly delivered the worst thrashing we ever received on the squash court,” the Coe President’s Office wrote in a message after his death.
He established the Peter McCormick ’65 Cultural Diversity Endowment at Cornell to promote student awareness and understanding of cultural diversity in the U.S., especially the cultures of historically important groups such as Native Americans, that have become marginalized in contemporary America.
Bryce Nelson, an award-winning journalist, dedicated professor and former director of USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism, has died at the age of 84. After two decades as a reporter at major news organizations, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, Nelson devoted the final 30 years of his career to training and mentoring future journalists while tirelessly serving the broader USC community.
Nelson died on August 20 in Alhambra, Calif.
“Bryce was one of the most beloved members of our USC Annenberg community, uniformly praised for his intellect, but also for the depth of his kindness and compassion,” said USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay. “His service to both our students and our university was nothing short of extraordinary.”
Nelson joined the USC Annenberg faculty in 1984 as director of the School of Journalism, a position he held until 1988. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses from “Media and Society” to “Government and Washington Reporting” and “Newswriting” until his retirement in 2014. In addition, he led the school’s London semester program, focusing on research and international news media.
A three-time recipient of the Graduate Journalism Students Association’s Outstanding Faculty Award, Nelson was also recognized with a USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Students in 2008.
“Bryce was a dedicated educator and a passionate advocate for journalism’s ethical responsibilities,” said Gordon Stables, director of the School of Journalism. “He was a wonderful colleague and someone whose legacy still informs us within the school today.”
A Rhodes Scholarship recipient, who earned his MPhil degree in politics from Oxford University, Nelson served as a Rhodes Scholar representative for USC from 1986 to 2014 and as chair of the university’s Rhodes Scholar Selection Committee. His wide-ranging committee roles across the university also included the President’s Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, the USC Academic Senate and the President’s Committee on Appointment, Promotion and Tenure.
Professor of Communication Thomas Hollihan praised Nelson as a “transformational leader,” who helped lead the journalism school when it was merged with the communication school in 1994-95.
“Bryce was a man of great intelligence, compassion and integrity, and an outstanding friend, colleague and mentor,” Hollihan added.
When University Professor Geoffrey Cowan joined USC Annenberg as dean in 1997, he recalled Nelson being “one of the true shining lights.”
“Bryce was a talented teacher, principled leader and award-winning journalist whose work had an impact on society,” Cowan said. “He was known for his crusading reporting on issues of national security and the environment, for his leadership as a former Rhodes Scholar, and for his work for the Christopher Commission that brought about police reform in Los Angeles in the wake of the beating of Rodney King.”
Another colleague, Jonathan Kotler, associate professor of journalism, remembers Nelson as “the most moral man I ever met.”
“Across the four decades that I knew him, Bryce never failed to stand up to authority in his never-ending quest to have people do the right thing on behalf of others,” Kotler said. “For him, ethics were never situational.”
Nelson’s wife, Mary Shipp Barlett, also recalled how he balanced a steadfast commitment to his craft with his “trademark humor” and the “simple, thoughtful outreach” he shared with those across the school. “Every morning on his way to his second-floor office, he would pick up a stack of The Daily Trojan and stop by multiple offices to distribute a copy and say ‘good morning’ to staff,” she said.
Born in Reno, Nev., and raised in Boise, Idaho, Nelson received his bachelor’s degree in social relations and American history from Harvard University, where he also served as president of the Harvard Crimson. Following his studies at Oxford, he taught political science at the University of Pittsburgh before assuming aide posts for Sen. Frank Church and Sen. Hubert Humphrey’s vice presidential campaign.
This led Nelson to the Washington Post, where he covered congressional and foreign affairs, before joining Science magazine, where his reporting exposing government blacklisting resulted in major reform in federal security procedures and earned him the Albert Deutsch Award for Distinguished Journalism in 1970.
Nelson later made his way to Chicago, where he became the national correspondent and then Midwest bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times before returning to Washington, DC, to serve as the Times’ national correspondent there. In 1980, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his investigative reporting series “The Poisoning of America,” which also earned him an Associated Press Award.
In his final reporting post before joining USC Annenberg, Nelson was a human behavior writer for The New York Times, garnering a distinguished contributor award from the American Psychological Association’s National Media Awards.
To honor Nelson’s many contributions to his field and higher education, the School of Journalism established the Bryce Nelson Award for Distinguished Journalism in 1990. Awarded annually, the honor is reserved for a graduating student who shows outstanding reporting and writing abilities, superior academic performance, and a commitment to high ethical standards in journalism.
Nelson is survived by his wife, Mary Shipp Bartlett, his son, Matthew Nelson, granddaughter Anneka Winton, and two brothers. He is preceded in death by his first wife, Martha Streiff Nelson, and his daughter, Kristin Nelson Winton.
“Bryce and I met late in life, when a mutual friend set us up because of our shared interest in journalism,” Shipp Bartlett said. “It was instantaneous attraction for me. He was charming, gentle, handsome, brilliant, and funny. Irresistible. We had 11 years together — and my first impression never changed.”
The Rhodes Trust is deeply grateful that Bryce remembered the Trust in his Will.
John Kane-Berman, who was born on the eve of apartheid and devoted his life to vigorously opposing the race nationalism of apartheid’s ideologues and, at their defeat, the illiberal impulses of their successors, has died aged 76.
His conviction in the power of ideas was central to his long association with the South African Institute of Race Relations. It remains a profound and lasting influence on the liberal cause, and the continuing efforts to achieve a fairer, prospering South Africa.
Said John Endres, CEO of the South African Institute of Race Relations: “John Kane-Berman leaves a profound legacy. As CEO of the Institute from 1983 until 2014, he was a fearless proponent of liberalism before, during and after South Africa’s democratic transition. He sharpened the SAIRR’s focus, put it on a sound financial footing and set it on the path that turned it into the potent force that it is today.
“His brave and unstinting commitment to the liberal cause inspired legions of South African liberals, myself included. John Kane-Berman was known for his eloquent presentation, exceptional memory, thorough command of his subject matter and exemplary discipline. He was demanding, setting the highest standards for himself and others, because he realised the importance of the project he was engaged in: to insist that nothing less than true non-racialism and personal freedom would allow the dignity and prosperity of all South Africans to flourish.”