Obituaries
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James Graham McLeod was born on 18 January 1932, the son, and grandson, of builders. After the war, his parents moved to Ashfield, where McLeod was born, the youngest of four children by several years. He was an exceptional student and dux of his leaving year at Sydney Grammar School. His early ambition was to become a veterinarian, because of his love of animals, but instead, but he followed his father’s advice to accept a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Sydney, and never looked back.
McLeod’s involvement with the University of Sydney, both professionally and spiritually, was lifelong. He is an alumnus of the University’s St Paul’s College, where he was a sub-warden (1958). While completing a BSc (Med) in 1953, McLeod met Professor Frank Cotton, who was assessing students for their physical capacity for rowing. Although McLeod had no experience in this sport, results of his tests suggested he may succeed as an oarsman. Indeed, he won a university Blue in rowing (also in rifle shooting) and represented NSW in the King’s Cup.
McLeod was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in 1953, and in 1956 graduated DPhil (Oxon) for his studies into the physiology of pain. During his candidature he represented Oxford in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race and in 1954, with three other Australia scholars in the crew, helped Oxford to win the centenary race.
Bruce was was educated at Devonport School (1926); Auckland Grammar School (Prefect and Dux, 1938; prizes for English and Latin). He had learned to read at home, with his parents teaching him phonetically, and absorbed a love for books and history. The family moved regularly, as was the wont with teaching appointments in those days. From 1929-1932 the growing family struggled through repeated salary cuts (applied across the board by the state authority), developing a sense of forced self-reliance. Holidays were spent at the Beach at Manley, where the family had a holiday house. The family attended the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle, and Christian conventions where, in 1930, Bruce responded to an invitation to accept Christ as saviour. He early shone as a Sunday School scholar and boy soprano. This academic capacity showed through in his classes at Auckland Grammar, where he considered the school 'blessed with really good masters'. Ironically, he did no history at Auckland Grammar, as he was a good student,and history was considered something for students who were no good at Science. [Professing History 1990]
In 1939, the year World War II broke out, Bruce matriculated to Auckland University College (Junior Rugby Team 1941) on scholarships (examination first in English, third in Latin and second overall). Despite his father's wish that he take mathematics (at the time Les was posted to the District High School, Ruawai), Bruce majored in Greek (with units in English and Philosophy) instead, at the insistence of the Classics Professor, E. M. Blaiklock. 'It was a very seminal time, really, thinking of the world events then. I can remember sitting in classrooms, when we were supposed to be listening to the lecturer, and looking at the newspapers under the desks.' (Professing History, 1990). The parallels between the rampaging of Phillip of Macedon through Greece, and the figure of Hitler rampaging through Europe, were not lost on our lecturer, who was Professor Blaiklock, to whom I owe a lot as a student and as a colleague for a long time.' [Professing History 1990] The Classics gave him a sense of history through Demosthenes and Thucydides. Furthermore, he entered university just as the question about the historicity of the New Testament documents was being taken up by evangelical scholars in the UK and Germany. Harris' future colleagues Edward Musgrave Blaiklock (1903-1978) and Herbert Ralph Minn (1908-1996) were significant influences on students in the Evangelical Union, bringing to bear contemporary scholarship based on papyri to the study of New Testament Greek in ways which increased their historical interest. (Blaiklock had been influenced by the Scot W.M. Ramsay and the German scholar G. A. Deissmann, in particular the latter's Light from the Ancient East.)
Born in Toronto, in his teen years Pat moved with his family to Vancouver, where he finished high school and went on to study biology and physics at the University of British Columbia. In 1952, he won a Rhodes Scholarship. He met his first wife, Elizabeth, while at Oxford and became deeply involved with different Christian student groups. It was here he committed himself to Christ. After marrying, the couple moved to Philadelphia, where Pat completed his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Their two eldest children were born during this time. Next stop was Cambridge for a post-doc and then Vancouver, where Pat took up a position as assistant professor of physics at UBC. Some five years later, with three children in tow, the family moved to London, Ontario, where Pat would join the brand-new Biophysics Department at the University of Western Ontario. He spent the rest of his career at UWO, retiring at the age of 65.
Science in general and biophysics in particular were far from Pat's only interests. He was a devout Christian, often giving talks about the relationship between Christianity and science, and he spent a lot of his time on campus meeting and encouraging Christian students, especially international students. His love of music centred on two passions: country dancing and bagpipes. He heard his first bagpipes in Scotland at the age of 8 and never looked back. His love of dance began with square dances held in the family home in Toronto and over the years branched out to Scottish and English country dance, Morris, Playford and even Swedish country dance. Travel-to Japan, China, Turkey, Ireland, Greece, Mexico, Australia, Alaska, and many other lands-was another of his pleasures.
At the age of 85, some 17 years after Elizabeth's death, Pat remarried. He spent his final years with his new wife Jeanine, dancing, playing duets, attending church together, and fully enjoying each other's company. His was a full life and a rich one, and he was grateful for every bit of it.
Dr. F. Jackson Piotrow, Jack to everyone who knew him, was born June 10, 1931, in Martinsville, Virginia. He completed his high school education in Rochester, New York. He received a bachelor's degree from Haverford College with a major in German. Selected for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1953, he attended Oxford University in England, where he earned an M.A. degree in German and Russian languages and a doctorate in modern Russian history. While based in England on a Ford Foundation fellowship in 1958-59, he conducted research in the Soviet Union on his dissertation dealing with the Constitutional Democratic Party in the reign of Nicholas II. In 1971-72, he held the Henry L. Stimpson Chair of Political Science at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He led study tours in the Soviet Union for students and American University alumni in 1979-80 and again in the summer of 1981. In the 1989 fall semester, he was Visiting Professor of Russian at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
In 1956-58, Jack served in Washington, D.C. as a junior officer on active duty with the U.S. Navy. He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1960, serving as staff assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Subsequently he worked first as scriptwriter for Edward P. Morgan of ABC News and then as Assistant on Foreign Affairs for Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. He joined The American University faculty in September 1963.
Jack served as a Faculty Member of the School of International Service at The American University from 1963 to 1992. He was Acting Dean and Dean of SIS 1965-66, 1976-78, 1984-1986; and served as Education Director for the Washington Semester Program 1990-91.
Jack was an inquisitive life-long learner. He enjoyed reading and being active. He played tennis for 70 years and tried all kinds of sporting activities over the years, such as sailing, biking, hiking, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, pole trekking, miniature golf, pickle ball, ping pong, and kicking the soccer ball. Jack really enjoyed being out in nature and taking a good walk/hike. He liked to visit local attractions, national parks, historical battlefields, monuments, wildlife centers, zoos, aquariums, and museums. Jack had a knack for finding obscure attractions and hidden gems. It was best to never be in a hurry when on an outing with Jack. He liked to take his time and read every description, historical marker, and information plaque posted along the way.
Born in Moncton, New Brunswick, to J. Alexis Roy (trader) and Anna McLaughlan-Michaud, Raymond benefited from an exceptional educational background. He was awarded the Governor General's Silver Medal for achieving the highest provincial grade in Grade 10, then, having achieved the highest provincial leaving examination results the following year, he was awarded a Lord's Scholarship. Beaverbrook at UNB where he completed a degree in electrical engineering – summa cum laude in 1952. Winner of a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford, he obtained a master's degree in economics and political science in 1955.
He joined the Foreign Service that year, and for the next 34 years made significant contributions to his country. During his career, he was posted to diplomatic posts in Brussels, Caracas, Bonn, Geneva, Algiers and Berlin. In 1978, he was the first Acadian to be appointed Ambassador of Canada. He was Deputy Head of the Canadian Mission to the European Community, Consul and Resident Head of the Canadian Military Mission in Berlin, member of the Canadian delegation to the GATT "Tokyo Round" in Geneva and Ambassador to Algeria.
Married in 1959 to his Belgian wife Marie-Claire Laterre, he leaves behind his children Dominique (David), Stéphanie (Annie-Claude) and Alexis and his grandchildren Cédric, Danièle and Nicolas, his sister Mafalda, as well as his nephews and nieces Pierre-François, Hubert, Christine, Emmanuelle, Geoffroy and Amélie.
Fully bilingual in the best Canadian tradition, Raymond maintained a distinct spiritual loyalty to his Acadian roots. He was a loyal NAC subscriber from the start, played tennis and enjoyed sailing near the family cottage at Lac Grand in Val-des-Monts or on the Gulf of St-Tropez and swimming from the back deck of its Etap 20 near La Madrague (France).
Peter John Barrett passed away on 28 June 2022 while briefly hospitalised in his home town of Durban, South Africa. Predeceased by his wife Ann, he is survived by two daughters, Sue and Jenny, two granddaughters, Leonie and Keira, and sadly missed by them, by his three younger siblings, and by nine nephews and nieces.
Peter was born on 1 January 1934 in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and raised in Plumtree, Southern Rhodesia, where his parents were school teachers. From age 11 he attended Plumtree School, a highly acclaimed boarding school where he was an exceptional all-rounder. A fine scholar, he was also good at games – cricket, hockey, tennis and golf – and a good enough pianist to accompany a school Gilbert and
Sullivan production. In 1950, his final year, he was captain of the Rhodesian Schools cricket team.
Canon Bryan Greene’s mission to the University of Cape Town (UCT) in the early 1950s completely changed Peter’s life. A strong influence too was the University’s YMCA, at which he would later meet his future wife, Ann Tyrrell. In 1955, he entered Worcester College as a Rhodes Scholar. He aimed at a doctorate in physics, but, due to his background in electrical engineering and diverse interests, finished with a BA. In 1962, however, he returned to England from lecturing in physics at UCT to complete a doctorate in experimental
physics at Imperial College London and work on plasma physics, first at Culham Laboratory and then at UCLA. In 1972, he embarked on a successful career at the University of Natal (now Kwazulu-Natal, UKZN). Sabbaticals included two years at Princeton, three months in Alaska and a spell in Japan.
All this time, Peter’s Christian faith governed his life. This showed in his interest in people, wide circle of friends, and unwavering kind and gentle behaviour. On retiring from UKZN’s Physics Department at the age of 60, he continued with research, now in science and theology, related to the work of John Polkinghorne. Into his eighties, his research papers funded annual trips to conferences in England, where typically he spent
a week or two at St John’s College, Oxford and at Gladstone’s Library near Chester. In recent years, Peter was increasingly frail and unable to travel, his last two and a half years spent in Caister Lodge, an attractive retirement complex in Durban. To the end his mind was still sharp and his concern for others still strong.
Read full obituary here.
Roger won the Natal Rhodes Scholarship, and embarked on his doctoral studies in Oxford, where he had the good fortune to come under the supervision of AD (David) Buckingham (FRS, 1975; CBE, 1997). Roger was David’s first graduate student, and he obtained his D. Phil. from Oxford in 1959, with three joint papers on the dielectric properties of liquids. David and Roger’s deep friendship and highly creative academic collaboration would prove to last a lifetime. Roger continued research in molecular physics in Oxford as a post-doctoral fellow, and was then appointed Lecturer in the Pietermaritzburg Physics Department of the University of Natal in 1960. He was rapidly promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1961, Professor in 1968, and Head of Department in 1974. He subsequently served two threeyear terms as Dean of the Faculty of Science on the Pietermaritzburg Campus, and as Pro-Vice Principal of the Medical School in Durban from 1992 to 1996.
Louie S. Echols III was born in Gainesville, Florida. He entered Yale from The University of Florida’s P.K. Yonge Laboratory School in Gainesville and became a history major. The culmination of his scholarship, service and sports involvement on the Calhoun basketball team at Yale earned Louis a Rhodes Scholarship to Christ Church College at Oxford.
After earning his MA Modern History from Christ Church, he entered Yale Law School, during which time Louis TA-ed for History Prof. Edmund S. Morgan. After receiving his LLD, Lou spent most of his career in higher education, first at Fordham and then for a longer stint at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was advisor to the chancellor and to the president of the Wisconsin System. While there, he became the associate director for the university’s Sea Grant Program.
At a Sea-Grant conference in New Orleans, he met Bronwyn Hurd and they were married on July 14, 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1983 the family moved to Seattle where Louis served as the director of the University of Washington’s Sea Grant Program for the next 22+ years until his retirement.
Counseling and advising youth were special passions of Lou’s, which he deployed to the service of the selection committees of the Rhodes Scholarship in Wisconsin and Washington, and the national Krauss Fellowship Program. Upon retirement he delved into art history which led to international travel to visit art sites and museums. It was on one of those trips that he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died two weeks later, on May 13, 2022. A memorial gathering was held a year later in Seattle on June 3, 2023.
Read full obituary here.
Sterling E. Soderlind (known as Jim), a retired executive of Dow Jones & Co. and a former Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, died on May 11, 2022. He was a longtime resident of Short Hills NJ, moving to West Caldwell NJ in 2008. He was born Sept. 6, 1926, in Rapelje MT, the son of William J. and Florence Soderlind. His father founded a bank in Rapelje.
Selected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1949, he attended Oxford University, 1950-52, studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College. At the University of Montana he earned a B.A. degree in journalism and history in 1950.
Mr. Soderlind began his newspaper career as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune in 1952. He joined The Wall Street Journal as a reporter in Chicago in 1955 and a year later became head of the Journal’s Southeast News Bureau in Jacksonville FL. He was transferred in 1957 to New York where he served successively as Journal Page One Editor, Managing Editor, a Page One Journal columnist and Economics Editor for all Dow Jones publications.
He was named Vice President for Planning at Dow Jones in 1977 and played a role in starting Wall Street Journal editions in Asia and Europe. He also was active in the company’s acquisition of community newspapers throughout the United States. He retired in 1992.
Mr. Soderlind served in World War II as an electrician aboard the USS Wasp, an aircraft carrier, in the Pacific. He was a member of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars and Community Congregational Church in Short Hills. He also had a summer residence in Minocqua WI.
He is survived by his wife, the former Helen Boyce, and two daughters, Lori and Sarah, who reside in New York City. A son, Steven, died in 1987.
In his career Jim served as a director of the Richard D. Irwin textbook publisher in Chicago and as a director of Creative Loafing, an alternative newspaper in Tampa.
Jim enjoyed reading nonfiction, keeping a private journal, researching investments and keeping up with the changing media industry. He and Helen met in Minneapolis, where she was a buyer at Dayton’s department store. For many years they vacationed at their lakeside cottage in northern Wisconsin. From 1991 to 2007 they often lived on nearby Little Ripley Island, which Jim bought in 1990. (He said two of his whims in life had worked out: owning an island and a 1966 Volkswagen Beetle.)
Among his newspaper reporter anecdotes, Jim recalled short interviews with President Harry Truman and Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower. When Jim was a college newspaper reporter in Missoula, MT, in 1948, Truman gave him three minutes on his train’s observation car after a campaign speech in his race against Thomas Dewey. In 1952 in Minneapolis, candidate Ike took Jim’s questions during a hotel elevator ride.