Obituaries
Please alert us to the recent death of any other Rhodes Scholar by emailing communications@rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk.
Dan Lockwood McGurk passed away at his home in Newport Beach on September 3, 2020 at the age of 94. Dan died of natural causes. Son of Herbert Lockwood McGurk and Mary Bray McGurk, Dan was born in Eufaula, Alabama on June 30, 1926. He lived his early life in Eufaula, London, Argentina, and Connecticut as his father was given various positions with Frigidaire. He went on to receive a degree in Engineering from Texas A&M and then graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1949. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he received degrees in Economics, Philosophy and Political Science. In 1956, Dan left military service and began a decades-long career in the nascent computer industry, first with TRW and eventually with Scientific Data Systems. Shortly after Xerox acquired SDS in 1971, Dan retired to become a full-time investor and entrepreneur. In 1975, he was asked to join then President Ford's administration as an assistant director in the Office of Management Budget, a position he kept until President Carter took office. In 1985, Dan co-founded Southland Title (now Lawyers Title) with family friend, David Cronenbold, and went on to serve as Chairman of the Board for the next 20 years. Dan believed in being a strong contributing member of his community. He held positions in a number of southern California non-profit organizations, with a focus on helping disadvantaged youth become leaders. He also set up a family non-profit 501C-3, The McGurk Foundation, dedicated to supporting self-sufficiency among young people in need. One of Dan's other passions was sailing. Besides participating in local races from southern California to Baja, Dan raced in the TransPac from Los Angeles to Hawaii, and sailed across the Atlantic from Miami to Portugal in a 45' sloop. He kept a sailboat in front of his home in Newport Beach for decades. Above all, Dan was a family man. He married Francis Brady Murphy in 1949 and had four children: Christine, Herbert Lockwood II, William Arthur Patrick, and Michael Francis Forest. After the couple divorced, Dan married Shirley Ann Reece Cain and eventually adopted her three children: Scott Randall Cain, Kelly Corinne and Stacey Erin. After Shirley passed away, Dan married a third time at the age of 86 to Joan Sydney Anderson of Houston, Texas. At 94, Dan had lived a life filled with service, new technology, adventure and family. He is survived by his loving wife Joan, all 7 of his children, 13 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren
Harry Havens died on 31 August 2020 in Alexandria, Virginia. Harry studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1957.
The Rhodes Trust is deeply grateful that Harry remembered the Trust in his Will.
Architect, outdoorsman, educator, and life-long learner, James Waugh was born in Winnipeg on May 21, 1945 and died of cancer in Calgary on August 24, 2020.
In September 1968, on the chilly decks of the Empress of England that carried him to Oxford, Jim had a camera around his neck, his eyes surveying the horizon like a bird of prey. This was a prelude to decades of keen observation and enjoyment of life. As a student at McGill University, he was already looking beyond the conventional boundaries of architecture, more interested in the impact of building design on people than in winning the aesthetic acclaim of clients or peers. As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he studied philosophy, psychology, and physiology to prepare for that broader approach. As Bob Rae (Ontario and Balliol, 1969), former premier of Ontario and leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, recalls, “He was an exceptionally thoughtful man who took full advantage of what Oxford had to offer, doing brilliantly in a challenging graduate course before putting that knowledge into action.”
By the time he returned to Canada in the mid 1970s to teach at the newly-formed architecture school of the University of Calgary, Jim was one of a dozen people in the world putting human behaviour at the centre of the profession. Other than one stunning corporate building, Shell Court in Calgary, he designed modest structures for community organizations with limited budgets like the Girl Guides, which needed to last, be easy to run, and stand up to unusual challenges. In planning a shelter for battered women, for example, he had to foresee outraged husbands ramming the facility with a pick-up truck.
A champion swimmer at McGill, Jim was tall and broad-shouldered, but soft-spoken and self-deprecating rather than overbearing. Some thought him shy, while others saw him radiating among those he was comfortable with, who shared his curiosity, his attention to detail, and his boyish sense of fun. When he laughed, it could be uproarious, his eyes glinting with mirth but also signs of a certain Prairie restraint thrown to the wind. He had little time for nonsense but was always eager to learn. After a pompous lecture by a renowned architect at McGill describing the highlights of his glorious career, which had the student audience rolling their eyes, Jim was awarded a prize for posing the most intelligent question.
He had interests as wide as the Rocky Mountains and remembered other people’s pursuits with photographic faithfulness. He commiserated with one friend whom he hadn’t seen in twenty years on the death of the last surviving member of the Bloomsbury Group. And his sense of history and humour reinforced each other. He chuckled when told of Che Guevara’s parting words before going off to fight in the eastern Congo – “I feel the ribs of Rocinante [Don Quixote’s horse] pressing against my legs” – as if they summed up his own idealism and ambition, tempered with reality. He relished the outdoors and long-distance walks, including a memorable fifteen-mile trek across a peat bog at Cape Wrath. But he also loved books and libraries and the Oxford English Dictionary, where he would trace the origins of obsolete words as keenly as his own family history.
His daughter Xanna remembers him as a remarkable father, not only to her but also to friends who had lost their own or were less fortunate in that respect. Jim was loyal to his friends but could discomfit them with his piercing honesty. “I’d be surprised if you spent much time in ‘immense Gothic spaces’,” he wrote to one, who had described a visit to Mont St. Michel, “since most of the Mont pre-dates the Gothic era by a century or two.” Yet his learning and precision never got in the way of being practical. In retirement, he could be found digging the Prospect Trail which he designed to connect the Elbow River pathways to downtown Calgary and re-shaping the landscape of his property in Hawaii.
A devoted educator, he served for thirty years on the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for the Prairie Provinces, where his wit and lack of stuffiness set applicants at their ease. His wife Charlene Prickett, whose Arkansas upbringing prepared her badly for the rigours of a Canadian winter, wanted them to slip away each year to Hawaii by the beginning of November, but Jim would insist on seeing the selection process through. He saw promise in everyone, inviting a successful candidate home for dinner one evening alongside another who had fallen short, to buck up his spirits. “He shared stories of his life and career,” the first recalled, “in an utterly warm and unpretentious way. I marvelled at his infectious energy and passion for life.”
At the University of Calgary, he endowed a Rural Medicine Residency Award to honour his two grandfathers, who were country doctors, and an architecture scholarship for those who had demonstrated a palpable concern for the well-being of others.
Tom came to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1955, and then worked at the University of Alberta through a distinguished career, serving as a Professor of Economics, Head of the Department of Economics, interim Dean of Arts and as a member of the Board of Governors.
Former parliamentarian William Milner Cox, a member of the vaunted “Class of ’68”, has died. He was 91. Mr Cox was among a group of MPs who won seats in the 1968 election and were to make their mark on the Bermudian political landscape in the following decades. The 1968 election is widely considered the beginning of the modern political system in Bermuda. Mr Cox, widely known as Bill, served as a United Bermuda Party MP in Devonshire South from 1968 to 1976, and again from 1980 until his retirement in 1993. He also served as Minister of Education. Writing in the book Seeking Truth, Mr Cox said of his time as an MP: “I put the National Trust Act 1971 through the House of Assembly and sponsored a few Private Bills including daylight saving time, decriminalisation of homosexuality and the abolition of capital punishment. The latter two were defeated, but subsequently have been passed.” He also tabled a motion in 1974 for leaner penalties for minor drug offences. Mr Cox was educated at Saltus Grammar School and from 1943 onwards at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. In Seeking Truth, he wrote: “By 1943, the threat of Nazi U-boats had abated … I was one of 16 boys and girls who in September boarded a small freighter, Fort Amherst, that plied Bermuda-New York. We were given life jackets and there were other precautions in case we were torpedoed. Those of us destined for TCS went by train to Port Hope. We stayed in Canada during Christmas and Easter school vacations until the war was over.” Mr Cox earned a bachelor of arts degree, with a major in history, at Trinity College, University of Toronto, in 1951. A keen sportsman, he played on the Trinity College soccer team, serving as its captain during his last year at the school. While in Canada, he volunteered for the Canadian Army. Mr Cox wrote: “One had to be fit, join for at least two years, attend parades during term time and spend at least 16 weeks each summer in army camp. I have a Commission as Lieutenant in the Canadian Army signed by Alexander of Tunis who was Governor General at the time. ”Mr Cox was Bermuda’s Rhodes Scholar in 1951. He attended Corpus Christi College at Oxford University, graduating in 1953 with a degree in jurisprudence. He was later called to the English Bar. Mr Cox wrote that he occasionally played on the Corpus Christi soccer team, but his primary athletic interest was rowing, and he was on the Corpus “first eight” during his two years there. Returning to the island, Mr Cox was called to the Bermuda Bar in 1956. He worked at the Bank of Bermuda and later at the law firm Appleby Spurling & Kempe before going into partnership with his second cousin, David Wilkinson, to establish the firm Cox & Wilkinson, now Cox Hallett Wilkinson. In 1970, Mr Cox became honorary consul for the Netherlands in Bermuda, serving in the position for more than 20 years. Upon his retirement, he was made a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Dr Lloyd Higgs was a Rhodes Scholar, a Queen's Scout, an esteemed Rotarian and one of Canada's most respected astronomers. After receiving his D.Phil. degree from Oxford in 1961, he began his career in research with the Radio and Electrical Engineering Division of NRC in Ottawa where he worked until moving to Penticton. He was director of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, BC, where he worked on such specialized interests as planetary nebulae and supernova remnants, recombination lines in the radio spectrum, and the development of software for data reduction. Dr. Higgs joined the RASC shortly after moving to Ottawa and took an active part in a number of capacities, including a term as Centre president 1971-72. Always an enthusiastic supporter of the RASC, he contributed many scientific papers and reviews to the Society's publications and edited the Journal with care and skill from 1976 to 1980.
Tom grew up in Portland, Ore., and graduated from Lincoln High School. He majored in mathematics at Princeton and went on to Harvard Law School, from which he graduated magna cum laude and served as an officer on the Harvard Law Review. It was at Harvard that he met Carol Frank, his future wife. Tom spent two years after law school on a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, receiving a D.Phil. in law. On his return, he served as law clerk to Justice John M. Harlan on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1973 Tom joined the Natural Resources Defense Council as one of its founders. For the rest of his life, he worked to make the world a more habitable place. He initiated NRDC’s first international programs and directed its international work for almost two decades, forming partnerships with environmental organizations in other countries and leading NRDC’s efforts to restore the ozone layer and combat climate change. In later years, he served as a consultant on environmental policy issues for the United Nations and other organizations. His final law review article, published in 2020, advocated for a federal statute to authorize compensation for legally imposed segregation.
Mick was born in Bulawayo on 18th February 1940 and attended St George’s College
from 1949-57. He went on to the University College of Rhodesia & Nyasaland, and
graduated with a BA History (Hons). He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for his fine
mind and many well-rounded talents. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics
achieving his MA (Oxon) at St.Peter’s College, Oxford University from 1964-66. While
there he met his future wife Jacqueline and they headed for Canada together in 1966.
After teaching and coaching as Junior Housemaster at Shawnigan Lake Boys’ School
he returned home to Rhodesia with his wife and new son, Gavin, to teach at Umtali
Boys High School. Later as Head of the English Department at Oriel Boys School in
Salisbury, he guided new teachers with firm and gentle advice and instilled in them the
love of teaching.
In 1979 he pursued his long-held interest in the law. He completed his LLB at the
University of Western Ontario and practised as a Specialist in Family Law. Here he
created an educational and social group of lawyers - ‘The Cabal’. He was the linchpin of
this collegial group which wrestled regularly with the intricacies of family law.
After volunteering and travelling overseas with his wife for 2 years he returned to
practising family law in BC. Again, his talent for drawing people together and creating
dialogue led to the formation of many groups some of which continue to this day such
as the Kelowna Really Terrible Choir, the Awards committee of the Kelowna Film
Society, the Canada Day luncheon, and his Annual Christmas ‘Music & Munchies’
Celebration.
However, ‘The Filos’ is the group of which he was most proud. It is a gathering of retired
intelligentsia who discuss shared interests and debate issues of the day. It became the
mainstay of his intellectual and social life bringing as it did not only mental stimulation,
but deep friendship, which he valued and in which he participated until his death.
Mick will be remembered and missed by many for his gentlemanly demeanour, his
ingenuity, energy and sporting prowess, his generosity, inventiveness and kindness.
Prosser Gifford of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, was an accomplished scholar, author, educator, academic administrator, director of think tanks and centers of scholarship and inquiry, and sportsman.
Prosser graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut in 1947, before going to Yale University to earn his undergraduate degree in 1951. He matriculated as a Rhodes Scholar at Merton in 1951, reading English. Returning to the United States in 1953, he completed a law degree at Harvard in 1956 and then went back to Yale to gain a PhD in History in 1964. While continuing at Yale as an assistant professor he taught undergraduates and graduates and wrote about African History.
Prosser served as the first Dean of the African History Faculty at Amherst College. During this tough time of civil rights, Vietnam war and Watergate activism on American campuses, Pross was an effective champion for coeducation, equal rights, and free speech. Prosser wrote later that his proudest achievements during his twelve-year tenure as Amherst Dean were leading the commission that resulted in College Trustees admitting women in 1974 and increasing the number of women faculty members from one when he arrived to twenty-six when he left.
In 1979 he became Deputy Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Over his eight years there he brought together hundreds of scholars from around the world to collaborate on research, writing, and discussion of national and world issues.
Prosser left the Wilson Center to become the Director of Scholarly Programs at the Library of Congress, a position created for him which he held for fifteen years until his retirement in 2005. He was the first director of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress that brought together some of the world’s eminent thinkers and supervised the selection of the $1 million Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the humanities and social sciences.
Luke Melas-Kyriazi, will follow his grandfather’s early voyage across the Atlantic and then to Oxford, although Luke’s may be at least initially make the trip virtually. He begins the Michaelmas term as a 2020 Rhodes Scholar at Oxford this fall.