Obituaries

With a PhD in Physics, Dr Williams was tempted to academia but ultimately pursued a career in business, rising to the top of Royal Dutch Shell, a company he remained with throughout his career. In retirement he became Chairman of Hess Oil Company.

For over 40 years Professor Gerald McNiece worked in the English department of the University of Arizona. His publications include books on the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He gained a BLitt in English as a Rhodes Scholars and received his PhD from Harvard in 1966.

Lester achieved a first class degree in PPE at Balliol College and went on to become an economist who was known for his prescient warnings about the growing income gap between rich and poor Americans. He gained a PhD at Harvard and was as a Professor of Economics at MIT. He was the dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1987 to 1993 and a founder of the Economic Policy Institute, an influential progressive research group. His main work was on the income gap and globalisation.

After Oxford Professor Clarkson moved to Paris to earn his doctorate at the Sorbonne. He returned to Toronto and was appointed to the political science department at the University of Toronto in 1964. Professor Clarkson was an extraordinary political researcher and a prolific and multiple-award-winning author of books about trade and politics. The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, commented: "Teacher, scholar and political scientist – Canada has lost a great mind". In recent years Professor Clarkson focused on the diffusion of foreign-investment-protection norms and investor-state dispute settlement institutions between Europe, North America and Latin America as well as the impact of globalisation on the Canadian state with particular interest in NAFTA and the WTO. His contributions were recognised and he received many awards and honours over the course of his distinguished career. In 2010, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2004, he was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was a recipient of a Killam Senior Research Fellowship, a Canada-US Fulbright Scholarship, the John Dafoe Prize for Distinguished Writing, and a Governor General Award for Non-Fiction, as well as many research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. External Link <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/stephen-clarkson-author-teacher-was-a-giant-of-canadian-political-science/article29037226/>

Ms Bagwasi tragically died far too young and is greatly missed by classmates and Rhodes House staff alike. She read for the BCL and for an MSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice whilst a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford. She taught Public International Law in the Law Department at the University of Botswana where she was also the Legal Clinic Coordinator at the university. From 2009 to 2010, she was a practicing attorney at Monthe Marumo & Company. Following this she was based at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon at The Hague, where she worked in the Appeals Chamber, working closely with judges and assisting them in the research of fair judgments and the writings of their decisions. She expressed a hope "to be part of the people who were in the solution for maintaining world peace". Warden Don Markwell recalled that she: "was the embodiment of warm and irrepressible enthusiasm, with so much to offer. Of all the delightful Rhodes Scholars of my time as Warden of Rhodes House, she was truly one of the most delightful - her radiant smile and an encouraging word always at the ready. It is so hard to believe, and even harder to accept, that she is gone." If anyone would like to send condolences to her husband and family, please email: katlego.bagwasi.kidisil@gmail.com.

Dr Robin Fletcher (Warden of Rhodes House, 1980-89) was a University of Oxford Lecturer in Modern Greek, Domestic Bursar of Trinity College, and Olympic medallist for hockey before taking up the Wardenship at Rhodes House. During his time as Warden, the very successful 80th anniversary celebrations of the Rhodes Scholarships were held in 1983, and new Rhodes Scholarships were offered in a number of countries. He is fondly remembered by many Scholars, particularly for the warm hospitality which he and Mrs Jinny Fletcher offered. His funeral will be held at Aberdeen crematorium on 4 February at 2pm. For a full obituary, please click here .

Dr van Zyl graduated with a BSc from the Orange Free State University in 1951 and gained his MSc in 1953 before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. Following his time at Oxford, he lectured at the University of London and then at the Physics Department of Birmingham University, 1960-88, becoming director of the second year undergraduate course. He also instructed Sport Science undergraduates in sailing, swimming, gymnastics and trampolining.

Richard graduated with a degree in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford and became a leading international tax law scholar. He served in the US Navy and had a distinguished career as a lawyer and law professor in New York and San Diego.

After serving in the navy during WW2, Joseph was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1947 and graduated from Oxford with a BA in Jurisprudence, Civil Law and a Master of Arts. Joseph practised law for a short period and then joined the faculty of SMU Dedman School of Law in 1955, where he taught for the following 59 years through May 2014. He held important positions in legal and historical organisations, notably he directed the Texas Family Code project, and was a principal drafter of several important Texas laws addressing matrimonial property matters.