March 5,1998 |
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IN
MEMORIAM
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Oliver Rothney Historian Gordon Oliver Rothney, who helped to develop several arts departments and taught history at Sir George Williams University (1941 to 1951), died on February 15 in Winnipeg of Parkinsonās disease. Rothney was born in Richmond, Quebec, and was a prize-winning scholar at Bishopās University and the University of London (England). He was awarded the 1967 Centennial Medal and several honorary degrees, and became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. A pacifist and world federalist, he taught history in the hope of giving his students, who ranged across Canada, a better insight into the present and future. A scholarship has been established in his name at St. Johnās College, University of Manitoba. Henry Alexander Clinch, 1921-1998 The Department of Geography has learned that the first chair of the Geography Department of Sir George Williams University, Henry Alexander (Harry) Clinch, has died in Victoria, B.C. Professor Clinch was born and educated in Toronto, and came to Montreal in 1943 to work for the YMCA. He began teaching evening classes at Sir George Williams University in 1951, and in 1959, became the first chair of the Geography Department. Trained as a historian, he had been exposed to geographical ideas through Harold Innes, but his conversion to geography came about through his contact with the iconoclastic Australian geographer Griffith Taylor. A devoted teacher, he felt deeply about personal development, and treated all his students as individuals, whatever their age. Though he enjoyed the classroom, he was happiest in one-to-one meetings with students, and kept an open-door policy. He played a pivotal role in the early development of the department, filling its shelves with his own books, and appointed colleagues of a wide range of interests, opinions and ages. The department is still touched by his legacy. Clinch took early retirement in 1983 and moved to Victoria to care for his ailing wife, Margaret, and his aged parents. In his retirement, he enjoyed being part of the Victoria colony of ex-Georgians. He died on February 3 after a long battle with lung cancer, and his cremated remains are on Mount Douglas with those of his wife and parents. - Our thanks to Professor Brian Slack |