Professor Richard Nutbrown, who was the second reader on my master's thesis, has passed away at 64 from a brain tumour.
My memories of him are fond. Though we came from very different ideological perspectives, and though this created a slight discomfort in our meetings, he offered me his full professional efforts and in doing so revealed a kind heart.
After I presented my initial thesis ideas to a less than receptive faculty and graduate student body, he came to me later and started me on the early-modern contractarians. It turned out to be some of the most important guidance I have received to date. Hobbes remains the strongest influence on my political thought.
On other occasions, he would email me, or bring by my desk, papers which he thought I would find useful. This might seem standard for a supervisor to do, but he did it without prompting. These gestures didn't stem from prior meetings, email requests, or having just read something I wrote. Rather, if he came across something in his own research that he thought would be of value to me, he made sure I got it.
Finally, when I was having difficulty with Faculty of Arts administrators, he took up my cause. And he did so in spite of the fact that he would be working with these people long after I was gone.
Impartial, intelligent, and considerate. The world is down a good man.
My memories of him are fond. Though we came from very different ideological perspectives, and though this created a slight discomfort in our meetings, he offered me his full professional efforts and in doing so revealed a kind heart.
After I presented my initial thesis ideas to a less than receptive faculty and graduate student body, he came to me later and started me on the early-modern contractarians. It turned out to be some of the most important guidance I have received to date. Hobbes remains the strongest influence on my political thought.
On other occasions, he would email me, or bring by my desk, papers which he thought I would find useful. This might seem standard for a supervisor to do, but he did it without prompting. These gestures didn't stem from prior meetings, email requests, or having just read something I wrote. Rather, if he came across something in his own research that he thought would be of value to me, he made sure I got it.
Finally, when I was having difficulty with Faculty of Arts administrators, he took up my cause. And he did so in spite of the fact that he would be working with these people long after I was gone.
Impartial, intelligent, and considerate. The world is down a good man.
