Dr John Clarke (April 2nd 2010)

Dr John Rigarlsford Clarke
John Clarke, who died on 2nd April 2010, aged 85, was a longstanding and enthusiastic member of the Society for the Study of Fertility (now the Society for Reproduction and Fertility).  A regular attender at meetings presenting papers on his beloved voles, his commanding presence and strong speaking voice made microphones redundant.  His habit of asking a question in the silence following some presentations was much appreciated by young inexperienced presenters. John leapt with great gusto into the running of the Society becoming Business Secretary from 1975-80 and chairman from 1987-90.  Those who were present at the annual dinners during John’s chairmanship will remember his “cabaret” performances during his after dinner speeches.  John’s devotion to the Society and to its French and US equivalents was evident from the history of the three societies which he wrote in 2007. He was also Editor of the Oxford Reviews of Reproductive Biology (1984-88) and played a significant role in the management of the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility.  The Society for the Study of Fertility recognised his significant achievements in reproductive physiology when in 2004 he was awarded the Marshall medal for “outstanding contribution to the study of fertility and reproduction”.

John was born in Perth, Western Australia, where his father was Professor of Geology at the University of Western Australia.  Following a degree in Zoology at that university John won a Rhodes scholarship to St John’s College, Oxford.  His D.Phil. was on the ecology of the field vole where he worked with Dennis Chitty, his supervisor, and others in the Bureau of Animal Population (BAP). The BAP had been established by Charles Elton before the war and there was a strong research interest in small mammal population dynamics. In later life John co-authored Elton’s Royal Society Biographical memoir.  John’s work expanded into studies in reproductive physiology, particularly photoperiodism, both in laboratory stock animals and those from the field.  Although his favoured species was the short-tailed field vole, John also found time for studies on the bank vole and wood mouse.  Wytham Woods was the source of his voles and it was a place that remained very close to his heart.

John was an enthusiastic and memorable teacher of undergraduates but it was in his role as a supervisor that he excelled.  He had numerous research students from all over the world, a testimony to the wider knowledge of his work.  He spent time in a various labs overseas including, for example, New Zealand where he worked with Purves and Griesbach, the doyens of pituitary cytology.  He had a refreshingly open-minded approach to biological questions and was a thoughtful supervisor, unfailingly supportive to his students. He regularly kept in touch former students and followed their careers with great interest. At his retirement party in 1992 former students came to say thank you from as far away as Australia, Canada, Ghana and far flung parts of the UK too.

It is worth remembering that John’s career encompassed and used the huge changes in techniques available to biologists. In his early days the only ways of measuring pituitary hormones was by bioassay, so no methods, such as radio immunoassay, for measuring hormones in blood.  There was little or no electron microscopy, no sequencing of DNA or in situ hybridisation and so on.  There were no computers – or at least only enormous room-sized ones – and statistical calculations were done on a mechanical adding machine. But research went on and John added new techniques as they became available.
In the early days of his Oxford career, like many in the biological sciences, John was without a college fellowship but in 1964 he was elected a Fellow of Linacre College and in 1990 became Vice-Principal.  He was elected an Emeritus Fellow on his retirement.  His research lab was originally based in the then Department of Agriculture but when that department closed, John moved to the Department of Zoology where he maintained a regular presence until shortly before his death.  Even after his formal retirement John found other things to do in Zoology and produced a regular newsletter for the department.
Outside Oxford John took on other roles too. He was a member of the Interim Licensing Authority for in vitro Fertilisation from 1990-92 and this was followed by the role of Inspector for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a position he held until 2006.  He was part of a WHO team in the 1980s inspecting the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research.

John was a lifelong peace campaigner and an active member of CND from the 1960s onwards.  He participated in demonstrations even up to 2003 in the march against the war in Iraq.  He was also a stalwart Labour supporter and party member.  Those who knew John recognised that he was very much a family man.  Family came first and he was very much a “new man” going home at teatime when his children were small to make sure he had time with them.  He married Marianne Fillenz shortly after they met in Oxford in 1950, a partnership which lasted 60 years. He unfailingly supported Marianne’s academic career in neurophysiology.  Marianne and their three children, Karen, Eric and Sue, survive him together with their five grandchildren Olly, Frances, Rosa, Daniel and Anna.

John was a fine, respected scientist, but more than that he was a humane and civilised man.  He will be much missed.

Anne Grocock
Stuart Milligan
Isabel Leeming
Janet Craven
15th July 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/jul/08/john-clarke-obituary

Professor Colin Finn (3rd January 2010)

Professor Colin Finn BSc, PhD, MRCVS (1931-2010)
Colin Finn was one of the mainstays of the reproductive biology community in Britain during the last half of the 20th century, in particular the Society for the Study of Fertility (as it was known before it transformed into the present Society for Reproduction and Fertility).  He was not only an internationally recognized expert in the biology of the uterus and implantation but also selflessly supported the infrastructure of societies, conferences and publications on which science depends.

Colin was the first editor of Oxford Reviews of Reproductive Biology in 1979,  he was at various times Business Secretary, Treasurer and Chairman of the Society for the Study of Fertility, and Editor in Chief  of the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility.  In all these tasks, and in the various background committees, Colin dealt with the problems, decisions and often difficult people without fuss and with his customary common sense and good humour.  It was very fitting that Colin was awarded the Marshall Medal of the Society in 2001 in recognition of his services to the scientific and reproductive biology community.  He was also very pleased to have been appointed an Honorary Member of the Society in 2009.

Colin was born in Canterbury, Kent in 1931. His first six years were very happy, but his father died and he was sent away to boarding school. His early days at the school, which he referred to as ‘the orphanage', were not happy, but he eventually settled down and excelled at sport and academia. After school, he worked for a year in a London office before doing his National Service in the Education Corps. Although he had always thought he wanted to study medicine, he decided he generally preferred animals to people, so he went to study veterinary science at the Royal Veterinary College in London, followed by a degree in Physiology at University College, London. Colin was never afraid of hard work and loved dogs, and he funded his way through university by helping a dog breeder with their dogs in return for free board.

Having decided on an academic career, he worked at Wye College, Kent and then the Royal Veterinary College before taking up the Chair of Veterinary Physiology at Liverpool University in 1978.  He remained in Liverpool until his retirement (1999). He was enormously popular with the undergraduate students for his ability to teach a complex subject in an interesting manner.  Colin’s enthusiasm for science was indeed evident to anyone who spoke to him – whether in the lab or in the pub with a glass of beer.   Many of us remember the glint is his eye as he became passionate about something in conversation. 

Colin never aspired to have a big research group, but preferred a few close collaborators.  In his early days at the Royal Vet College he worked with both Anne McLaren and John Biggers.  In 1975, he published (with another great friend, David Porter) what was the first ever book devoted to the great scientific love of his life – the Uterus. Many of Colin’s papers on how the uterus prepares itself for, and responds to, implantation, were with Len Martin.  Colin also had a broad interest in biological and evolutionary questions and a number of his later papers and talks were devoted to “Why do women menstruate?”

Although Colin was an internationally recognised expert, he never sought fame – his interest and love was simply thinking about problems, discussing them and doing the experiments himself.  He was probably never happier than being in the lab, with a mouse in one hand, ideas in his head and someone to discuss them with.  Colin was very quick to praise the talent of others and he had great admiration for many of his colleagues. He was always interested in what drove people to be as they are but was especially irritated by pomposity and duplicity, to which he had been sensitised by some of his early exposures in his scientific career.

Colin had a very strong sense of right and wrong and social justice, and he was not afraid to stand up for what he believed in.  Like many others, he became increasingly unhappy with the way that Universities were changing from institutions in which ideas and scholarship were prized, to institutions in which money and bean counting seemed the priority.  One of his thoughts was that all universities should have a circular building, with a circular corridor that went all away around, with offices off the corridor. That way, all those people who liked spending so much time in committees could spend all day walking from room to room to the next committee without wasting any time.  Colin had a lovely sense of humour and was a fountain of very funny jokes – but he also liked a good argument – whether it was about science, politics, religion or indeed anything.  He wasn’t always correct and he had a remarkably stubborn streak!

Science did not totally dominate Colin’s life, and he had a very strong sense of family.  He also lived in a parallel universe of auctions, and buying, selling and repairing antiques – and again he had an infectious enthusiasm about everything – especially the beauty of wood.  Having said he never sought fame in science, he was seen at the front of the auction audience of “Cash in the attic” when the TV program came from the Chester area.

In the end, it was Colin’s personality that will leave the greatest impression on us all.  To so many, he was a genuine friend, - sensitive, compassionate and supportive, with a great sense of humour. He was tremendous company, an excellent scientist – and the nicest guy.

Colin died on January 3rd 2010 after a short illness. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren

Stuart Milligan