Mary Coppinger

Mary Coppinger, one of the first seven administrators appointed to the new University of Sussex in 1961, died on 24 June. Initially involved in work on timetabling and production of the prospectus, Mary went on to become Arts Administrator. Her work at Sussex was formally acknowledged in May 1988, when she received an honorary MA at a ceremony in the Meeting House.

Joe Townsend

Joe's contribution to the life of the University was many-faceted. Others have paid tribute to his work for SPRU (Bulletin 31 May). Those of us who worked with him for the Mandela Scholarship Fund would like to add our appreciation of his contribution to this other valued area of the University's life.

After the Mandela Scholarship was established as a charity in 1985, Joe became one of its earliest trustees and its first, and until very recently, its only honorary Treasurer, serving in that capacity until eventually ill health and growing frailty made it physically impossible for him to attend its meetings. Only in 2000 did he retire from his trusteeship and his position as Treasurer to become a patron of the Trust. He joined it at the outset and worked for it so diligently for so many years because of his deeply felt commitment to the struggle against apartheid.

Any form of injustice was anathema to Joe and his resolute adherence to the founding principles and objectives of the Trust helped to clarify our thinking and inform our policies in the immediately post-apartheid years when we had to decide on how best to respond to changing circumstances in South Africa and Namibia.

Working with Joe revealed to us his concern not only with the principles of the Scholarship but also with the students who came to us as scholars. He was someone who showed over and over again how much he valued his contact with students and how much he cared about their problems. This concern he took with him, we were aware, into his participation in the meetings of the University Council during the years in which he served on that body.

All in all, Joe was a man who made a difference. The Scholarship - and the University - has much to be grateful to him for.

Professor Willie Lamont and Bernice Ryan
Patrons of the Mandela Scholarship Fund