Broadcast: News items

Vaughan James, in 1965

Vaughan James, who joined the University in 1964 as Lecturer in Russian and founded the predecessor to the Sussex Language Institute, has died aged 84. 

His time at Sussex may not seem long - just under 10 years - but was disproportionately significant. He was a remarkably gifted language teacher, and was first Director of the Language Laboratory, from which the present Sussex Language Institute is in direct line of descent. 

Russian studies at the time were in a vigorous state, and Vaughan was the organizing spirit in setting up an exchange scheme that enabled Sussex undergraduates to spend a year in Moscow - unheard of at the time in the British university system, where it was met with disbelief. Students of those days vividly remember his teaching skills, ebullience and general helpfulness, specially as regards the year abroad. 

At Sussex he also wrote a still-standard textbook on Soviet Socialist Realism, and he subsequently went into publishing, including a series of modern Russian texts. During his time working for Pergamon Press, he was famous as being one of the few people self-confident enough to be unfazed by the alarming Captain Maxwell's authoritarian manner. 

Robin Milner-Gulland, Research Professor (English)