CWEH Activists Blog: 16 July 2020
Carol Yong

Richard Grove, the Founding Director of the Centre for World Environmental History (CWEH), died on the morning of June 25, 2020.

Despite receiving the unexpected sad news four days late, I was shocked. I still could remember, a year ago, I visited them in Lewes. Vinita gave me a copy of the book, Nature and the Orient which she signed, and Richard, encouraged by Edwin (their son), had also painstakingly penned his name on page i. This book is definitely one of my most cherished books.

Richard’s professional career, extensive record of publications, extraordinaire pioneering research and other intellectual contributions have been posted on the websites of http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cweh/newsandevents?id=52375, South African Mail & Guardian, and The Indian Express (Obituaries for Prof Richard Grove) which needs no reiteration here.

“My soul mate just passed away” said a Malaysian friend, who is also a very dear friend of Richard and Vinita, and that he did not think of Richard going so soon. This prompted me to also recall my personal acquaintance with Richard, and his warm and generous personality.

I had the privilege of knowing Richard in 2004. At that time I was a tutor for the undergraduate course “Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism” which Vinita convened. Each time I was invited for coffee or meals with them, be it in campus or at their home, I was truly impressed with their depth of knowledge concerning environmental history, the empire and colonial world, ecology, indigenous adivasi communities and local resistance and conflicts, and many other topics. I would contribute to the critical intellectual discussions about my activism in Malaysia and elsewhere, on indigenous peoples land rights, women, human rights and gender issues, etc..

Richard was then CWEH director with an office just adjacent to the Arts C café. On several occasions when I was too early for my tutorial class, I would knock on the door, pop my head in and said ‘Hi Richard’. A jovial face always greeted me back, followed by “Big coffee for me and one for yourself too’ as he handed me some money. When I came back with the two coffees, Richard himself enjoyed reminiscing about his many travels, theory and latest book in progress, and the “El Nino” and link to climate change.

He had explained about the El Nino phenomenon in a very understandable manner, and brought a wonderfully humane touch to how climate change and global warming due to El Nino had impacted on the lives of people and nature in South America and Indian Ocean including South-east Asia in particular.

At a CWEH seminar on El Níno, climate change and global warming, I sat next to Richard in the room. I had a cursory glance at the piece of paper he held. Nothing but doodling, and not even “good” doodles, just lines disconnected - not that he was not a good artist. Yet, when he stood up to comment on the paper, only referring to the doodling, it was the most witty and eloquent summary I ever heard.

Another thoughtful and humane way of being Richard, and supported by Vinita, was generously allowing me to stay, not once, but twice at their place. This was at the most critical time of my thesis writing, when I was seriously in need of cheap (“free”) accommodation as I struggled to complete my thesis.

Thank you Vinita and Edwin for giving me the privilege to meet Richard, one of the greatest personalities I have known during my studies and stay in the U.K. He will be greatly missed.