HODGKIN, Robert Allason 1916-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born February 12, 1916, in Banbury, England; died August 19, 2003, in Oxford, England. Mountaineer, educator, and author. Hodgkin was a renowned mountain climber who became a well-known education theorist after suffering a serious injury. A graduate of Oxford University, where he earned a B.A. in 1937 and an M.A. in 1939, he was part of a generation of enthusiastic climbers in the Oxford University Mountaineering Club that included John Hoyland and David Cox. During the 1930s he climbed peaks in Wales, Norway, and the Caucasus. In 1938 however, he ran into trouble while climbing the Masherbrum, a 24,000-foot peak in the Himalayas. An avalanche buried the camp, and he lost several fingers and toes from frostbite, which effectively ended his climbing career. Hodgkin then began a career in education, teaching at Leighton Park in the Sudan, where he joined the civil service. From 1949 to 1955 he was principal of the Sudan Institute of Education before returning to England to be headmaster at Abbotsholme School in Uttoxeter, where he started a climbing club. He then became a freelance writer and lecturer in education studies at the Department of Educational Studies at Oxford in the 1960s, retiring in 1977; he also served as vice president of the Alpine Club from 1974 to 1975. Hodgkin was the author of several books, including Education and Change (1957), Reconnaissance on an Educational Frontier (1970), and Playing and Exploring: Education through the Discovery of Order (1985).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Guardian (London, England), August 30, 2003, p. 27.

Independent (London, England), August 25, 2003, p. 14.

Times (London, England), September 17, 2003.