Sir Kenneth Dover, 1920-2010

[David Bean]

Word has just reached me that Sir Kenneth Dover, lion of Greek classical study and Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1981 to 2005, passed away yesterday (7 March). He was a remarkable friend to the university who served it for many decades, both during his time as Chancellor and formerly as Professor of Greek from 1955 to 1976.

He will be remembered with great fondness by all students and members of the university who knew him.

[Cain]

Is he the one who advised a colleague to kill himself for the good of the university (his previous one, I believe) or am I getting my top brass confused?

[David Bean]

The details of that incident have not emerged, but yes, he is the one to whom it relates. I'm not aware, however, of any allegation that he did precisely what you say, and in fact I believe the only original source of information about the case was his own words, which were never officially investigated. Given that there has been neither an allegation nor an investigation against him, it would surely be unjust to consider this matter a stain on his decades of service to our university.

[ojk6]

From the Obituary in the Telegraph:

But the issue which caught the headlines was his account of his attitude to Trevor Aston, a History fellow at Corpus Christi, Oxford, where Dover had been President between 1976 and 1986. Aston's disintegration into paranoia and alcoholism had proved a serious embarrassment to the college; Dover confessed to having thought long and hard about how to murder him.

"It was clear to me," wrote Dover, "that Trevor and the College must somehow be separated, and my problem was one which I feel compelled to define with brutal candour: how to kill him without getting into trouble."
In fact, as the text reveals, Dover acted impeccably towards Aston, who was bent on self-destruction and eventually committed suicide. What was less clear is why the author should have been the victim of an adolescent desire to shock.

The Times mentioned that he was mentioned in dispatches during his military service in Italy.

RIP.

[DACrowe]

David, surely the details have emerged as much as they are likely to if the man wrote about the incident in his autobiography?

A slight expansion of the quotation above from the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/28/world/a-scholar-s-memoirs-raise-some-ghosts-at-oxford.html?pagewanted=1

In his account of his behavior toward Mr. Aston, Sir Kenneth uses the word "conscience" only when he is fantasizing about what would happen if he rejected a plea for help from Mr. Aston in the throes of an overdose and in wondering what he would tell the authorities. "I had no qualms about causing the death of a fellow from whose nonexistence the college would benefit, but I balked at the prospect of misleading a coroner's jury," he wrote in that passage.

and

The moral, he said, is that "there is a dilemma when one is weighing the duty of compassion to an individual with the well-being of an institution."

[David Bean]

David, surely the details have emerged as much as they are likely to if the man wrote about the incident in his autobiography?

Absolutely. As I said, his own words are the only source we have for the event, so whereas many might like corroboration or elaboration, they're unlikely to get it.

I must say, I'm disappointed by the responses on this thread. Here was a man who served our university with distinction for decades, and the majority of the responses are concerned with this small, historical piece of tittle-tattle. He deserved better.

[Cain]

I must say, I'm disappointed by the responses on this thread. Here was a man who served our university with distinction for decades, and the majority of the responses are concerned with this small, historical piece of tittle-tattle. He deserved better.

Which brings to mind Angus the wall builder/stonemason/well-digger.

[wowbaggertheinfinitelyprolonged]

ken dover sole: what a man. sad to hear of his death.