People

Obituary: Professor Rex Bergstrom

It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Rex Bergstrom, formerly Professor of Economics at Essex, on May 1 in a London hospital.

Albert Rex Bergstrom was born in 1925 in New Zealand. He left school at the age of 16 and enrolled as a part-time student for the BCom degree at Canterbury University College, while pursuing a full-time job in accountancy.

After completing an MCom degree in economics, and following academic posts at Massey University and Auckland University College, Rex came to England in 1952 to do a PhD in economics at Cambridge University.

On finishing his PhD he returned to his academic appointment in New Zealand before becoming a Reader at the London School of Economics between 1962 and 1964 and then Professor of Econometrics at the University of Auckland.
Rex first came to Essex as holder of the prestigious Keynes Visiting Professorship in 1970, subsequently remaining as Professor of Economics on a permanent basis.

He held the positions of Chairman of the Economics Department from 1976-1979, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Social) from 1982-1985, and Dean of the School of Social Studies from 1972-1975 and 1991-1992. He remained at Essex until his retirement in 1992, when he became Emeritus Professor.

Rex’s passing has been met with sadness by a wide community of academics and professionals throughout the world.

As a colleague he was deeply respected for upholding the very highest standards of scholarship; as a teacher and supervisor he was generous, caring and inspirational. Many of us owe a large debt of gratitude to Rex for his influence on our own academic careers. He will be sadly missed.

Professor Marcus Chambers, Department of Economics

Comedy commendation

Student Paul Byrne has won a 'special commendation' - the equivalent of third place - for his comedy performance at the National Student Comedy Awards.

Paul, a third year History and Literature student, has been writing comedy since 2000 but only progressed to stand-up performances just over a year ago. His first gig was a five minute slot at the University at an Essex Comedy Club night.

The annual student competition is organised by UK comedy guide, Chortle. The winners were decided by a panel of judges including Evening Standard critic Bruce Dessau and Chortle editor Steve Bennett. This was the first comedy competition Paul entered - and his first award. Paul said: 'I really did not expect to get as far as I did. I entered my first heat with the hope that I could get a good review out of it and perhaps go though to the final later as a wild card. When I won the heat I never thought I would come third out of the nine finalists - all were highly skilled and talented. I am really pleased with what I have achieved.'

Paul hopes to perform on campus again in the new academic year - and is looking forward to now entering more competitions: 'Making people laugh is enough for me and the reason I started performing in the first place', he said. 'The Essex Comedy club is a lovely venue to play and has a reputation itself so I'm pleased that I can be part of it.'

Paul Byrne

Also in the printed June edition of Wyvern:

• Farewell to the perfect PA
• Satisfied student
• Farewell quilt for Janet