Tributes to
J. Desmond Clark
1916-2002
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I will miss Desmond so much. I saw him all too rarely in the past years, but his ideas, his intellect, his passion for prehistory, continued to be a tonic, and always will. He never changed. In the 1960s, when I got to know him quite well in Berkeley, he was witty, kind, stimulating, urbane, the Englishman with the rolled umbrella. The last time I saw him, about six years ago (again in Berkeley), he had not changed one iota - he was still witty, kind, stimulating, urbane, the Englishman with the rolled umbrella. He made African prehistory. His name was never as well known to the general public as the major fossil-discoverers, but the debt we all owe to him is there: without him, there probably would be no major fossil-discoverers, and certainly no framework in which to fit their discoveries. And, more personally, I cannot think of any archaeologist who is so loved, by all who met him, interacted with him, learned from him, were taught by him. There will be, quite simply, a massive outpouring of grief.

Colin Groves, Australian National Museum