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GAZETTEin many British and international scholarlyenterprises, and was a founding editor ofthe geographical journal Ecumene.Cosgrove received the Royal GeographicalSociety's Back Award for contributions tohuman geography in 1988, gave theprestigious Heidelberg Hettner Lecturesin 2005, was awarded an honorary doctorateby the University of Tallinn in February 2008,and would have been Getty DistinguishedScholar at the Getty Research Institute nextacademic year.Like Renaissancehumanists, he saw thefulfilled life as a balancebetween the vita activa andthe vita contemplativa ...was inseparable from goodness and truth.In common with Stoics and Jesuits, hetold an interviewer, he valued education as"something that feeds the soul and the mindand the body together, posing questions like'Who are we in relation to the world? Howshould we live our lives in a way that isfulfilling and morally proper?' "In that quest, he was eminently successful. Hiswarmth, humour, kindness, delight in children,theirs in him, and intellectual challenge,charmed and dazzled all who knew him.Prizing geography's traditional mélangeof nature and culture, Cosgrove had littleaffinity with either the abstract positivismof spatial science or the radical activism ofpost-colonial social critique. Happy in 16thcenturyItaly, he recalled that at homeand at his Jesuit school, Rome had alwaysbeen more important than London.Like Renaissance humanists, he saw thefulfilled life as a balance between the vitaactiva and the vita contemplativa; for himselfhe chose contemplation, self-reflection,thoughtful critical converse. His vocationwas less about changing the world thanchanging oneself. Whereas policy-drivensocial science was blind to the liberating andconsoling power of beauty, dismissing it asveneer and distraction, Cosgrove's aestheticconcern reflected his conviction that beautyDenis Cosgrove, geographer: bornLiverpool 3 May 1948; Lecturer inGeography, Oxford Polytechnic 1972-75,Senior Lecturer 1975-79, PrincipalLecturer 1979-80; Lecturer in Geography,Loughborough University 1980-83, SeniorLecturer 1983-88, Reader 1988-94;Professor of Human Geography, RoyalHolloway, University of London 1994-99,Dean of the Graduate School 1998-99;Alexander von Humboldt Professor ofGeography, University of California, LosAngeles 2000-08; twice married (one son,two daughters); died Los Angeles 21March 2008.David LowenthalReprinted by kind permission of TheIndependent, Obituaries, 8 April 200864/ DENIS COSGROVE