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GAZETTERobin McCleery(1976, Physiological Sciences)After completing his first degree inPhysiological Sciences at St Catherine’s,Robin McCleery embarked upon a graduatediploma in the History of Philosophy andScience. He then moved into zoologicalresearch, and submitted a doctoral thesison animal behaviour before being appointedas a research assistant at the EdwardGrey Institute of Field Ornithology. He laterbecame a Research Fellow at the Instituteand also Fellow and Tutor at WadhamCollege. A leading zoologist andornithologist, his premature death hasbeen mourned across the world byacademics working in his field, withmemorial services held in Sri Lanka andthe Pacific Islands, as well as closer tohome in the United Kingdom.Much of Robin’s research concentrated onlong-term surveys of the birds of WythamWood, to the west of Oxford, and he focusedparticularly on populations of the great tit,parus major. He developed, refined andmaintained the database for this species(and others) and, thanks to his efforts,the great tit database, which has beenmaintained for over sixty years, is amongthe most complete and useful of anycomparable animal population record in theworld. His work involved not only enteringand analysing the data, but collecting it too;ringing the chicks, measuring and countingthem and recording their growth, matings,progeny and life-span. Characteristically forRobin, the database was always kept up todate scrupulously.A generous and selfeffacingman, his door wasalways open to students ...As a member of the Zoology Department,Robin was always in demand for adviceon data-handling and, latterly, he ranthe undergraduate statistics and datahandlingcourses as well as overseeingthe departmental IT network. A generousand self-effacing man, his door was alwaysopen to students in his department and, morerecently, during his time as Dean, at Wadham.Robin McCleery was a founder member ofthe Oxfordshire Governors’ Association, andcampaigned vigorously for high standards instate education. Together with his wifeJill, he also spent twenty years helping toorganise and run a South Oxford adventureplayground for those children with little tooccupy, interest and excite them during thelong summer holidays. Passionate aboutmusic, he played the saxophone in the ceilidhband Jack’s Maggot for thirty-five years, andwas also a member of the Oxford HarmonicSociety choir.Fittingly, for a man who believed sopassionately in the importance of theprovision of excellence in state education,his memorial is part of Wadham’s outreachprogramme, which aims to encourage thosestudying at local comprehensive schools toapply to Oxford. Robin McCleery, who died on16 January 2008, is survived by his wife, Jill,and his two daughters, Anne and Sally.ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/65