VIEWS: 200K. Top 10 posts since 2013.

This Oxford-Cambridge blog has reached 200,000 page views. 

Thank you for reading. 

Comment, please, or contact the blog owner directly at jtmarlin@post.harvard.edu.

Here are the top ten most-read posts since May 2013.

Entry

WW2: Why Wasn't Oxford Bombed? (21K Views, Feb. 11... Jun 8, 2013, 3 comments

OXFORD IN FICTION: Top Six Fictional Colleges (Upd... Jul 2, 2016

HERALDRY: Oxford Stars (Updated Feb. 24, 2017) Nov 21, 2014, 2 comments

BOAT RACE: Dinners 2015 Mar 1, 2015

HERALDRY: Douglas, Moray, de Vere (Updated Sep. 16... Nov 23, 2014, 2 comments

R.I.P.: Peter V. Darrow (1950-2013) May 20, 2013

BRITISH PMs: Universities Attended (Updated Aug. 1... Jul 14, 2016

THERESA MAY: Time at Oxford (Updated Oct. 29, 2016... Jul 27, 2016

R.I.P.: July 11–Oxonian John Brademas, NYU Preside... Jul 25, 2016

R.I.P.: Oxonian Geoffrey Hill, Poet Jul 2, 2016

BIRTH: Feb. 13–Anna Watkins, Cambridge Rower

Cantab Anna Rose Watkins, MBE, Gold Medalist,
Double Sculls, 2012 Olympics

This day in 1983 in Leek, Staffordshire, England was born Anna Rose Watkins MBE, a world champion in double-sculls rowing.

Her rowing career shows the importance of college-level rowing as a way into the sport for those who didn't participate before the university level.

This is a sport I participated in at Oxford–without no such stellar collegiate record. My  post-collegiate rowing was limited to leisure and alumni-fun events but my late friend Peter Darrow rowed seriously long after he took his degree at Oxford.

Watkins went from college rowing at Cambridge to a gold medal in the double sculls in the Olympics (London, 2012). Watkins with Katherine Grainger broke the Olympic record in the semi-final.

At the prior (2008) Olympics she won a bronze in the same sport and won four medals in the World Championships, most recently defending her world title with Katherine Grainger, in Bled, Slovenia in 2011.

Watkins attended Westwood College and read Natural Sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she started rowing in 2001. Watkins rowed with Newnham College Boat Club and was captain of lower boats and then secretary for the club. She represents Leander Club in rowing events. At Cambridge, her college crew were Head of the Cam in 2003 before she moved onto the World Class Start talent identification program run by UK Sport based at Rob Roy Boat Club.

She is currently working for a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Reading. In September 2009 she married Oliver Watkins, a part-time rowing coach, who when they met was working for a Ph.D. in engineering at Cambridge. The couple live in Wokingham, where Oliver works for the McLaren Formula One team as a suspension specialist. Anna has given birth to two boys–William James in 2013 and Richard Dexter in 2015.

In 2010 Watkins with Katherine Grainger had an unbeaten season culminating in their victory at the World Championships in New Zealand. They were named World Rowing Female Crew of the year and also the Sunday Times Women's Sports Team of the year for 2010.

Watkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to rowing.

Rowing Awards

Olympic Games
2012 London – Gold, Women's Double Sculls
2008 Beijing – Bronze, Women's Double Sculls
GB Rowing Team Senior Trials
2012 – 2nd, Single Scull
2011 – 1st, Single Scull
World Rowing Championships
2011 Bled – Gold, Double Scull
2010 Lake Karapiro – Gold, Double Scull
2009 Poznań – Silver, Double Scull
2007 Munich – Bronze, Double Scull
2006 Dorney Lake – 4th, Double Scull
2005 Gifu – 5th, Eight World Rowing
Under 23 Championships
2005 – Bronze, Coxless Pair
2004 – Gold, Coulees Four

Other Birthdays (Oxonians Mostly)

OBITS: Oxonians (Updated Nov. 27, 2015)

2015 - Sheila Kitzinger (St. Hugh's)

I once had a half-time job at the Harvard News Office writing stories about my fellow students for their hometown newspapers.

2015 - Dan Topolski (New College), Last
of the Great Amateur Rowing Coaches.

Since then I never got out of the habit of hunting for highlights in the time people spend on earth. Oxonians have interesting lives.

This list opened in March 2015. I'm working proactively on finding female Oxonians. They arrived in numbers so late and they have long lives.

If you have obits to suggest or a link to a good one already written, please email me - jtmarlin@post.harvard.edu. Oxford birthdays here.

2015 | Dan Topolski (New) | Sheila Kitzinger (St. Hugh's)

2014 - George "Jerry" Goodman
(BNC), a.k.a. "Adam Smith".

2014 | George Goodman, "Adam Smith" (BNC)
2013 | Denis Woodfield (Lincoln) | Peter Darrow (Trinity)
2011 | Christopher Hitchens (Balliol)
1991 | "Dr. Seuss" (Theodor Giesel, Lincoln)
1984 | Basil "Gaffer" Blackwell (Merton)
1973 | J.R.R. Tolkien (Exeter)
1963 | C. S. Lewis (Univ.)
1956 | E. Clerihew Bentley (Merton)
1944 | Arthur Quiller-Couch, "Q" (Trinity)
1935 | T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) (Trinity)
1922 | James Viscount Bryce (Trinity)
1917 | Noel Godfrey Chavasse (Trinity)

1778 - William Pitt the Elder

1898 | Charles Dodgson, "Lewis Carroll" (Ch.Ch.)
1890 | John Henry Cardinal Newman (Trinity)
1792 | Frederick Lord North (Trinity)
1791 | John Wesley (Ch.Ch.)
1790 | Adam Smith (Balliol)
1788 | Charles Wesley (Ch.Ch.)
1785 | James Oglethorpe (Corpus), 1st Gov. of Georgia
1778 | William Pitt the Elder, Lord Chatham (Trinity)
1653 | Rev. Lawrence Washington (BNC), GW's gggrandfather
1675 | Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (Trinity)
1647 | Leonard Calvert (Trinity), 1st Gov. of Maryland
1632 | George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (Trinity)

BLOG VIEWS: 35K–most viewed posts

The Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race Dinner blogsite has had 35,000 look-ins.

The most-viewed posts are on
(1) why Hitler gave orders not to bomb Oxford (more than 2,500 views) and
(2) my obituary of Peter Darrow last year (more than 1,000 views).

Most readers are in the USA. Next is UK. In third place, Germany.

Thank you for reading this blog.

R.I.P.: Peter V. Darrow (1950-2013)

Peter V. Darrow (1950-2013)

Peter V. Darrow of New York City and Sag Harbor, NY died on May 19, 2013, after a long battle with cancer. 

He was a partner in DLA Piper's Finance practice in New York City. He traveled frequently for the firm to Mexico and other Central and South American countries to handle complex financial transactions for large companies in Latin America. 

Mr. Darrow was born in Detroit to Charlotte Noble Felheim and Peter P. Darrow on Sept. 7, 1950, Mr. Darrow grew up in Ann Arbor. 

He graduated from Columbia College, having been President of the Columbia College chapter of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity ("AD"). He led the effort by the chapter's alumni group to acquire the AD house from Columbia in the 1990's.  

He received a B.Phil. degree from Trinity College, Oxford in 1974 and remained active in alumni affairs, incorporating Trinity Society USA as a charity. 

With friends from Trinity, starting in 2005, he has helped expand the Cambodia Trust, a charity that maintains rural clinics in Cambodia that provide free artificial limbs to those maimed by land mines. At the time of his death, Peter was chairman of the board of the Cambodia Trust.

He was also a board member of Everyone Wins, a national childhood literacy and mentoring nonprofit organization. Once a week he used to read to elementary school children during his lunch period.

He graduated from Michigan Law School in 1978, where he was a member of the Law Review. Prior to joining DLA Piper, Mr. Darrow was a partner at Mayer Brown & Platt in its New York Office.

Peter Darrow with his wife Denise Seegal in c. 2011.

Mr. Darrow was a highly experienced finance and securities lawyer who focused on capital markets financing, acquisition and leveraged financing, structured financing, project and infrastructure financing, debt restructuring and liability management transactions, particularly in Latin America and other emerging markets.

Chambers Latin America 2009 describes Mr. Darrow as "an extremely smart guy who's always a pleasure to work with." Chambers Banking and Finance in Latin America 2009 calls him "the standout partner for debt capital markets in Brazil and Mexico." Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business lists him for his Latin American Investment practice. In 2010 it noted he "is highly regarded for his expertise in representing underwriters in high-yield bonds transactions; he also handles a steady flow of M&A and securities work". 

In 2011, Chambers said, "Clients look to him as a trusted, commercially minded adviser", and in 2012, Chambers said of his Latin America work: "He understands the region and has very strong credentials." Mr. Darrow is also listed in the Legal 500 Latin America 2012, in Guide to the World's Leading Capital Market Lawyers and in The International Who's Who of Capital Markets Lawyers.

He was admitted to the New York bar and was a member of the American Bar Association, Section of Corporation, Business and Banking Law.

His publications include A Greek Odyssey: Greece's sovereign debt restructuring and its impact on holders of Greek bonds and  Will 2012 Bring More Debt Restructuring for Latin American Companies?, He was co-author of "US Equity Markets for Foreign Issuers: Public Offerings and Rule 144A Placements of American Depositary Receipts," a Merrill Corp. publication, 2008; Co-author, "The US High Yield Bond Market," International Business Transactions with Brazil, 2008; "Restructuring Corporate Debt in Latin America," and "How to Restructure Debt in Latin America," International Financial Law Review, 2003; Co-author, "Private Equity Investment in Latin America," Latin American Law and Business Report, 2000; Co-author, "Restructuring Strategies for Mexican Eurobond Debt," Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business, 1995. 

Mr. Darrow was an avid rower. He began rowing with Columbia's lightweight rowing team in 1968. Thirty years later, he organized a reunion of the team to compete in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass., a tradition they maintained for several years. He enthusiastically supported the small Sag Harbor rowing club. Last year, he raised funds to purchase a new rowing shell for Columbia's women's crew team. He christened it the "Denise V. Seegal" in honor of his wife.

Denise, his wife of five years, survives him. (Peter and his previous wife of 20 years, Leni Darrow, divorced in 2003.) Denise is a fashion executive with more than 30 years in the industry. He is survived as well by his two children from his prior marriage - a daughter, Meredith, who works as an art adviser in Los Angeles and New York City, and his son Peter Jr., who is an MBA student in Boston.

He is also survived by his brother Duncan Darrow and Duncan's wife Wendy. After their mother died of cancer in 2001, Peter and his brother established Fighting Chance, a free-of-charge cancer resource center for residents on the East End of Long Island. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to Fighting Chance - Free Cancer Counseling Center, Box 1358, Sag Harbor, NY 11963.

A memorial service was held at All Souls Unitarian Church, 1157 Lexington Ave.,at 80th Street, New York City, at 4 pm on Wednesday, May 29.

Comment: Peter took over from me the job of bringing Trinity College alumni in the USA together for fun and funds. I met Denise Seegal through my wife Alice Tepper Marlin, who is like Denise a member of Women's Forum in New York. We were all attending a viewing of the installation of Christo's "Gates" project in February 2005 (7,503 orange "gates" stretching up through Central Park) from an apartment on Central Park South. We introduced Peter to Denise not long afterwards and they were married soon after that.

More Oxonian Obits