Univ Record 2018

It was Gareth who helped find me a place to live when my first job after Univ
relocated the whole team from one side of the country to the other. He brought me a local
newspaper to a friend’s party one weekend, so I could see the classifieds, and I ended up
living in the same village as him, near St Albans in Hertfordshire. Whilst we weren’t
in each other’s pockets, we enjoyed catching up over a beer or meal from time to time.
When my landlord sold the house, and Gareth went on his worldwide travels, we
kept in contact. Back in the UK, he shared a house with another good friend in Chesham
for a while, and we caught up on occasion, falling back into the friendship we had shared
since our student days.
It was just before Gareth turned 30 that he became conscious of a major health
problem. I was first aware of how serious it was, not long before a group of us got together
for Univ’s 750th anniversary ball in 1999. He had recently been formally diagnosed but
was determined to enjoy the celebrations. The morning after the ball, a cleaner at the
guesthouse we were all staying in said to me that my friend must have had a good time
the night before, as she’d just seen him fall up the stairs. What she didn’t know was that
he’d hardly had anything to drink the night before. It was the early stages of the MS that
was soon to have such a devastating effect on his life.
Although Gareth was desperately unlucky to fall ill with an extremely aggressive
form of the disease, he was fortunate to have had the unconditional love and support
of his family, with whom he lived for nearly 20 years prior to his untimely death in
November 2017.
1995
BUNNY MARIE WONG (Washington and Lee): The Editors of the Record were sorry
to learn this year of the passing of Bunny Wong. Bunny spent a year at Univ in 1995-
6 studying English literature as part of a programme for junior year students from
Washington and Lee University, which is in Lexington, Virginia. Born in California on
29 November 1975, Bunny went to school in New Mexico before going on to study at
W&L. During her year at Univ Bunny threw herself into everything that Oxford had
to offer. As well as devoting herself diligently to her studies – developing a particular
interest in medieval literature – Bunny learned how to punt, bought a bicycle with which
she travelled bravely between the College and her accommodation on Banbury Road, and
joined a rowing crew with whom she took part in the 1995 Christ Church regatta. She
made a wide group of friends and was an active member of the WCR. After returning
to the US and graduating from W&L, she came back to England to study for a Masters
in medieval studies at Royal Holloway. Always a keen and accomplished writer, Bunny
went on to pursue a career in journalism, and worked for a time in New York City for
Martha Stewart Living and Budget Living. Bunny passed away on 22 October 2009 aged
33.
[We are very grateful to Matthew Woodcock (1995) for writing this tribute.]
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