Wolfson College Record 2021

College body, and was elected to the Governing Body in 1995, holding a series of
senior offices, including that of Vicegerent (2014–16). His year as Proctor (2007–
08) won him the respect of the wider Oxford community. He leaves his mark on
Wolfson in various ways, having been heavily involved in the College’s recent redevelopment
scheme, having introduced a humanist ‘grace’ at formal dinners, and
having influenced the College’s decision to hoist the LGBTQI+ flag on its flagpole.
Marcus also leaves his mark on the wider discipline of anthropology. He
held Visiting Professorships at the Universities of Vienna (2010), Paris V
Descartes (2011), and Canterbury, New Zealand (2012); and sat on the Royal
Anthropological Institute’s Film Committee (2001–05), and the European
Association of Social Anthropologists’ Executive Committee (2017–19).
He is survived by his partner Barrie Thomas, by his brother Martin, and by Tessa,
the daughter of his late sister.
Brian Buck
Governing Body Fellow 1971–
2002, Emeritus Fellow 2002–
20, died on 24 July 2020
Brian was born and brought
up in Middlesborough, which
in those days was in the
North Riding of Yorkshire,
and he surely acquired there
the plain-speaking matter-offactness
of his approach to
Photo: David Robey
life, so characteristic of that Brian Buck and Ani discuss the wine with Andrew Neil (left)
county and so often mistaken
at David Robey’s Silver Wedding celebration in 2006.
by southerners for dourness of manner. After attending Middlesborough High
School, he came up to Oxford to read Physics at Jesus College, and then went on
to complete a DPhil in Theoretical Nuclear Physics. This enabled him to defer his
National Service, which conveniently had been abolished by the time he finished.
Then followed ten years of research posts in the United States at Brookhaven and
Oak Ridge before he returned to England, having been appointed an honorary
Colonel in order to secure transatlantic transport on a USAF plane. Later in life he
refused to fly anywhere.
Brian returned to Oxford in 1971 as University Lecturer in the Department
of Physics and in the same year became a Fellow of Wolfson. He pursued his
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