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August 20, 2003
To: Campus Community
From: Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood
Re: Alumnus dies in attack on U.N. in Iraq
As some of you may already have learned from news accounts, a UCSC alumnus was among the approximately 20 people who died Tuesday when a bomb exploded outside United Nations headquarters in Iraq. He was Richard Hooper, a politics major who graduated with honors in 1985.
According to news reports we are receiving, Richard was on assignment in Baghdad as the special assistant to the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs. He was considered to be the U.N.'s chief expert on Arab affairs.
A top scholar, Richard attended UCSC from fall 1980 through spring of 1985. In addition to a bachelor's degree with honors in politics, Richard also earned a minor in economics. He also received honors from his college, Stevenson, for his overall academic record.
Professor emerita of politics Isebill Gruhn was one of the examiners for Richard's oral examination at the conclusion of his senior year, and she remembers his grasp of his academic interest--the Middle East--to be extraordinary. "Richard was a very good student, and the sophistication of his thinking was really more at a graduate-student level," Gruhn recalls. "He made a lifetime commitment to the Middle East."
Please join me, Professor Gruhn, and others at UCSC who knew or worked with him, in remembering Richard and expressing sincere condolences to his family.
Maintained by:pioweb@ucsc.edu