Abstract
THE retirement of Prof. R. N. Rudmose Brown from the chair of geography at the University of Sheffield at the end of this session marks the official end of nearly forty years of teaching and guiding university geography. His influence on the subject outside his university has been exercised through his being a member at one time or another of all the more important councils and committees which have to deal with geography, as well as through his books. Though he approached the subject from the point of view of a polar explorer and a naturalist, he has, always insisted upon the essential unity of its physical and human aspects. His many contacts with French and other Continental geographers may have been the spur which caused him to become as notable a lecturer and writer on the human and economic aspects of his subject as the biological and physical side. His contribution to the recent advance of academic geography has therefore been based on the broadest grounds. This is reflected in his new building for his Department at Sheffield, which is second to none in Great Britain. Planned by him to serve with equal emphasis all the aspects of modern geography, it is a model which will be copied elsewhere in due course. As counsellor, examiner, writer, editor and practical explorer, Prof. Rudmbse Brown has had an influence on geography which will endure. His rugged honesty of purpose and direct speech will be missed in many a council chamber, but it is quite certain that his years of retirement will often be interrupted by requests for advice from his younger colleagues, who will continue to be attracted by his wisdom and breadth of vision as well as by his long experience and commanding personality.
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Chair of Geography at Sheffield: Prof. R. N. Rudmose Brown. Nature 156, 106 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/156106c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/156106c0