 | Robin Winks |
Robin W. Winks, the Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History, died on April 7 at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Professor Winks was a noted scholar in a wide range of subjects, including British imperial history, Canadian-American relations, comparative American history, conservation history and the theory and development of espionage. He chaired the Department of History at Yale 1996-1999 and was master of Berkeley College 1977-1991.
Professor Winks was also an enthusiastic supporter of and adviser to the National Park Service and a regular detective novel reviewer for the Boston Globe and The New Republic.
"Robin was such a force at Yale and in History, from the moment of his arrival as a faculty member in 1957, that it is all but impossible to describe his unending impact upon all of us beyond what we know immediately -- that we stood in awe of Robin's unbounded energy, his care for teaching, his aspirations for both Yale and History, and a scholarship incomparable in its range and depth," wrote Jon Butler, current chair of the history department, about his colleague.
Another colleague in the history department, John Merriman, said of his friend, "Robin Winks loved Yale University and particularly the history department he helped build. He enriched both immeasurably with his intellectual energy, common sense, unfailing eloquence and wit. ... I admired him very much and learned much from him, always enjoyed his company enormously, and will miss him terribly."
Born in Indiana on December 5, 1930, Robin Winks graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Colorado in 1952. As a Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand, he earned an M.A. in Maori studies from Victoria University. Returning to the University of Colorado, he earned a second M.A. in ethnography. He then went on to obtain his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1957 with a dissertation on Canadian and American relations.
After a year of teaching at Connecticut College, Professor Winks joined the faculty at Yale, where he remained for the rest of his career. He is credited with enhancing the study of Canada at Yale and was instrumental in establishing environmental studies at the University.
Professor Winks was on leave from Yale 1969-71 while serving as U.S. cultural attaché to the American Embassy in London. He was a regular adviser to various governmental agencies.
A partial list of his scholarly books includes "Canada and the United States" (1960); "The Age of Imperialism" (1969); "The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence" (1969); "A History of Western Civilization" (with Brinton, Christopher and Wolff, 1984); "Cloak and Gown: Scholars in America's Secret War" (1987); "Frederick Billings: A Life" (1991); and "Laurance S. Rockefeller, Catalyst for Conservation" (1997). He wrote the 16-part television series "Between the Wars" for the BBC, and was an advisor to several other documentary programs.
In addition to his work as a historian, Professor Winks wrote extensively on detective fiction and was twice nominated for the Edgar Award, which he won in 1999 for his work "Mystery and Suspense Writers." He is also author of "Detective Fiction" (1980), "Modus Operandi" (1983), "Colloquium on Crime" (1986) and "Secrecy, Exile and Cunning: A History of Detective, Mystery and Spy Thriller Fiction" (1998).
"Robin was a man whose interests went far beyond the normal -- the 'normal' of any distinguished scholar, I mean," said Paul Kennedy, the J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History. "He was one of the greatest scholars of British imperial history. He was a stunning scholar of the history of the U.S. intelligence community. He and [former Yale historian] Bill Cronon virtually invented environmental studies here at Yale. When he was the U.S. cultural attaché in Great Britain, he wrote a remarkable guide to Britain. ... He wrote biographies of the founders of the national parks. He wrote about Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. God, what did he NOT write about?"
Kennedy also noted that Professor Winks had taught "what was probably the single-most important History Junior Seminar, on the writing of history."
"Robin was deeply committed to enhancing Yale students' understanding of the world around us," said Gus Ranis, the Henry R. Luce Director of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. "In his wonderfully articulate, cultured voice, he was equally able to evoke precise images of empires past and conflicts present. One of his passions was Canadian studies at Yale, of which he served for many years as chair. He was instrumental in the Canadian government's establishment of a visiting professorship at Yale and was forever active in this particular vineyard."
Professor Winks loved the outdoors and devoted much of his career to the study and protection of the world's natural resources. This interest led to his being the first person to visit every single one of the hundreds of units of the National Park System. He served as chair of the National Park System Advisory Board, and in 1988 won the Department of the Interior's Conservationist of the Year Award. In 1999, the National Parks Conservation Association awarded him its first gold medal for contributions to public education on behalf of the nation's national parks and proceeded to establish the prize as an annual honor known as the Robin W. Winks Award.
"I think Robin saw the historical importance of the national parks concept more clearly than almost anyone," said James (Gus) Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. "His attachment to them was intellectual and also deeply passionate."
Professor Winks held visiting lectureships and conducted research at universities around the nation and the world, including in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Middle East. He was the Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University in 1999-2000 and the George Eastman Professor at Oxford 1992-1993.
Among his many distinctions, Professor Winks was a fellow of the Explorers Club, the Society of American Historians, the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Commonwealth Society, and a member of both the Athenaeum and Special Forces Clubs. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1989 Professor Winks won the Donner Medal from the Association for Canadian Studies in the United-States. He held offices and committee chairmanships in the American Historical Association, the Canadian Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and many other professional associations. He was honored with a Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Nebraska.
An avid traveler and prize-winning travel writer, Professor Winks was scheduled to lead an Association of Yale Alumni trip to the Himalayan kingdoms of Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet next September.
Professor Winks is survived by his wife of 51 years, Avril (Flockton) Winks, a resident of Northford, Conn.; his daughter, Honor Winks of Alpharetta, Georgia; his son, Eliot Myles Winks of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and two grandchildren, Avery Paul and Tessa Paul.
Charitable donations in his memory may be sent to the National Parks Conservation Association, 1300 19th St, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 or to the Robin W. Winks Travelling Fellowship, c/o Berkeley College, P.O. Box 209128, 205 Elm St., New Haven, CT 06520.
T H I S
Renowned historian and national
parks enthusiast Robin Winks
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