The following announcement from the College of William and Mary, http://www.wm.edu/news/pressreleases/2010/former-history-professor-rhys-isaac-dead-at-72.php 
, announces an immeasurable loss for all those who study early  
Virginia history or explore the terrain where historical and  
ethnographic scholarship intersect.

--Jurretta Heckscher

Former history professor Rhys Isaac dead at 72

by Staff | October 7, 2010

Rhys Isaac, former Distinguished Visiting Professor of Early American  
History at the College, has died of cancer. He was 72.

Isaac, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for his book “The  
Transformation of Virginia, 1740 -1790,” enjoyed an exemplary career  
in teaching and research, most especially in his scholarship on  
Colonial North America. He remains the only Australian historian ever  
to win a Pulitzer.

Isaac served several stints at William & Mary. He came in August 1998  
and spent a year as the James Pinckney Harrison Professor of History.  
He returned from August 2002 to December 2005, and again from August  
2006 to December of that year as a Visiting Distinguished Professor of  
History and a research associate with the Colonial Williamsburg  
Foundation.

“The Department of History was saddened to learn today of the passing  
of Professor Rhys Isaac, our friend and colleague, who enriched the  
College of William & Mary with his deep knowledge of, and love for,  
the history of Colonial Virginia," said Phil Daileader, chairman of  
the Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History. “To those of us who had  
the privilege and honor of working alongside Rhys, he is remembered as  
much for his generosity and for his irrepressibly boisterous high  
spirits as for his scholarly accomplishments.

"Even as Rhys grew increasingly ill during the last few months, he  
continued to write notes of great grace, beauty, and hope to his  
friends and colleagues at William & Mary.  The College always remained  
in his thoughts; Rhys remained, and will always remain, in ours.”

The bulk of this teaching career – 1971-1999 -- was spent at La Trobe  
University in Victoria, Australia, where he was known for his astute  
advice to colleagues on their research presentations, their drafts,  
articles and books.

“There will be few of us who have not been touched in some way by the  
generous advice of this scholar of such rare qualities,” said Jim  
Hammerton, Head of the School of Historical and European Studies at La  
Trobe. “I know that his loss will be deeply felt.”

The funeral will be private. A memorial service is being planned.



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