in 1996 the project team established Fundacio Tierra Viva (FTV). Now, 20 years after his initial inspiration, FTV is one of the leading Venezuelan environmental organisations, managing dozens of projects. In 2005, he persuaded senior Shell management of the need to engage local stakeholders in order to avoid social problems and environmental pollution in the oil and gas fields on Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia. After two eight-month projects which brought together community groups, local authorities and the oil and gas industry, a Sustainable Development department was created at Sakhalin State University in 2007 to continue this valuable new work. He also managed to find space in his hectic life and travel schedule to nurture projects in diverse places, such as Wiltshire and Wales in the UK, and in Mali and Uganda in Africa. Roger had wide-ranging interests, but it was his deep interest in music which eventually led to the love of his life, his wife Sonia, a professional cellist, and they had ten happy years together before he died peacefully at home after a short battle with cancer. An obituary was published in The Independent on which this is based, plus the recollections of another OA, Noel Plumridge. Mike Herring came to Dulwich from Collingwood Prep School in Wallington and excelled at sport. He was in the 1st XV for his last three years at the College and was the School Captain in 1956-57. He also played cricket for the College in 1954- 55. After leaving Dulwich, he taught in Rhodesia for two years before returning to the UK to study English at Queens’ College, Cambridge, graduating in 1962. After graduation, he returned to teach at Eagles School, in the Umtali region of southern Rhodesia, remaining in the country for 25 years, where he and his wife, Valerie, raised their family of five children. Mike and Valerie returned to the UK in 1988, shortly after Robert Mugabe became President in December 1987, and settled in Eckington, Worcestershire. He became Head of French at Dean Close Prep School in Cheltenham and taught there for ten years until he retired in 1998. He was also a housemaster and coached cricket at that school. Both Mike and Valerie, who suffered from mobility problems in later years, died in a fire at home in Eckington. William Michael Herring (1948-57) 12.03.1938 – 19.02.2012
Roger John Hammond (1967-73) 25.08.1956 – 16.09.2012
Roger Hammond came to Dulwich from Winterbourne Primary School in Thornton Heath. Even at the College he was very active on (then unfashionable) environmental issues and was involved with a badger colony at Shoreham in Kent. After leaving Dulwich, he trained as a teacher in Birmingham and was soon head of science at a large secondary school. He also found time to set up the Urban Wildlife Group and started a Doctorate in Plant Sociology. Roger left the school education sector in the mid 1980s to become Director of Education at the Earthlife Foundation, which was pioneering an integrated conservation and development programme in the Korup National Park area in Cameroon at the time. When Earthlife collapsed in 1987, he and his education team set up the Living Earth Foundation to continue its work. The Cameroon project survived the transition and resulted in the setting up of Living Earth Cameroon, which inspired, interested and satisfied Roger for the rest of his life. Under his care and guidance, Living Earth innovated from its office in London and thrived both in the UK and internationally. One of his overriding principles was to try to guide the powerful towards more subtle and compassionate ways of thinking and behaving towards the weak and also the environment. Applying this principle, Living Earth built pioneering relationships with companies in the extractive sector, based on dialogue about the transformation of their business practices rather than on noisy protests. A long partnership with Shell ensued, with both sides exploring new fields of corporate responsibility and business methods. Shell did listen and much was achieved, although how much they actually changed their company philosophy is subjective. A host of new initiatives with Shell resulted, including a project to restore civil society in the Niger Delta after the Abacha tyranny in Nigeria, and the evaluation of carbon conservation options in Malaysia. Under Roger’s leadership, Living Earth’s initiatives often produced irreversible change. In 1992, he inspired a group of young Venezuelans to perform an environmental education project with local teachers, community groups and authorities in the Lake Valencia region of central Venezuela. Funding from the EU followed and
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