|
|
Truly a world leader at SBU
Richard Leakey: Man of the Year
|
| | 
|  |
| |  | | 
| | | Courtesy SBU (click for larger version) | |
December 23, 2009 | 12:06 PM
It's understandably difficult for some people to fully appreciate the many achievements of Richard Leakey. To say the 65-year-old world renowned paleoanthropologist, conservationist, educator and pro-democracy advocate has already completed more than three times what a typical person might hope to accomplish in one lifetime, would only be to shortchange the famous man. Leakey, born 1944 in Nairobi, Kenya, the son of world famous anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, has literally touched millions and changed the world. At the same time, this remarkable man is described by almost everyone who knows him as "caring."
Surprisingly, many Long Islanders don't realize that for the last eight years Leakey, besides calling Kenya his home, where he also has citizenship and once was a member of parliament, has resided at Stony Brook University.
For the influence and knowledge he has shared with national leaders, conservation and environmental experts and political reformers across the globe, TBR Newspapers is proud to name citizen of the world Richard Leakey our 2009 Man of the Year.
"Internationally he is the most important researcher in the field," said retired SBU President Shirley Strum Kenny. "The community of Stony Brook is enormously enriched by this man." Kenny, who invited Leakey to join the faculty at Stony Brook said convincing him to do so has proved a boon to the university. "He was enormously impressed by the faculty members here," she said, and his presence "has worked out wonderfully. Richard loves the students."
Impressive resume
Summing up Richard Leakey's life so far can hardly be done in the space available here.
Leakey, who did not complete high school, but later achieved an equivalency, was appointed director of the National Museums of Kenya at the age of 24, growing the museum in two decades into an internationally recognized research institution.
In 1984, a team headed by Leakey discovered the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric hominid ever found, named Turkana Boy after the Turkana Basin in Kenya where the fossils were unearthed.
Leakey was named by the president of Kenya director of the Kenyan Wildlife Service in 1989, quickly reining in rampant elephant and rhinoceros poaching and leading an international campaign to outlaw the ivory trade. His efforts were so successful that enemies in the Kenyan Parliament attacked him until he submitted his resignation.
Hardly defeated, Leakey devoted years to creating and promoting a rival political party in Kenya and was elected to Parliament in Nairobi.
Leakey was reappointed by the Kenyan president to lead the Kenyan Wildlife Service in 1998. He became head of the country's civil service and secretary to the Cabinet, Kenya's number two official, but was forced again to resign when Parliament voted to prohibit his campaign against widespread corruption in the country.
Since joining the faculty of SBU in 2002, Leakey has devoted much of his efforts to development of the Turkana Basin Institute; continuing to excavate the region in Kenya where his legendary archeological find was made. He spends three to four months a year in Kenya, five to six months in Stony Brook, and the rest travelling the globe giving lectures and advising leaders in paleontology, wildlife conservation and political reform.
Along the way Leakey survived what had been diagnosed as terminal kidney disease in 1969, a plane crash some labeled "suspicious" that cost pilot Leakey the lower portion of both legs, and a public flogging by political opponents in 1995.
"Richard is, I must add, the most courageous man I have ever known," said Kenny.
Local legacy
"Stony Brook is going to be the facilitator for research in eastern Africa" because of Leakey, said Lawrence Martin, dean of SBU's graduate school, associate provost and director of Leakey's Turkana Basin Institute. With Leakey at Stony Brook, the university has "a front row seat in everything that happens in human evolutionary research," said Martin, who expects SBU to gain exceptional recognition through Leakey's presence.
"If you say Kennedy School, you think Harvard," said Martin. "Everything that goes out for Turkana has the SBU logo on it." The dean is convinced soon a similar connection will be made, elevating Stony Brook's recognition factor worldwide. Martin who, as a grad student, first met Leakey in Africa in 1979, calls the man an "extraordinary individual" who remains unaffected by his fame. The dean also noted Leakey is a remarkable chef. Visitors to his home in Stony Brook enjoy his fine cooking and warm friendship, according to Martin.
"He is a world icon," said Craig Lehman, interim executive dean of the Health Sciences Center and dean of SBU's School of Health Technology and Management. "I think he is by far the most interesting person I know." Also using the word caring to describe Leakey, Lehman said our Man of the Year "just gets things done." Noting his "great sense of humor," the dean called Leakey a "no nonsense man" and a pleasure to work with.
"He asked me to lead a team from the Health Sciences Center to Turkana," Lehman said. Last January a team of paramedics, public health experts, dentists and doctors among others spent six days there. "Life-changing" is how Lehman described the experience of helping those Kenyans without adequate health care, food and potable water.
Janice Rohlf, recently retired from administration at SBU, and her husband Jim, a Stony Brook professor of ecology and evolution, have become good friends of Richard Leakey and his wife Meave. The Rohlfs were in Kenya with Leakey this year. "His interests there are in such a caring way," Janice said. Leakey is "careful not to disturb the culture" while at the same time trying to improve the lives of the indigenous people, Rohlf said.
The Leakey family tradition continues. Meave Leakey and their daughter Louise are actively engaged in paleoanthropology while Richard Leakey pursues educating the world in that science, in wildlife conservation and in democracy.
"His name alone brings prestige to Stony Brook," Rohlf said. The world knows "Richard wouldn't be involved if it weren't a first-class operation," she said. "He's got clout in the world," said Lehman.
| |
|
|
|
| |
Copyright 2010
(631) 751-7744 | news@tbrnewspapers.com | www.northshoreoflongisland.com | About |
|
| |
|
