Abstract
It is with great personal and collective sadness - and a sense of profound loss - that 2021 saw the passing of William Peter Robinson, peacefully in his home with his beloved Carol after spending time in hospital. He was born in Chichester, Sussex, England, and son of John and Winifred (Napper) Robinson. He was a beacon of light and forged a huge legacy for the social psychology of language (SPL) and the photograph at the end is a good reflection of his dynamism and vivacity. Amongst his many achievements, besides his seminal contributions to understanding the interrelationships between language, social class, and education, he wrote the first text on SPL in 1972 with Penguin Books (viz., Language and Social Behavior). Peter was a co-organizer of the 1st International Conference on Language and Social Psychology (ICLASP) in Bristol, England, in 1979, and co-edited a book with Pergamon in 1980 that arose from that initial Conference. Peter then co-organized ICLASP #s2 & 3 in 1983 and 1987, two Handbooks of Language and Social Psychology with Wiley Publishers, the first in 1990 (which went into paperback in 1993) and the other, also with Wiley, in 2001. He was a major player in planning, drafting the constitution for, and launching the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP) in 1996, mainly as a mechanism for sustaining the successful ICLASP series, now into its 17th. venue in Hong Kong next year. Predictably, he became both IALSP’s first President and its first elected Fellow.
Peter was, of course, internationally recognized, including medals and honors from Melbourne University in Australia, the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science, and the Institute Superior of Psychological Applications in Portugal. He was also Founding Associate Editor of the European Journal of Psychology of Education and a Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow. His career saw him with academic positions at Hull, London, and Southampton in the UK as well as Macquarie University, Australia, before moving to Bristol University where he became Dean of the School of Education in 1981.
After his retirement as Chair of Social Psychology and Head of Psychology there in 1992, the Cardiff 2000 ICLASP honored his career achievements with a panel devoted to his work that, subsequently in 2001, was the basis for a Special Issue of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Volume 20 (1&2), pp. 1-253. In 2003, he authored (again for Wiley) the impressively-intellectual book, “Language in social worlds” and this was preceded by other volumes, including “Arguing for better conclusions: A human odyssey”, “Social groups and social identities”, “Deceit, delusion and detection”. “Language management in education: The Australia context”, “Communication in development”, and “A question of answers”. Although he could not travel to later ICLASP conferences because of health concerns, he was always eager to hear of Conference happenings and IALSP developments - and each year participants at the former sent him a signed “wishing-you-were here!” card. Some readers will remember with fondness his answering these and other missives, always in copper plate handwriting.
Yet it is his personal qualities – if not his great soul - that many of us resonate to and will always hold dear in our memories forever. Peter was an all-round terrific, respected, and admired human being, given his compassion, generosity of spirit, sense of social justice, and kind heartedness. He was energetic, effervescent, smiley and charismatic, and a witty, interesting (and often teasingly provocative) conversationalist. After studying at Oxford, he went into national service and into the Intelligence Corps, learning Russian. After retirement, he enjoyed gardening, reading, and writing and spending time with his daughters, Katherine and Clare and grandsons, Ned and Alexander, who were a source of considerable pleasure. IALSP President Liz Jones wrote that “. . .when meeting him for the first time (say, at a conference), he was interested in meeting absolutely everybody, no matter their status, in a very warm, meaningful, and thoughtful way. I was privileged to have known and know him!”
Personally, I first met Peter as the External Examiner of my Ph.D. and recall vividly telling me before we went into the examination room his relaxing me by saying something to the effect: “Remember you are the world’s expert on your topic, not us. Also, a thesis is not to be the final word nor expected to be perfect!” Needless to say thereafter, we had a hugely satisfying and successful academic personal relationship. Other ICLASP colleagues have also paid immense tributes to him, a brief flavor of which, includes:
“I remember Peter lovingly. . . it’s unbelievable that he is gone. .. a great loss. . .”
: “. . .As a young, woman, scholar, I was . . .[made by him to feel his]. . .equal. I recall the feeling (the expectation?) of vast potential. There seemed to be no bounds to possibility. I thank Peter for that gift.”
“. . .this is really the end of an era – Peter was such a wonderful person, and such a great academic – he did the world of good for psych and education here in Oz, at a time when we really needed it”.
Sik Hung Ng: “Peter has indeed been a beacon in the field of SPL collectively. And also personally. . .”
“. . . I would like to echo, in particular, Peter’s warmth and attentiveness as well as is incommensurable legacy to us all”.
“Peter and Carol made us so welcome and treated us like old friends; Peter made you feel special. From that moment on, Peter has had a very special place in my heart and it will be there always.
“Peter was instrumental in getting my career started and hugely encouraging on every subsequent step of the way – mentor, supporter, but finally valued most of all as friend”.
In due course, IALSP will, in memoriam, honor WPR in a very special and lasting way. Peter, we are all the better and richer for knowing you and for enriching our lives and providing such an inheritance to SPL. In the meantime, we wave back and goodbye with heavy yet joyful hearts for a life well lived and wish his family much strength!
In the meantime, we wave back at, and goodbye to, Peter depicted in the photo below with heavy yet joyful hearts for a life well lived and wish his family much strength!
Howard Giles