With great sorrow I learned of the passing of Bob Deacon. I knew him for almost 20 years: his smile, his voice, and occasional jokes are still very vivid in my memory. A founder of the respected international journal Global Social Policy, an academic, whose research was so important in studies of regional and global social policy, and a distinguished professor, teaching students for many years at the University-- in all these manifestations Bob was a person who left his own imprint. Whenever we had a chance to discuss real issues with Bob-- at his house, full of books, in the countryside of Sheffield, at various conferences, from Arusha to Dubrovnik, or at the UN in New York where I worked—it was always an intellectual pleasure to listen to him, to engage him, to learn from him. He wanted to make the world a better place and worked hard to make it happen.
He will be sorely missed by many.
Sergei Zelenev
Executive Director, International Council on Social Welfare, ICSW