It is with great sadness that Flinders University has learned about the death of Dr Richard (“Rick”) De Angelis, who taught Politics at Flinders for many years, having been appointed Lecturer in 1977 and retiring in 2009 as Senior Lecturer. He passed away in France on 30 July, just two days after his wife, Francoise.

Emeritus Professor George Crowder from the College of Business, Government and Law put together the following words to remember his former colleague:

Rick’s undergraduate degree from Harvard and PhD from the University of Chicago are evidence that he was gifted with a formidable intellect. He also possessed huge reservoirs of energy and curiosity, exhibiting a passionate interest in almost every field of political science. This he combined with a great love of teaching and debate.

His PhD research was an empirical inquiry into what he saw as the paradoxical conservatism of the French working-class. It was while pursuing fieldwork for this project in Avignon that he met and fell in love with Francoise, with whom he had two daughters, Cybèle and Christina.

Rick published his French research as Blue-Collar Workers and Politics: A French Paradox (1982). At Flinders, he continued his interest in left-wing politics, adding to his flagship “Political Sociology” topic a class in “Leftist Traditions”, both becoming popular options in the Politics major.

In later years, Rick’s interests broadened in many different directions. Notable among these were his study of the populist politics of the 1990s, focusing on the One Nation party of Pauline Hanson. Another field was the future of Australian universities in the wake of the Dawkins reforms – and Rick co-authored a book with Jan Currie and others, Globalizing Practices and University Responses (2003). Throughout these inquiries, Rick’s trademark approach was to compare Australian developments with French experience.

Another of his deep interests was cinema, which Rick put to good use by creating a new topic in “Politics and Film”.

Mention should also be made of Rick’s dedication as a citizen of the Politics department (and later the School of Political and International Studies). At a time of increasing pressure on individuals to focus on their own performance metrics, Rick was a consistent and enthusiastic contributor to departmental and school seminars, meetings and informal discussions, helping to shape the development of many colleagues.

This bare narrative scarcely does justice to the force of nature that was Rick DeAngelis. Generations of Flinders students and staff will recall him warmly as an original.