It is with great sadness we acknowledge that Associate Professor Clive Forster, who worked at Flinders from 1969 until he retired in 2013, passed away on Friday 1 July.

Associate Professor Forster, born in Warrington UK in 1943, was an urban geographer who came from England in October 1969. He taught Geography – which was one of the foundation subjects of Flinders University when it opened in 1966 – and his research was mainly focused on the social geography of cities.

Among the many significant publications that Associate Professor Forster wrote is his book Australian cities: Continuity and change, which had three editions and was widely used in university teaching, and not only in Geography.

During his lengthy career at Flinders University, Associate Professor Forster had the roles of Dean of Social Science, editor of Geog research and was Inaugural Dean of the new School of the Environment.

His former Flinders colleague and Associate Professor of Geography Alaric Maude (now retired) notes that Associate Professor Forster was a keen cricketer, a good bowler, and captain of the Flinders University C Grade team. “He managed to combine his love of cricket, and his academic interests, in a study of cricket and community which examined how cricket became spatially organised across South Australia between 1875 and 1914,” he says.

Associate Professor Maude also fondly remembers that Associate Professor Forster had a very dry sense of humour. “At a decadal birthday gathering, he combined this with cricket in a short and very amusing speech in which he applied the logic of the Duckworth-Lewis method to his life. This is a method for adjusting scores when a cricket match is interrupted by rain or other causes. Clive described the various interruptions in his life that meant that, according to Duckworth-Lewis, he was really only a child.”

He was a keen gardener and loved photography but, ever the urban geographer, his photos often involved venturing to places in a city no normal tourist ever thought of visiting – such as the back streets of Hong Kong, the old city of Shanghai and the hutongs of Beijing.

Associate Professor Forster is survived by Anna, his wife of 55 years, his two children and their families.

A memorial event will be held at Alere Cafe, Bedford Park, from 11- 2 pm on Monday 1 August. If you would like to attend the event, please advise Rebecca Esteve, Alumni & Advancement Partner for the College of Humanities, Arts & Social Science – email rebecca.esteve@flinders.edu.au