Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 23:18:31 -0400
From: Rex Brynen <rex.brynen@MCGILL.CA>

Friends:

It is with great sadness that I report the death of Rick Hooper in Tuesday's bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.

Many of you know Rick. He had spent his career addressing issues of peace, justice, and development, both inside and outside the UN system: at UNRWA, at UNSCO, at FAFO, with the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, and with the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.

I was fortunate to first come to know him in the early days of UNSCO in Gaza. Later, I worked with him at various times on the Palestinian refugee issue, on donor assistance and aid coordination, and still later on the challenges of peace implementation.

Rick was tireless. He was sharp, insightful, and blessed with a sense of humour, with that sometimes-cynical-yet-never-defeated edge that is pretty much a job requirement in Palestine. No matter where or when we met, he was inevitably better dressed than me.

Rick Hooper was one of the good guys, and he will be sadly missed.

Rex

Rex Brynen
Professor
Department of Political Science
McGill University
855 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal (Quebec) H3A 2T7