Obituaries - Oct. 11, 1999

Nigel Broackes; Revived London Docklands District

Sir Nigel Broackes, 65, the former chairman of British engineering conglomerate Trafalgar House and the man who began the rejuvenation of London’s Docklands district. Using a legacy from his grandfather, Broackes dabbled in property development, initially with little success. But he used his last asset, a small apartment block, to gain control of a new company, Trafalgar House, and built it into a world leader in technology-based engineering services and international construction. He served first as managing director, then as chairman from 1969 to 1992. Today, Trafalgar House has annual sales of more than $4 billion, has 28,000 employees and owns the Cunard cruise line and London’s Ritz Hotel. Broackes was a brilliant strategist who was happy to delegate day-to-day running of the group to his partner, Victor Matthews, a former builder. The pair had a flair for turning around the fortunes of great British institutions, including the Ritz, which they bought for less than $3.2 million at current rates in 1975; 15 years later it was worth 70 times that. In 1979, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed Broackes to chair the new London Docklands Development Corp., and he began to regenerate London’s abandoned docks. When he left five years later, the district was filled with upscale new homes and businesses, and he had devised plans for the local City Airport and the Docklands Light Railway. On Sept. 28, according to British press reports. No cause of death was given.

Clement Markert; Biologist, Lincoln Brigade Member

Clement L. Markert, 82, a noted biologist who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Markert, then 20, was a biology student at the University of Colorado at Boulder when he decided to join the Lincoln Brigade, a force of 2,800 American volunteers who tried but failed to stop Ferdinand Franco from overthrowing Spain’s democratically elected government. Markert was unable to get a passport from the State Department to go to Spain so he stowed away on a steamship in New York in November 1937. After the fall of the Spanish government, Markert returned to the United States and finished his bachelor’s degree work in Colorado. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II, Markert tried to join the Army Air Corps but, despite high test scores, was rejected after he told recruiters of his Spanish war experiences. He joined the Merchant Marine instead. After the war, he received a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and took a teaching job at the University of Michigan. In the 1950s, he was suspended from Michigan when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was later reinstated. In the mid-1960s, he went to Yale University where he taught for 20 years. According to the New York Times, Markert was credited with the discovery of isozymes, enzymes that vary in form to allow the development of different human organs and tissues. After his retirement from Yale, he did animal husbandry research at North Carolina State University. On Oct. 1 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Robert Waite; Used Freudian Analysis to Study Hitler

Robert G. L. Waite, 80, a historian who brought psychoanalytic analysis into the discussion of Adolf Hitler. Born in Newfoundland, Canada, Waite came to the United States in 1929 and became a naturalized citizen in 1943. He was one of the earliest proponents of using Freudian analysis in discussing Hitler’s rise to power and the subsequent Holocaust. Waite called Hitler a “borderline personality with a deeply divided ego, [who] was deeply torn by inner conflict and contrary impulses.” While other historians eventually criticized Waite for “undervaluing” external forces in shaping Hitler’s personality, they did concede that Waite had added a valuable voice in the discussion of Hitler’s life. On Oct. 4 in Glastonbury, Conn.

Lee Richardson; Stage and Film Actor

Lee Richardson, 73, a popular character actor in the films of director Sidney Lumet who also appeared in John Huston’s “Prizzi’s Honor” and was one of the founders of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Born in Chicago in 1926, Richardson trained for the stage at the Goodman Theatre there. After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Richardson moved to New York and got work in off-Broadway productions including “Summer and Smoke” with Geraldine Page. In the 1950s, Richardson worked regularly on television drama programs such as “Studio One” and “Playhouse 90.” In the 1960s, he moved to Minneapolis where he worked with actors Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn at the Guthrie. In the company’s first season, he played Claudius in “Hamlet” and then Biff in “Death of a Salesman.” Richardson was also a popular voice for television commercials and had more than 100 ads to his credit. He appeared in Lumet’s “Prince of the City,” “Daniel,” “Q & A” and “A Stranger Among Us.” On Oct. 2 in New York City of cardiac arrest.