William Roff, my late spouse, passed away at the age of 84. He was an esteemed emeritus professor of Islamic and Southeast Asian history at Columbia University, situated in New York. Following his retirement in the early 1990s, he relocated to the East Neuk of Fife in Scotland and became an honorary professorial fellow in the Islamic and Middle Eastern department of Edinburgh University. Prof. Roff supervised 20 successful PhD theses during his "retirement."
His students were keen to work with him because of the impact his own PhD research had on the field of Malaysian studies. Prof. Roff’s PhD thesis, which ultimately resulted in the book ‘The Origins of Malay Nationalism,’ has been immensely influential in independent Malaysia. Fifty years ago, he identified several matters that were apparent in the results of last month’s elections. Additionally, his research became a model for researchers in other locations. Even as his health deteriorated, admirers flocked to the East Neuk to meet him. Many of Prof. Roff’s students occupy prominent academic positions in several countries.
Prof. Roff was born in Bearsden, located in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, and grew up in Dundee. He attended Harris Academy, where he spent a significant portion of the second world war. Following the war, he joined the merchant navy in the late 1940s and fell in love with the Asian continent during his time there. In 1952, he enrolled in Victoria University, Wellington, to pursue a history degree through New Zealand’s program offering tertiary education to individuals over the age of 21.
Prof. Roff worked as a journalist and produced radio documentaries, along with reading the news for the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission. He spent many happy years among writers and artists in the city. Following his time in New Zealand, he went to the Australian National University for his PhD, much of which was researched during his stay in Kampung Jawa near Kuala Lumpur, where he came to love and live with a family. Three years before he passed away, that family, which had grown to include over 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, invited Prof. Roff to a magnificent celebration of their 50-year bond with "Pak Long" (as he was known there), which he attended.
I married Prof. Roff in 1978, and he is survived by myself and our daughters, Sarah and Emily. He generously donated his body to medical teaching.