Dr Gerald Stone, 1932-2021

13 September 2021

Hertford College is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Emeritus Fellow Dr Gerald Stone FBA.

Gerald was a Fellow of the college from 1972 to 1999, during which time he taught and researched non-Russian Slavonic languages. He continued his wide-ranging research as an Emeritus Fellow, focussing on the historical linguistics of the Slavonic languages, especially Kashubian, Polish, Russian, Slovene, and Sorbian.

Notably, Gerald was responsible for introducing Polish to the Oxford University modern languages syllabus. He was a language consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary, General Editor of Oxford Slavonic Papers (1983-94), and was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992. His distinguished publication record includes The Smallest Slavonic Nation: the Sorbs of Lusatia (1972), An Introduction to Polish (1980), and Slav Outposts in Central European History: the Wends, Sorbs and Kashubs (2016).

Gerald was a graduate of the School of Slavonic & East European Studies at the University of London, where he completed his PhD in 1969. He taught Slavonic languages and comparative Slavonic philology at the Universities of Nottingham (1966-71) and Cambridge (1971-2) before coming to Oxford in 1972.

The college’s flag is flying at half mast and our thoughts are with Gerald’s children, his wife Vera, and all those who knew him.