In memoriam Clive Lawrence (4 August 1951 – 19 July 2017)
We are deeply saddened by the death of Clive Lawrence, teacher at the Language Centre. Clive joined what would become Maastricht University Language Centre in 1999 after a career in the Army. Over the years he became a specialist in teaching presentation skills as well as delivering the academic writing training courses that the Language Centre provides in most UM Faculties.
He also became an examiner for the University of Cambridge English and IELTS examinations. As a Cambridge examiner, Clive was instrumental in bringing the Cambridge exam preparation courses to Maastricht University Language Centre, from which, and partly through his determination, hundreds of UM staff, and consequently students, have since benefitted as the University raises the standard of language competence of teaching and other staff.
Through his zest for life, combining pleasure and work, Clive made many friends in the Netherlands and abroad working on international projects, notably the academic writing training for PhD candidates in the Maastricht-Kyiv-Tbilisi project. Perhaps his finest achievements fittingly came in the recently completed ECOSTAR project on English-medium instruction with Israeli institutions. Sadly, he did not live to see the final outcome of the project, the book “A Handbook for EMI”, of which he was the first author.
In his teaching, he did all he could to help people achieve their potential simply because, at heart, he was genuinely a people person, one with the biggest of hearts. As such, no matter what it involved, no matter where it was needed, Clive was invariably the first to volunteer to serve. Whenever a class needed covering last minute, Clive would step up to the plate.
When Clive decided to do something, be it teaching, rowing on the Maas, or simply organising a night out for the staff or students, he did so with great gusto and never gave anything but 100%. There seemed to be more hours in Clive's day than everyone else's, as he tried to live life to the fullest. For Clive, there was little or no distinction between work and pleasure - the pen and the glass resting easily in the same hand - many of his Cambridge students will recall decamping to a local bar or restaurant either to celebrate the end of a course, or even just the successful completion of a lesson. His classes were places where lasting friendships were formed.
Clive will be remembered as loyal, reliable and a man of his word. Everybody who ever met him and who had the good fortune to know him will never forget this particular Mr Lawrence. His was a life well-lived; his was a life too short, and he leaves many, many of us in his debt. He was a force of nature and will be sadly missed.
We wish his family, as well as all friends the strength to cope with this great loss.
In memory of Clive a space has been made available in the Language Centre (Sint Servaasklooster 32) where colleagues can express their condolences.
The funeral will take place on 3 August. You can contact us for further information through ub-secretariaat@maastrichtuniversity.nl
On behalf of the Language Centre,
Ingrid Wijk and Yvette Froeling