Professor was engaging, kind

Professor of geography Denis Cosgrove died of stomach cancer on March 21.

Cosgrove, who had been with UCLA since 1999, continued to lecture in his classes until the fourth week of winter quarter, when he had to leave because of his illness. He died at his home in Los Angeles.

Tom Puleo was a teaching assistant for Cosgrove’s final class. He said the professor’s absence has resonated deeply with his colleagues.

“It’s a loss that everyone feels very profoundly around the geography department. It’s almost impossible to put words on it,” Puleo said.

Students in his final class were unaware of the extent of Cosgrove’s health problems. Jessica Goza, a fifth-year international development studies student, said he told them he was recovering from an illness and that they may occasionally have a substitute for the class.

Cosgrove was born in Liverpool, England, in 1948. He attended Saint Catherine’s College in Oxford University for his undergraduate degree. He received a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and then went back to Oxford for his doctorate.

Cosgrove received his first official appointment from Oxford Polytechnic in 1972. In 1980, he began at Loughborough University. His career took off, and in 1994, he accepted the position of Professor in Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Geography was a lifelong passion for Cosgrove, one he was eager to share with his students. Goza said he told stories to the class about being interested in geography as a child.

As the inaugural Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Geography, Cosgrove was able to share this passion with students. Christine Danner, a first-year geography and environmental science student, said Cosgrove was an engaging lecturer.

“His enthusiasm for the class really captured our attention. He just really helped connect the subject to us,” Danner said.

Goza said Cosgrove’s desire to teach was evident in his lectures.

“He was a really good professor who put a lot of time into his lectures and his assignments. He cared about student learning and he was really interactive with students during lecture,” Goza said.

According to the geography department’s Web site, Cosgrove was “a highly productive writer, a thoughtful and dedicated adviser of graduate students, a gifted and engaging teacher, and a warm and selfless colleague.”

During his prolific career in his field, Cosgrove wrote or edited 11 books and wrote more than 80 research articles, and “a huge volume of commentaries, reviews, reports and related academic papers,” according to the department’s Web site.

“His knowledge was always easily accessible, he was always engaging, always willing to talk to you and to get involved in whatever project you had in mind,” Puleo said.

Puleo said Cosgrove is remembered for his warm personality as much as his accomplishments in academia.

“Such a kindness and generosity of spirit, you never felt that he was anything except 100 percent behind what you wanted to do,” Puleo said. “(He was a) really engaging, energetic, kind man who is absolutely irreplaceable.”

Cosgrove is survived by his wife, three children, mother, siblings and two granddaughters. The geography department is planning a memorial to be held on campus May 23.

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