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Roger Ridley Fenton ’71

Roger Ridley Fenton ’71, February 13, 2010, in Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales. Roger graduated from Reed, Phi Beta Kappa, with a BA in German. During his junior year, he studied in Berlin, and there met Auriel Stephens; they married in Wales in 1971. In 1974, he earned a master's in library science from the University of Chicago and moved to Wales. He received a diploma in librarianship from Coleg Llyfrgellwyr Cymru and was bibliographer for the University of Wales Board of Celtic Studies. Additionally, he spent three years as a lecturer in librarianship at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, before returning to Wales. Auriel taught school while Roger assumed the role of househusband and father to the couple's four adopted children. He volunteered for a self-help group for adoptive parents of special-needs children, which led to his publishing the e-book guide Adopting a Child in Britain. In 2005, he was systems librarian at the National Library of Wales. To Reed, he wrote: “My life certainly isn't what I thought it would be in 1970. I had visions of doing fieldwork in anthropology or linguistics, teaching, and doing research at some U.S. university (or Reed). Sometimes I'm envious of my contemporaries, when I read about their current jobs and high positions, but basically I think I have settled into what really suits me best: easy domesticity as a worker ant, doing my bit for the continuation of the species. And without Reed, I don't think I would have been able to make the choice.” Survivors include his wife, four children, and three grandchildren.

Appeared in Reed magazine: September 2010