Staff and students in the Faculty of Commerce and throughout University College Dublin were greatly saddened recently at the loss of Liam Glynn, who died at the tragically young age of 40. That Liam was a special person who had touched the lives of many was eloquently expressed by the large gathering at Belfieldchurch for his funeral, people from all walks of life who came to show solidarity with his family land to say their own sad farewells.
It was appropriate that Liam went to his rest from Belfield church, because he was quintessentially a UCD person who loved every stone of the campus and all it represents. Liam first became acquainted with UCD when he studied for his B Comm degree, which he received in 1980. He followed that with a Master of Business Studies, specialising in marketing under the guidance of Prof TonyCunningham, who became a lifelong mentor and friend. He worked as manager of the Diplomat in Marketing Practice for a year before embarking on a career in marketing management.
He gained valuable experience at several companies, including Abbot Laboratories and Maguire and Patterson. He returned to academic work in 1988 by spendinga year as a lecturer at Groupe ESSEC in Paris. On returning to Ireland he wasawarded a Newman Scholarship funded by Telecom Eireann to enable him to pursue a PhD. He was the first recipient of this type of scholarship and a most worthystandard-bearer for what is now a well established scholarship programme in UCD. His PhD, which he completed in 1997, was an ambitious international studyof comparative service quality levels within telecommunications companies.
Liam joined the Department of Marketing as a lecturer in 1992 and was a stalwart contributor to every aspect of the department's and faculty's activities. He was an inspired teacher, devoted to his students, and he delighted in introducing innovations, both in the content and delivery of his courses.
His reputation as a wonderful teacher and communicator spread abroad and he received many invitations to speak at courses and conferences at venerable business schools around the world. Indeed, he saw his role as being an ambassador for his subject and his university within the global academic community. The B Comm International degree, which he directed successfully forseveral years, provided an ideal challenge for him. This broad horizon was manifest also in his research endeavours which he pursued with enormous energy and enthusiasm. His ambition was to put his department and university on the map as a world-class centre for research in services marketing. He pursued this objective by his own prodigious output of work, by developing and directing a centre for research in quality and services management, and by attracting several major international conferences to UCD.
To achieve so much through a whole academic career would be remarkable but for one so young to achieve such personal stature was outstanding. The breadth ofhis reputation internationally was demonstrated by the American Marketing Association conference this August, at which a memorial fund was set up which is expected to attract donations of $50,000 to institute an annual award in his name.
It was a cruel irony that just when Liam was at the height of his achievements he was struck down with lymphatic cancer two-and-a-half years ago. He approached this ultimate challenge with courage and fortitude and the intellectual curiosity of an academic researcher. Despite his own discomfort, Liam remainedinvolved and interested in his work up to the very end and kept up correspondence and collaboration with his many friends and colleagues around the world via e-mail.
Liam was loved by his colleagues and friends for his warmth, good humour and youthful enthusiasm, which will be greatly missed. Our loss is as nothing, however, compared to that of his wife, Muriel, and their two little daughters, Francoise and Madeleine. They were the light of his life and leaving them was his greatest sadness. To them and to his father, Seamus, and his sister, Mairead, we would like to offer our very deepest sympathy.
S. de B. & M.L.