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Tenacious Scholar in an Evolving Field

Robert Thomas (鈥淭ommy鈥�) Rosin 鈥�60

November 26, 2025, in Berkeley, California, from complications of old age and long-term lymphoma.

Tommy was raised in the Los Angeles area, where he suffered from allergies and asthma. His health improved considerably as an adolescent and he was vital and active when he entered Reed, where he wrote his thesis (“The Occasion of Explicit Ideology”) under Professor Edwin Garlan [philosophy 1946–73] and Professor David Heath French ’39 [anthropology].

Always open to new experiences, Tommy traveled in a freezing boxcar from Portland, Oregon, to Reno, Nevada, during one winter vacation with Diskin Clay ’60. He was also, like his friend Dick Levin ’60, passionate about dance—so passionate that he spent the summer of 1959 at a dance school in New England.

Following graduation, Tommy joined Richard A. Morgan ’60 and Vito Victor ’60 on strenuous backpacking trips in the High Sierra. This became a regular summer activity for all three men well into their sixties, taking 12-day trips carrying 70-pound backpacks. Tommy continued to participate fully even after undergoing pancreatic surgery and being diagnosed with lymphoma and severe apnea. 

Later, Tommy completed his doctoral dissertation, “Land Reform and Agrarian Change: Study of a Marwar Village from Raj to Swaraj,” which received high praise from major scholars in Indian studies. His work questioned the standard anthropological definition of a “family” as a “cohabiting kinship group,” an observation presented not as a triumphant challenge to received opinion, but as a contribution by a young scholar to an evolving field. 

Throughout his life, Tommy embraced wholeheartedly every obligation of a university professor, even serving as chairman of his department. Those who remember him as an undergraduate student at Reed 70 years ago would be likely to credit Reed with nurturing these values (back when French was the college’s only professor of anthropology).

Following his first marriage, to Sylvia Hane '61, Tommy married photographer Gail Wread, who became his partner in both life and work. Together, they conducted intensive studies of the centuries-old water-management practices of the rural peasants of India—and thereafter, Tommy defended his conclusion that these practices, which sustained underground aquifers, were superior to the plans of the national government to construct several dams on the large northern rivers. In total, he spent 40 years doing field research and five years living in the village of Gangwa, which he loved.

As he conducted these studies, Tommy became interested in the arithmetic employed by the peasants to keep track of ever-changing water levels in village wells. This led him to publish a paper on a system they devised based on the number four, continuing a fascination with number theory that began with introductory courses taught by Professor Lloyd Williams [math 1947–81].

In 2007, Tommy was diagnosed with lymphoma, and had the pancreatic operation that saved his life. A gentle and delightful soul, he was likened to an owl by his elder daughter, Shawn: His outspread wings sheltered his offspring even while preparing them for the independent lives that they would be encouraged to lead. 

Tommy is survived by his wife, Gail, and his children, Shawn and Miranda. —Richard A. Morgan ’60, Vito Victor ’60, and Gail Wread-Rosin