In memoriam

Rajan Pillai

Batch of 1972 · Passed away in 2025

Rajan Pillai came back to Riverside to teach physics in 1978, six years after he left it as a student, and stayed for thirty-four years. He taught physics as a set of good stories and coached the college crews at dawn through every winter. He built half of the original boathouse racks himself and could name every boat, and every rower, he ever sent down the river. We send our deepest sympathy to his wife, Lakshmi, and to their children. The bench by the slipway now carries his name.

Eleanor Whitcombe

Passed away in 2024

Eleanor Whitcombe taught English at Riverside from 1971 to 2004 and never once, by her own account, set a book she did not love. Generations of students remember the red ink, the kindness underneath it, and the Friday poetry readings in the library that she kept going through two building projects and one flood. She is remembered with deep gratitude by her former students and colleagues. Her family has asked that anyone who wishes to mark her life gives a book to the library.