Colleagues remember…
I experienced Ozzie’s legacy working as a CUSO cooperant in Botswana for several years. Two years were spent at a brigade with one of the sorghum mills Ozzie helped to develop. It was transformational for the community. Here’s the IDRC film about the innovation: An End to Pounding.
Sue Godt
I worked with Ozzie in the Centre’s Nairobi office from 1989 to 1992. He was quite a character, in a nice way, and a great source of sound advice. One our our research projects in Botswana piggy-backed on one of his former projects that had improved the lives of villages with the raising of rabbits. We brought in skin-tanning using local natural products. Ozzie was very pleased with this type of integration. Good memories!
Sylvain Dufour
I first met Ozzie in Gaborone, Botswana in 1977; we were on opposite sides of an argument. Ozzie was with CUSO, which had decided to close its volunteer programs in Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland. I was traveling for the World University Service of Canada and was in discussions with the Ministry of Education in all three of these countries to provide WUSC volunteer teachers. It was a memorable meeting over a cup of rooibos teas and thoughts on the poly sci of non-governmental organization in international development. We left on a handshake. Years later, Ozzie was in mind when looking through CUSO files at the National Library and Archives Canada. By chance I found a set of telegrams and memos reporting the meeting in Gaborone. It was good to see the moment in time was considered worth documenting. Decades on I met Ozzie in a corridor of IDRC. Mutual recognition was immediate as was a greeting and a handshake. A meeting remembered. A file closed.
Chris Smart
A full obituary is available here.
Bulletin 77
July 2025