Remembering Charles Feinstein
Over the decades, a few notable individuals have had a profound and lasting impact on generations of Clare students. In the second of an occasional series celebrating these contributions to College life, we remember Charles Feinstein (1932–2004), one-time Fellow and Senior Tutor.
Charles Feinstein was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and studied economics at Witwatersrand University where he was involved in radical politics. He came to Cambridge as a research student in 1954 and was appointed to a post in the Department of Applied Economics in 1958. In 1963 he joined the Fellowship at Clare, finding a welcoming environment alongside other South African emigrés such as Colin Turpin (who had become a Fellow two years earlier), Bob Hepple (who was then a graduate student at Clare), and Nigel Weiss (who joined the Fellowship two years after Feinstein).
Feinstein was appointed Senior Tutor in 1969, in succession to John Northam, and served in the role for nine years – a crucial period that saw Clare become one of the first three co-residential colleges. His career after leaving Cambridge was highly distinguished: professor of economic and social history at York, Chichele, Professor of Economic History and Fellow of All Souls at Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy. Yet, as the obituary in The Guardian noted,
‘Despite his achievements and honours, he remained modest and approachable, always ready to help and advise a colleague or student’.
More recently, Jonson Cox (1976) has added his own reminiscences:
I came up to Clare in 1976 having been admitted by Charles to read economics and he was my director of studies for the first year. This was shortly after Lord Ashby as master and Charles as senior tutor had led Clare in the vanguard of colleges admitting women, along with King’s and Churchill. Lord Ashby deservedly gets much praise for his leadership.
But I’ve always felt that we should also recognise the contribution that Charles made. In a quiet and unassuming manner, he played a strong part in transforming Clare into a liberal, leading and progressive college in Cambridge.
A patient and quiet man, who felt to me slightly an outsider to Cambridge, I’ve always felt grateful to him for letting me into the College – one of only two in my year from a comprehensive school background.
It has been a pleasure, very belatedly, to recognise his impact on the College, and on some of us as his students, by way of the Charles Feinstein Bursary. This provides support each year for a ‘widening access’ student who can demonstrate the education and intent to make a positive impact on the world in terms of addressing the critical issue of climate change. The charitable foundation supporting the Charles Feinstein Bursary would welcome any others who wish to contribute and increase the support offered to widening access students.
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