University loses symbol of tenacity

Anyone who was in contact with Anthony Abela in recent years could not but be awed by his tenacity and the will to live in the face of his long struggle with cancer.

He died on Tuesday aged 51, a few hours after another university staff member, deputy registrar Joe Bartolo, had passed away aged 61.

Colleagues spoke highly of both men. Besides being a "model academic", in the words of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Dominic Fenech, Prof. Abela was also an exceptionally keen and dedicated lecturer.

His death is a great loss for the country, for sociology in general but most of all for the department, his colleague, Sociology Department head Joseph Troisi said.

"What was most impressive about him was his unwavering dedication... despite having struggled with his ailment for the past six years, he marched on bravely and maintained his commitment towards his work and his students.

"Just five days ago", Prof. Troisi continued, "I visited him along with the faculty dean and he said he was hopeful he would return to work the day after... that is how dedicated he was."

Prof. Fenech said: "He was very open about the fact that he had cancer, unlike many who are diagnosed with a terminal sickness. Yet he had a will to live, and live fully, maintaining his dedication to his profession and his students right to the end.

"He was a model academic in all spheres... research, lecturing... and he was a model in spirit. It will be very difficult to replace Tony Abela."

Prof. Abela obtained a degree in philosophy in Malta but then went on to obtain an STB in Rome, a Masters in theology from the Centre Sevres in Paris and another Masters and a D.Phil in sociology from the Jesuit Loyola University of Chicago and the University of Oxford respectively.

His concerns in social research were very much driven by Christian philosophy and included comparative European values studies, the family, religion, poverty, social exclusion and social policy, youth and gender.

In fact, he pioneered wide scale studies of changes in values in Malta.

He was principal researcher of the European values study and member of the European values steering committee in Tilburg. For three years he was director of the Institute of Social Welfare at the University of Malta, having earlier served as adjunct professor at the Gregorian University, in Rome.

He will be missed by many of his past and present students - myself included - since the department of sociology has lost a profound intellectual who engaged his students critically in the whole spectrum of contemporary social theory, particularly in the sphere of cultural studies.