Oxfam Pioneers

Posted: 9 August 2005

The Oxfam America community is mourning the passing of Dr. William L. Gaines, a former member of the Board of Directors, and Roger Flather, a former Executive Director. Both of these distinguished leaders played important roles in the early years of Oxfam America, and worked tirelessly to advance the work of the organization.

Bill Gaines was a member of the Board of Directors during the mid-‘70s and early ‘80s. He was recruited by the Board chair at that time, Newell Flather (Roger’s brother) who was aware of his many contributions to international educational exchange through the Fulbright Program and the African-American Institute (AAI). At AAI during the 1960s, he founded several fellowship programs for African students, which prefigured the African development and institution-building strategies that he favored for Oxfam America. He was an anglophile, and recipient of Her Majesty’s OBE award. That suited him well for an Oxfam that was founded in Great Britain and on which the nascent American affiliate depended heavily in its early years. He died in February 2005 at age 82.

Roger Flather served as both a Board member and Executive Director at Oxfam America in the mid 1970s. He was an experienced internationalist who spent seven years as an early Peace Corps administrator in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Micronesia. According to Joe Short, who succeeded Roger Flather as Executive Director, “Roger initiated plans for a computerized data base of Oxfam America donors which when implemented enabled it to build and retain a large list of private donors from the Cambodia campaign.” That list, he said, “became the firm foundation of our financial viability and independence for undertaking development policy advocacy, as well as grant-making.” Roger Flather was an avid fundraiser, and supported staff initiatives to create the Fast for a World Harvest campaign, which became the flagship of Oxfam America’s combined grassroots development education and fundraising program. Roger was 71 when he passed away at his home in New York city in November 2004.

According to Joe Short, “both were internationalists, institution builders, and pragmatists about the organizational and fundraising needs of a new Oxfam America, which was trying to establish itself as a self-reliant voice for development without taking US government funds. Both also were exponents of OA strategies and grant-making that helped empower the poor by supporting their self-directed organizations and projects.”