Renowned Oxford University professor Roger Hood made an immense contribution to criminology spanning many decades.

He was Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Criminology from 1973 to 2003.

Roger Grahame Hood was born in Bristol in 1936, the second of three sons of Ronald Hood, and his wife Phyllis (ne Murphy). He died aged 84 on November 17.

Prof Hood CBE remained active academically until the very end and had only just completed his most recent work on the death penalty in the Caribbean when he became ill.

Prof Roger Hood

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Colleagues at the universitys Faculty of Law said he was a man of immense intellectual generosity, the sponsor and inspiration of innumerable professional careers.

He was a devoted husband of Nancy, whose loss last year affected him deeply, a loving father to Cathy, stepfather to Zoe, Clare and David, devoted uncle to Matthew, grandfather to Grace, Lola, Floyd and Jay, and great uncle to Eben.

He was a faithful friend to his students, colleagues and huge circle of contacts around the world.

Above all, he was a man of high principle and unimpeachable integrity, an anti-racist before the term had been invented, and a fierce opponent of the death penalty, a cause which absorbed much of his time after his supposed retirement in 2003.

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Throughout his long and distinguished career, he believed that criminology should not only be an academic discipline but also a resource to be deployed in the struggle for both legal and social justice.

Until his last weeks, he remained energetic, vigorous and fully engaged, still researching and writing, and making invaluable suggestions for current and future projects through his longstanding and fruitful relationship with the Death Penalty Project in London.

He spent nearly two decades working with Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar at the Death Penalty Project, designing and conducting research to challenge assumptions about the death penalty and to provide empirical data to assist their efforts to bring about reform and indeed abolition around the world through litigation and policy engagement.

They were among his closest friends.

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Many of the current members of the Centre for Criminology owe Prof Hood an immense personal and professional debt.

He was held in the same high regard at his college, All Souls, where he never tired of encouraging younger scholars, while developing, over his many decades there, friends for life.

All Souls College issued a statement following the professors death.

Prof Roger Hood: Pictures Andrew Walmsley

It said: It is with great sorrow that the college reports the death of Professor Roger Hood CBE, QC (Hon), FBA, on Tuesday, November 17, following a short illness.

A death notice in the Oxford Mail said last month: Roger was a devoted husband, father, stepfather, brother, uncle, grandfather, great uncle and friend to so many.

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He was held in the highest regard by his colleagues and former students around the world as a tireless champion of justice and a man of integrity and humanity.

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Obituary: Oxford criminologist Prof Roger Hood campaigned to abolish the death penalty - Oxford Mail