We mourn the loss of one of our earliest supporters and contributors, Caitlyn Antrim. An important expert on the law of the sea (see her posts), on which she lectured at American University Washington College of Law. She died while attending an international conference on that subject. An engineer by training, she named as her IntLawGrrls foremother Grace Murray Hopper, after whom a college at Yale recently was renamed.

Here’s the notice of Caitlyn’s passing:

It is with profound sadness that the Stimson Center announces the death of one of our own, Caitlyn Antrim. Caitlyn passed away on July 28th, in Kingston, Jamaica where she was attending the 24th session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly.

Caitlyn was a Nonresident Fellow of the Stimson Center and the Executive Director of the Rule of Law Committee on the Oceans, a group of scholars and practitioners in ocean law and diplomacy. Previously, Caitlyn represented the US Department of Commerce at the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1982, served as Repair Officer and Damage Control Assistant on the USS Schofield (FFG-3), and earned the professional degree of Engineer from the Department of Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Caitlyn was a fierce advocate of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and she dedicated much of her life to encouraging the United States to become party to the Convention.

She will be missed by all of us at the Stimson Center.

“More than any one person, Caitlyn kept alive the essential discussion of the Law of the Sea issues that have lingered in limbo far too long. Her devotion to the vital mission embedded in the treaty and related matters was simply unparalleled, and her service to America’s national interest in a rules-based management of the oceans was distinguished in the highest degree.”

– Alton Frye, Presidential Senior Fellow Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations