PRINCESS DI'S DEATH SADDENS SEMO PROFS

The death of Princess Diana saddened Southeast Missouri State University music instructor Paul Thompson.

Thompson is a British citizen and an instructor of flute at Southeast.

"She was very beautiful and very elegant and kind of charismatic," he said Tuesday.

"In that sense, it is a great loss," he said. "The feeling I have is kind of disbelief really."

"She was so young and so beautiful, you expected her to live to a ripe old age," said Thompson, who grew up in England and spent his first 25 years there.

He has lived in the United States for the past 11 years. He is beginning his seventh year of teaching at Southeast.

Mitch Gerber, associate professor of political science at Southeast, also expressed sadness over Diana's death.

"She was really loved by many, including myself," he said.

Gerber spent five months teaching in London in the spring of 1996 as part of the university's educational exchange program.

"I lived literally four blocks away from Kensington Palace. That is where Princess Di resided," he said.

The British viewed Princess Di as the public's queen.

Thompson said he was a little surprised by the enormous outpouring of grief over the death of Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris early Sunday.

"In a way, I wasn't sure that a nation could even feel that way about any individual any more," he said. "Sometimes it seems like such a hard-nosed and cynical age."

Most people in Britain harbor conflicting feelings about the royal family.

On the one hand, they see the monarchy as a waste of money. On the other, they view it as solid, British tradition.

"British people are generally extremely aware of their heritage and their history, probably more so than Americans," he said.

It is hard to imagine England without the monarchy, said Thompson.

"It would be very hard to ignore the existence of the royal family, one way or another," he said.

"There are a lot of them. They do perform a lot of functions. They are very visible,' he said.

Di wasn't the only member of the royal family to be involved in charitable efforts, Thompson said.

The scandals that surrounded the marriage of Princess Di and Prince Charles and their ultimate divorce didn't dampen the princess' popularity.

Thompson said that England's history is full of royal scandal and intrigue.

It wasn't until Queen Victoria's time that the notion arose that the royal family had to epitomize clean living.

Thompson said he wouldn't be surprised if some anti-stalking laws are enacted in Britain in an effort to protect the royal family and celebrities from the paparazzi, the commercial photographers who often hang around to snap their every move.

"Britain is a little less libertarian than this country," said Thompson.

The tabloid newspapers have devoted much ink to Princess Di's love life.

"The British tabloids tend to be a lot more lurid," Thompson said.

But Gerber suggested Diana's death won't deter the paparazzi and Britain won't enact draconian laws.

"A country that is an open society, a Democratic society like Britain can only go so far," he said.

Gerber said he expects the press will turn its attention to Prince Charles and how he raises his children.