Obituary: Professor Gerald Fowler

Gerald Teasdale Fowler, politician and administrator: born 1 January 1935; MP (Labour) for The Wrekin 1966-70, 1974- 79; Joint Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Technology 1967-69; Minister of State, Department of Education and Science 1969-70, 1974, 1976; Professor of Educational Studies, Open University 1972-74; Deputy Director, Preston Polytechnic 1980-81; Rector, Polytechnic of East London 1982-92; Chairman, Committee of Directors of Polytechnics 1988- 90; married 1982 Lorna Lloyd; died London 1 May 1993.

GERRY FOWLER was one of those outstanding individuals who combined a brilliant intellect with an expansive and most attractive personality, writes Professor Laing Barden.

He was an excellent speaker and raconteur, with an endless stream of often relevant anecdotes. His writing was entertaining and generally to the point; although he had a tendency to indulge in 'purple' prose, with occasional mischievous recourse to classical Greek quotations that were quite lost on many of his readers with engineering and science backgrounds.

Following his first career in politics, he dedicated his life to higher education in both the university and polytechnic sectors. He worked as a Professor of Education at the Open University (1972-74), but eventually transferred his allegiance from the university sector to the newly emerging polytechnics, becoming an Assistant Director at Huddersfield Polytechnic and later Deputy Director at Preston Polytechnic. In 1982 he became Rector of the North East London Polytechnic.

As the Rector of the North East London Polytechnic he served for a number of years as a member of the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics (CDP), and was its chairman from 1988 to 1990. Fowler was one of the best known and one of the best- liked members of the CDP during its 23-year history until it recently merged with the Committee of Vice- Chancellors and Principals. He was indeed one of the great 'characters' of the polytechnic era, a short stocky figure with a high colour and an inevitable cigar, clearly a leader of men, and extremely confident of his views on where the polytechnics were

going.

He was also a dedicated champion of European collaboration in higher education and devoted much time to supporting programmes like the Erasmus project for student exchange, and also to developing closer links between the British polytechnics and their counterparts in the German Fachhochschulen. A European visit was always more interesting, lively and productive if Gerry was involved, and he certainly made it a more entertaining social occasion with his somewhat larger than life personality.

(Photograph omitted)