My friend and former colleague Len Moore, who has died aged 89, was an industrial scientist turned academic who worked to create wider access to higher education.
Born in Derby, he was the son of Leonard, a school caretaker, and Ethel Moore, a homemaker. Though he showed academic promise, his father made him leave Derby central school for boys at 15 to start life as a paint technician so that he could contribute to the family income. Len was resolved to better himself by gaining academic qualifications, which he did initially by studying part-time and gaining a higher national certificate in chemistry at Derby Technical College in 1959.
He met Christine Halliwell at their local church youth club while still in his teens, and they married in 1958. After their marriage Len was awarded a bursary to complete a doctorate in physical chemistry at Durham University, which led to a lecturing post at Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University). In 1972 he went to Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now a university), where he became the dean of a faculty that incorporated education, the arts and social sciences, retiring 20 years later.
Len initially lectured in chemistry, but he increasingly became concerned with the social responsibilities of science and scientists, which led him to study for an MSc in the social responsibilities of science at Aston University.
When Wolverhampton Polytechnic was expanding student numbers in the 1980s, Len proposed and developed new approaches and courses for mature students, becoming the leader of the influential Centre for Curriculum Innovation. The task was to create new routes into higher education, especially for people who were able to benefit from it but did not have the formal entrance qualifications to do so.
After his retirement, Len became a Labour councillor for the Graiseley ward of Wolverhampton for six years, and a political agent for Jenny Jones, the Labour candidate and MP for Wolverhampton South West.
He was also a co-founder of Wolverhampton’s University of the Third Age (U3A), in 1996, and facilitated the creation of a Shropshire Network of U3As that still thrives today. He established a social issues interest group, which I took over in 2016, and regularly attended a number of other groups, as well as remaining a committed cyclist and walker until illness took its toll.
Len is survived by Christine, their children, Richard and Rebecca, his sister Brenda, and three nieces and a nephew.