Walter Perry

Walter Laing Macdonald Perry, Baron Perry of Walton, of Walton in the County of Buckinghamshire Kt OBE FRSE FRS FRCP ( born June 16, 1921 in Dundee, † July 18, 2003 in London) was a British pharmacologist, university teacher and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SDP ), which was 1969-1981 first vice-chancellor of the newly established Open University of the Open University and in 1979 as a Life peer because of the Life peerages Act 1958 was a member of the House of Lords.

Life

Studies and university teachers

Perry, whose father Fletcher Perry was head of Customs and Excise of Scotland, after visiting the Ayr Academy and the High School of Dundee began studying medicine at the University of St Andrews. After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine (MB ) and a Bachelor of Surgery ( B.Ch. ), 1943, he worked as a physician at the Dundee Royal Infirmary, before he went to Nigeria in 1944, where he was the only doctor in a region with 500,000 was active population. After his return, he completed his military service as a doctor in the Royal Air Force. There he was promoted on October 3, 1946 to lieutenant ( Flying Officer ).

Subsequently, he was 1947-1952 staff of the Medical Research Council ( Medical Research Council ) and acquired during this time in 1948 a Doctor of Medicine ( MD) at the University of St Andrews. During his work for the MRC, he was at the local Mill Hill Medical Research Centre worked and worked intensively with vaccines against polio, whose effects he discovered during his work in East Africa.

He was then in 1952 Director of the Division of Biological Standards at the National Institute for Medical Research, a company founded by the Medical Research Council in 1913 medical research institution in London, where he worked until 1958. For its local merits him the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE) in 1957 was awarded. At the same time, he served 1952-1968 as chairman of the British Pharmacopoeia Commission, which is responsible for issuing pharmacopoeias. In 1958 he graduated from the University of St Andrews beyond a Doctor of Science ( D.Sc. ).

In 1958 Perry 's reputation as a professor of pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh where he taught for ten years until 1968. Recently, he was from 1967 to 1968 and Vice - Principal of the University and in 1967 a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh ( FRCPE ).

Co-founder and Vice- Chancellor of the Open University

Following Perry in 1969, first vice-chancellor of the newly founded in the New Town of Milton Keynes Open University of The Open University and has held this position until 1981.

As Vice- Chancellor of the Open University, which was at the beginning jokingly called "University of the Air", he advocated to allow higher education through a distance learning course, which offered irrespective of the previous training courses for all. Before he joined intensively for the creation of this distance learning university, which was among the first institutions of its kind, in particular the financing of such a university by Chancellor of the Exchequer ( Chancellor of the Exchequer ) Roy Jenkins was seen as a gimmick by the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Already in September 1963 Wilson, at that time leader of the opposition Labour Party had made ​​at a campaign appearance in Glasgow in the case of an election victory of his party in the lower house elections, the establishment of a University in prospect. The founding idea for themselves laid claim Wilson, came from the sociologist Michael Dunlop Young.

In the aftermath Perry took in November 1963 to Tam Dalyell contact, who was secretary of the Labour Party Standing Committee on Science at the time. This presented later in contact with Jennie Lee ago that at the general election of October 15, 1964 Minister of State for the Arts in the Ministry of Education and Science was after the election of the Labour Party and was one of the significant forces in the establishment of the Open University.

On July 23, 1969, came to the solemn launching of the Open University in 6 Carlton House Terrace, headquarters of the Royal Society. In the speech of the founding chancellor Geoffrey Crowther, Baron Crowther explained in terms of Perry:

In the initial phase, Perry also dealt largely with the selection of staff. The first 18 professors was young outstanding scientists such as Steven P. Rose, a 31 -year-old scientist from Imperial College London, who took over the chair of biology.

After the electoral victory of the Conservative Party in the general election of June 18, 1970, he managed to convince the new Minister of Education ( Secretary of State for Education) Margaret Thatcher of the objectives of the Open University, as well as the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the new conservative government of Prime Minister Edward Heath, Iain Macleod, the Open University was skeptical about. After MacLeod, however, only one month had passed after the election on July 20, 1970 succeeded Perry together with the founding Chancellor of the University of Baron Crowther MacLeod's successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Barber, to convince the public funding of the Open University.

In 1971, the university was opened with 25,000 students in 1973 and awarded its first diplomas to 867 students. In the following years the number of students from 40,000 in 1973 grew to 65,000 in 1978. During this time he was made a Knight Bachelor on 10 December 1974 and led henceforth the additional name "Sir".

House of Lords member

By Letters Patent 9 February 1979 Perry was the University of Dundee in 1975 an honorary Doctor of Laws ( Hon. LL.D. ) conferred, as a life peer with the title Baron Perry of Walton, of Walton in the County of Buckinghamshire raised to the peerage, and was until his death in the House of Lords member of al. His official introduction ( Introduction) as a member of the House of Lords took place on March 6, 1979 with the support of Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth and Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge was now.

In addition, he was also active between 1979 and 1982 as chair of the Research Defence Society, a lobby group to represent research and scientific interests, as well as for the contract research organization Huntingdon Life Sciences, which was, however, criticized by opponents of animal testing. 1980 awarded him the University of Stirling another honorary doctorate, as well as in 1981 The Open University on his retirement as Vice Chancellor.

Subsequently, he served from 1981 to his death, both as a fellow of the Open University and University College London.

Perry, who was for a time a member of the Labour Party, came in 1981, founded by the former Labour politicians Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams Social Democratic Party ( SDP). During his membership of the House of Lords between 1981 and 1983 he was first deputy chairman of the Group of the Social Democratic Party in the House of Lords. Subsequently, he was 1983-1991 Speaker of the SDP and the Liberal Democrats, founded in 1990 for education, health and social security. In addition, he was between 1985 and 1990 for the first time a member of the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology. He was also a 1985-1980 member of the National Advisory Council for Higher Education in the public sector.

Baron Perry, who was in 1985 a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS ), served from 1987 to 1988 again as a vice chairman of the SDP in the upper house. Later he was again a member of the House of Lords Committee on Science and Technology between 1992 and 1997.

1992 awarded the Victoria University of Manchester him an honorary Doctor of Education ( D.Ed. Hon ). In 1994, Baron Perry, who was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh ( FRSE ) and the Royal College of Physicians ( FRCP ), winner of the Wellcome Gold Medal. In addition, it was 2000, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded.

Publications

• The Open University. A personal account by the first Vice-Chancellor, 1976