The Lord Dearing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ronald Ernest Dearing (1930-07-27)27 July 1930 |
| Died | 19 February 2009(2009-02-19) (aged 78) |
| Education | Malet Lambert Grammar School |
| Alma mater | University of Hull (BSc 1954) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| Life peerage 13 February 1998 – 19 February 2009 | |
Ronald Ernest Dearing, Baron Dearing,CB HonFREng (27 July 1930 – 19 February 2009[1]) was a senior civil servant before becoming chairman and chief executive of thePost Office Ltd.
Dearing attended Willerby Carr Lane County Primary School before going on toMalet Lambert Grammar School. At theUniversity of Hull, he gained aBSc in Economics in 1954 during a two-year break from the Ministry of Power.[2]
Dearing joined the civil service as a 16-year-old clerical officer in 1946. By 1967, aged 37, he was one of the two deputy heads of the coal division of theMinistry of Power, with the rank of assistant secretary.[3]
In 1967 Dearing had responsibility for two major issues arising from the 1966Aberfan disaster, in which a huge coal waste tip collapsed onto the town of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people including 116 school children. Dearing briefed the then Minister,Richard Marsh on the question of the possible removal ofLord Robens as chair of theNational Coal Board in the wake of the damning Davies Report, which found the Coal Board wholly responsible for the disaster, and on the issue of the removal of the remaining tips above the town.[4] He became North East regional director of theDepartment of Trade and Industry in 1972.[5]
He was chairman and chief executive of thePost Office Board from 1980 and 1987[6] and chairman of theCouncil for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1987 to 1988.[7]
He was chairman ofUfi Ltd between 1998 and 2001, and theirSheffield based head office is named Dearing House after him.[8]
In 2009, just before his death, Dearing co-founded withKenneth Baker theBaker Dearing Educational Trust, a charity made to supportuniversity technical colleges in England.[9]
He was later the fifthChancellor of theUniversity of Nottingham (1993–2000) and the author of theDearing Report into Higher Education.[10] The annual teaching awards at Nottingham (initiated in 1999) are named after Lord Dearing, as is a more recent series of teaching fellowships. The main education building on the Jubilee Campus is also named after him. The nameDearing Report is also applied to the 2001 report which he chaired: "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium".[11]
He married Margaret Patricia Riley in 1954.[12]
In the1979 New Year Honours, Dearing was appointed to theOrder of the Bath as a Companion (CB)[13] and in the1984 Birthday Honours, Dearing wasknighted[14] and the Queen conferred the honour upon him on 21 August 1984.[15] In 1992 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Academy of Engineering.[16]
In the1998 New Year Honours, he was announced to be alife peer[17] and was raised to thepeerage asBaron Dearing, ofKingston upon Hull in the County of theEast Riding of Yorkshire.[18][19]
In 2000, Lord Dearing visitedMalet Lambert School Language College, Kingston upon Hull, to open a new building constructed for the use of science and geography, it being named the Dearing Centre. Similarly, in 2004, he visitedHymers College, Kingston upon Hull, where he opened the new science block with the purpose of educating the children in the areas of physics and chemistry. The Dearing Building on the University of Nottingham'sJubilee Campus is named after this former chancellor of the university.[20]
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| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Nottingham 1993–2000 | Succeeded by |
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