British academic (1921?2003)
The Lord Perry of Walton
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Born
| Walter Laing MacDonald Perry
(
1921-06-16
)
16 June 1921
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Died
| 17 July 2003
(2003-07-17)
(aged 82)
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Walter Laing MacDonald Perry, Baron Perry of Walton
,
OBE
,
FRS
,
[2]
FRCP
,
FRSE
(16 June 1921 ? 17 July 2003) was a distinguished Scottish academic. He was the first Vice Chancellor of the
Open University
.
Life
[
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]
Perry was born in
Dundee
, son of Flora and Fletcher Perry, and educated at
Ayr Academy
and the
High School of Dundee
. He studied medicine at the
University of St Andrews
, graduating with an MB ChB in 1943, MD in 1948 and a DSc in 1958. Between 1944 and 1946 he worked as a Medical Officer in
Nigeria
. He later worked as a
scientist
for institutions like the
Medical Research Council
. In particular he became an expert on
polio
. He had a reputation for following the
scientific method
rigorously.
He developed his career at the
University of Edinburgh
as Professor of Pharmacology, later Dean of Medicine and Vice Principal. In 1959 he was elected a member of the
Harveian Society of Edinburgh
.
[3]
In 1969 he became Vice Chancellor of the Open University and made that university into an effective institution proving that sceptics had been wrong. He was mainly responsible for deciding that the Open University would not compromise on academic standards ? he was determined that its qualifications should be of equal academic value to non-distance learning universities. Perry worked further to develop distance learning through the
United Nations
.
Perry was appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
in the
1957 New Year Honours
[4]
and was
knighted
in 1974.
[5]
He entered the House of Lords upon being created a
life peer
with the title
Baron Perry of Walton
, of
Walton
in the County of
Buckinghamshire
on 9 February 1979.
[6]
He joined the
Social Democratic Party
(SDP) as a founder member in 1981, and was one of the signatories to the
Limehouse Declaration
.
[7]
When the SDP merged with the
Liberals
in 1988 he chose instead to become a member of the anti-merger
'continuing' SDP
, and was deputy leader of the new party's peers from 1988 to 1989.
[8]
He later took the
Liberal Democrat
whip, and served on the committee dealing with science and technology. He kept working right up to his death in 2003.
Perry married Catherine Hilda Crawley in 1971. Her sister Mary married
Alun Michael
and her brother married
Christine Crawley, Baroness Crawley
.
A collection of Walter Perry's papers, containing work relating to the
Open University
, other
distance education
institutions and work for the
House of Lords
, are preserved in the Open University Archive.
References
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]
External links
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