The Right Honourable

The Lord Dearing

CB HonFREng
Born
Ronald Ernest Dearing

(1930-07-27)27 July 1930
Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died19 February 2009(2009-02-19) (aged 78)
EducationMalet Lambert Grammar School
Alma materUniversity of Hull (BSc 1954)
Spouse
Margaret Patricia Riley
​
​
(m. 1954)​
Children2

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 the Post Office Ltd.

Early life

Dearing attended Willerby Carr Lane County Primary School before going on to Malet Lambert Grammar School. At the University of Hull, he gained a BSc in Economics in 1954 during a two-year break from the Ministry of Power.[2]

Career

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 the Ministry of Power, with the rank of assistant secretary.[3]

In 1967 Dearing had responsibility for two major issues arising from the 1966 Aberfan 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 of Lord Robens as chair of the National 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 the Department of Trade and Industry in 1972.[5]

He was chairman and chief executive of the Post Office Board from 1980 and 1987[6] and chairman of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) from 1987 to 1988.[7]

He was chairman of Ufi Ltd between 1998 and 2001, and their Sheffield based head office is named Dearing House after him.[8]

In 2009, just before his death, Dearing co-founded with Kenneth Baker the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, a charity made to support university technical colleges in England.[9]

University of Nottingham

He was later the fifth Chancellor of the University of Nottingham (1993–2000) and the author of the Dearing 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 name Dearing Report is also applied to the 2001 report which he chaired: "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium".[11]

Personal life

He married Margaret Patricia Riley in 1954.[12]

Recognition

In the 1979 New Year Honours, Dearing was appointed to the Order of the Bath as a Companion (CB)[13] and in the 1984 Birthday Honours, Dearing was knighted[14] and the Queen conferred the honour upon him on 21 August 1984.[15] In 1992 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.[16]

In the 1998 New Year Honours, he was announced to be a life peer[17] and was raised to the peerage as Baron Dearing, of Kingston upon Hull in the County of the East Riding of Yorkshire.[18][19]

In 2000, Lord Dearing visited Malet 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 visited Hymers College, Kingston upon Hull, whereupon 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's Jubilee Campus is named after this former chancellor of the university.[20]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Lord Dearing dies". Times Higher Education (THE). 20 February 2009.
  2. ↑ "Hull born civil servant and Chairman and Chief Executive of Post Office to have plaque unveiled in his honour". Hull City Coucil. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "It's not too late to say sorry". Times Higher Education (THE). 17 January 1997.
  4. ↑ "Aberfan aftermath, Sir Ron replies: 'I believe advice was disinterested and just". Times Higher Education (THE). 7 February 1997.
  5. ↑ "Lord Dearing". The Telegraph. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "Lord Dearing". The Guardian. 23 February 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  7. ↑ "Council For National Academic Awards". Hansard. 24 March 1988. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "Ufi Ltd (London Region)". Ofsted. 17 September 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  9. ↑ "About Us". University Technical Colleges. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "Higher Education in the learning society: Main Report". Education England. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  11. ↑ "Education and the Church: into the next 200 years" (PDF). Church of England. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  12. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
  13. ↑ "No. 47723". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1978. p. 3.
  14. ↑ "No. 49768". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 1984. p. 1.
  15. ↑ "No. 49843". The London Gazette. 20 August 1984. p. 11339.
  16. ↑ "List of Fellows 2001/2002". RAEng: 10.
  17. ↑ "No. 54993". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 1997. p. 1.
  18. ↑ "No. 55048". The London Gazette. 19 February 1998. p. 1975.
  19. ↑ "No. 24350". The Edinburgh Gazette. 20 February 1998. p. 419.
  20. ↑ "Visiting us". University of Nottingham Education Department. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
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