In 1971 my husband, John Cowley, who has died aged 89, became deputy librarian at Hatfield Polytechnic (now Hertfordshire University), which had a new library and was at the forefront of innovative services for students and local businesses.
He was headhunted for further roles – to direct the library services of the Polytechnic of North London and then at Middlesex Polytechnic. He acquired a reputation as a gifted manager and published steadily, presenting at conferences and evaluating other libraries in the higher education sector. He served as a chair of the Council of Polytechnic Librarians (COPOL) and also as a member of the Library and Information Services Council (LISC) .
In 1985 the publishers William Dawson asked him to join their Anglo-French book and journal business and, typically, he said yes to a completely new challenge.
Born in Preston, Lancashire, John was the elder child of Albert Cowley, a garage mechanic who worked as an aircraft fitter during the second world war, and Beatrice Standing. John was the only boy in his class to pass the 11-plus and go to Preston grammar school. This was difficult for him in many ways but his passion for sport helped him make a success of it. His lifelong hero was Tom Finney, the Preston North End footballer. At school he made friends with a farmer’s son and spent every weekend during the war cycling to work on the farm at Beacon Fell and bringing back eggs in his gas mask case.
After school, another friend said he was enjoying a job in the Harris Library and art gallery. John applied too and was successful. He quickly studied for his library qualifications part-time in Liverpool. He did national service in the Education Corps, attached to the Royal Horse Artillery in Hamburg. On his return to Preston, in 1952 he married Nancy Tate, also a librarian; they later divorced.
John decided to move south to further his career and in the early 1960s was put in charge of Mid-Herts College Library, in Welwyn Garden City, as their first tutor librarian. I first met John during his next job, at Hatfield, when he appointed me as a graduate trainee, and we were married in 1985. By 1995, when John retired, he had already started to prepare his latest enterprise – to create a Waltham Forest branch of the University of the Third Age. He was its first chair and ran several groups in his home. He often said that of all the things he achieved in his career he was proudest of this U3A branch, encouraging both social benefit and active learning for older people.
John wore his intellectual gifts very lightly. He had a calm and cheerful personality, but with a necessary steel core. His irreverent sense of fun was firmly evident in all but his very last days.
He is survived by me and his sons, David, Ian, Alan and Robert, from his first marriage, six grandchildren, Nicola, Beth, Luke, Alice, Josef and George, and four great-grandchildren.
