Archie Roy

Archie was a great man. We shall not see his like again. I was honoured to speak for a few minutes, describing his contribution to adult education in Glasgow University, as part of a public tribute. When planning for this event started, I expressed the hope that his stalwart 50+ years of Glasgow University Continuing Education would be remembered. Such a view, voiced, means you get fingered to say something yourself and I was happy to do so.

I started with a little bit of history, partly re-used from a previous talk. Archie started teaching for us in 1951, when university continuing education sat on the crest of a wave. It seemed important to provide some context, especially in describing a sort of provision which is certainly now in decline, irrespective of any absolute value it might have. Also, academic colleagues from other European countries might have been mystified; the "extra-mural" tradition is a particularly British phenomenon. I was struck, again, by how Scottish physicists played such significant roles in this history, even at its earliest origins.

Archie was a man of some eminence, globally, with genuine achievements to his name. Many colleagues, sympathetic in principle, now have no time for continuing education. There's always another paper to be finished, a grant proposal deadline to hit. That Archie always found time for those people outside the academic mainstream says something important about the man: a great scientist and a polymath but one for whom people and community never lost their importance.