Secretariat
Obituary: Mr E George Hauger
Members will be very sorry to learn of the death, on 30 August 2003, of Mr George Hauger, former Senior Lecturer and Head of the Adult Education Division in the Department of Adult and Continuing Education.
Born in 1921, George Hauger entered the University to read English in 1939 but after only one year his studies were interrupted by war service. As an assault troop commander with the 52nd (Lowland) Reconnaissance Regiment, he served throughout the European campaign and took part in the Arnhem expedition. At the end of the war, Mr Hauger returned to Leeds and graduated in 1947. In the following year, he was awarded his MA for a thesis on the nineteenth-century poet, Thomas Hood, and was appointed as Staff Tutor in the recently founded Department of Extra-Mural Studies. He became a Lecturer in 1953 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1966.
George Hauger taught extensively, and with great skill and enthusiasm, on drama and theatre. In an appreciation for the University Review at the time of Mr Haugers retirement, Professor Norman Jepson wrote that he brought to his teaching a profound belief that in adult education the study of a subject should start from where the student is. What so many students appreciated, whether they came from the WEA or from the Bradford Northern Theatre School, whether police officers at the Departments Summer School or newly ordained clergy, was this combination of integrity, love of the subject, and his genuine interest in and concern for students. Mr Haugers distinguished contribution to theatre studies and to the theatre generally had not only a local but a national and international dimension. Locally, he helped to establish a University Extension Certificate in Drama and, in association with Opera North, promoted lectures associated with the Grand Theatres opera programmes. He also became the recognised English translator of the plays of the Belgian dramatist Michel de Ghelderode, his translations receiving stage, radio and television performances in this country and abroad. He later turned his attention, with conspicuous success, to the translation of opera libretti. Mr Haugers publications include Theatre: General and Particular (1966) and many essays and articles in journals including Theatre Arts, Theatre Notebook, The New Theatre in Europe and Music and Letters. He received regular invitations to lecture to outside organisations, including the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and McMaster University, Canada.
In the late 1960s, George Hauger took responsibility for developing the professional study of adult education in the University, a role that was formally recognised with his appointment in 1969 as the Head of the newly-created Adult Education Division within the Department. Under his guidance Diploma, postgraduate research, and eventually Master of Education facilities were introduced. Mr Hauger also served as Acting Head of Department from 1982 to 1984, skilfully leading his colleagues through a difficult period. Within the wider University, he had close connections with the Workshop Theatre and the Department of Music, and was a greatly respected member of a range of committees and other bodies.
George Hauger retired in September 1986 after thirty-eight years service to the University. A Testimonial Fund was established to demonstrate the regard in which his contribution and achievements were held, the proposers of which described Mr Hauger as having achieved an enviable reconciliation of the extramural and the intramural. His experience and wisdom have been mobilised to the Universitys benefit At the same time, he has been concerned, practically and perennially, to foster links with the artistic life of the city and the region.
The funeral service will take place at 11.15 a.m. on Wednesday 10 September 2003, at St Oswalds (C.E.) Church, Collingham, which is situated at the junction of the A58 and Church Lane. Family flowers only, please, but donations in memory of Mr Hauger may be made to the British Heart Foundation.
Published: 3 September 2003