Secretariat

Daniel F McDade

Members will be very sorry to learn of the death of Mr Daniel (Dan) McDade, former Lecturer in the School of Education, on 7 September 2007.

Born in Glasgow, Dan McDade read Classics at his home University. Graduating in 1955, he went on to complete a Teacher Training Certificate at Jordanhill College of Education. The next two years he spent on National Service, principally in the Intelligence Corps where he studied and translated Russian. Between 1958 and 1966, he taught at schools and colleges in Scotland and Canada; during this period, he also completed a part-time MEd at Glasgow, which he was awarded with First Class Honours. In 1966, he took up a lecturing post at the Callendar Park College of Education in Falkirk, where he had sole responsibility for the teaching of comparative education. Underpinned by his time in Canada, and visits to the USA and Russia, this was a field of study which, together with the sociological and philosophical aspects of education, particularly engaged his interest and established his reputation.

Dan McDade was appointed Lecturer in the then Department of Education at Leeds in 1970 to teach primarily comparative education and to contribute to the PGCE course. His incisive mind, questing spirit and scholarly temperament soon made an impression. As a close friend and colleague was later to write, his colleagues quickly became aware that here was someone with an enviable width of reading, a passionate-sceptical stance, a fine and acute mind, a sense of the history and occasional transience of educational research, and, not least, the ability to solve The Times crossword before the water even came to the boil. Stimulating, encouraging and rigorous, Dan McDades teaching, particularly in tutorials and seminars, brought the best out in his students, with whom he enjoyed an easy rapport. As moderator of its teacher training courses, he had for many years an especially close connection with what was then the College of Ripon and York St John. His help and support were greatly valued by the College. This experience stood him in good stead when, in 1986, he was appointed as the first holder of the office of Deputy Chairman of the Board for Collegiate Academic Awards. Invariably master of his brief, he despatched the duties of this office with crisp efficiency, and with great charm and aplomb.

Dan McDade retired from the University in 1993 and continued to live in Leeds. He is survived by two sons, Kevin and Stephen, and a daughter, Anne-Marie.