Secretariat

Terry Llewelwyn Price, MA

We are sorry to let colleagues know that Mr Terry Price, former Assistant Director of the Careers Service, died on 29 February 2011.  In the course of his thirty-two years at Leeds, he was at the forefront of many of the developments which brought about very considerable expansion of the scope and reach of the Service.

Born in 1934, Terry Price was educated at The Grammar School, Farnborough and St Catherine’s, Oxford.  He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1958 and joined the Electronics Division of Rank-Bush Murphy Limited, where his responsibilities centred on the recruitment and training of graduate engineers and scientists.  This role brought him into close contact with a number of university career services and, in 1965, he opted to make his own future in this field, with his appointment to Leeds as Assistant Secretary of the Appointments Board (as the Careers Service was then known).

Terry immediately proved himself a considerable asset to the small team of colleagues he had joined.  Initially, he took responsibility for advising students in Civil, Electrical and Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering.  Friendly and approachable, but also well-informed and objective, he established a very good rapport with the students whom he advised.  This applied equally to his relations with the staff of the departments concerned, and he came to be widely known, liked and respected throughout the University.  During the 1970s, he also assumed responsibility for advising law students for a number of years.  This proved a very fruitful association.  He considerably extended the level of contact between students and the Service and liaised extensively with the Law Society and other professional bodies about the implications of revisions to the structure of legal training.  It was also entirely due to Terry’s efforts to nurture new relationships that several large firms of London Solicitors decided to extend their recruitment of law graduates beyond the confines of Oxford and Cambridge.

Building contacts with a wide range of employers was an area in which Terry proved singularly capable.  He had a very imaginative and well-thought out approach to external relations and in due course assumed full responsibility for employer liaison.  He was responsible for many major initiatives, which saw links with existing graduate employers enhanced and the establishment of connections with many organisations for whom graduate recruitment was a new concept.  Numerous employers commented appreciatively on his detailed mastery of his brief.  He also took responsibility for co-ordinating the programme of vacation work opportunities for students.  He was promoted to Senior Careers Adviser in 1987 and was later designated one of the Service’s Assistant Directors.  In addition to his other duties, he took charge of the development of internal training programmes.  He retained responsibility for providing careers advice to students in many schools and departments, including engineering and languages.  Colleagues drew heavily on his rich seam of expertise and knowledge.

Terry also involved himself extensively in the work of the Association of Graduate Career Advisory Services (AGCAS).  Chief Writer for the Association’s information booklet on Opportunities for Civil Engineers, he alsoserved on a variety of AGCAS working parties and committees, and as liaison officer with several of the professional engineering Institutions.  He was also an expert philatelist with a large personal collection of stamps of which he was very proud.  He retired from his University post in 1997.

Terry is survived by his wife, Sheila, sons Andrew and Richard, daughters Susan and Elizabeth, stepsons Graham and Nigel, and grandchildren.

The funeral took place on 9th March.