Walter Laing Macdonald Perry KT OBE, Barron Perry of Walton, 21 June 1921 - 17 July 2003

Lord Perry of Walton died suddenly on 17 July 2003, at the age of 82 years. Walter Laing Macdonald Perry was a native of Dundee, educated at Morgan Academy Dundee, Ayr Academy, Dundee High School and St Andrews University (MB ChB, MD and DSc), winning the Rutherford Silver Medal for his MD thesis and the Sykes Gold Medal for his DSc thesis. After Casaulty Officer and House Surgeon posts in 1943-44, he served as a Medical Officer in the Colonial Medical Service in Nigeria in 1944-46, then briefly as a Medical Officer in the RAF, 1946-47, before embarking on a scientific career on the staff of the Medical Research COuncil at the National Institute for Medical Research from 1947 to 1958, serving as Director of the Department of Biological Standards from 1952 to 1958. Professionally, he achieved MRCP (ED) in 1963 and was elected FRCPE in 1967, FRCP in 1978, FRSE in 1960 and FRS in 1985. In 1958 he came to Edinburgh as Professor of Pharmacology, holding the Chair from 1958 to 1968. During this time he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1965-67) and Vice-Principal of the University (1967-68) before leaving to become the inaugural Vice-Chancellor of the Open University in 1968, a post he held until 1980. During this period at the Open University he developed a second distinguish career as a university administrator and a promotor and facilitator of open and distance learning, in which fields he later performed extensive work on behalf of the United Nations. A third career, in politics and public life, began with his ennoblement to a life peerage in 1979, taking the title of Walton in the County of Buckinghamshire, the initial base of the Open University. Latterly Walter sat as a Liberal Democrat, having twice been Social Democratic Party deputy leader in the Lords in the 1980s. He took an active role in the Lords' Select Committee on Science and Technology and held interests in and spoke on many areas of public policy, including fisheries policy. Recognition of his distinguished careers came with a succession of honours; OBE in 1957, Knight Bachelor in 1974 and Baron in 1979; 10 honorary degrees from UK, North American, College London; the Wellcome Gold Medal in 1993 and Inaugural Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000. He was Chairman, President or member of numerous commercial, educational, public interest and scientific bodies. Lord Perry's publications included sole or part authorship of approximately 90 books, research papers and abstracts. Shining through of Walter Perry's careers are strengths of commitment and sheer hard work, rigorous analysis of scientific, educational and organizational problems, experimentation and pursuit of clear objectives. Against scepticism, elitism and ill-informed criticism he drove through the establishment of the Open University. It is today respected internationally, is by some orders of magnitude our largest university in terms of student enrollment and is demonstrably successful outcome from an experiment initiated 40 years ago. It represents a fine monument to Walter Perry.