My colleague Gordon Reece, who has died aged 76, was an unconventional academic. He was a pioneer of computational fluid dynamics and of novel mathematics teaching methods for engineers, but he was also an election forecaster and spoke German and French fluently. He was a socialist, humanist, trade unionist and CND supporter.
Gordon was born in Stafford, the son of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, Horst Riesenburg (later anglicised to Reece), and his wife, Hilde (nee Gans), who were both teachers. He attended Kempsey primary school, near Worcester, and then the Royal Grammar School Worcester.
He studied mathematics at King’s College London and worked as a teacher and lecturer while studying part-time for an MSc on the foundations of quantum mechanics. His PhD in turbulence modelling at Imperial College led to a fellowship developing computer-assisted learning for engineers.
In 1978 Gordon was appointed lecturer in engineering mathematics at the University of Bristol. In an era of chalk and talk, he developed a multimedia approach to teaching. Since the 1970s other departments of engineering mathematics in British universities have closed but largely thanks to Gordon, Bristol’s still thrives. He contributed widely to university life, as secretary for the AUT lecturers’ union (now UCU) and was a member of the university council and senate. He was also director of engineering undergraduate studies.
Gordon combined his interests in computers and politics through election forecasting, which he started in the 50s. He did not conduct polling, but he used polling data to forecast the composition of parliament and hence which party would be able to form a government. His forecasts proved to be more accurate than those produced by commercial organisations, even using the same data.
In 1967 Gordon married Nesta Jones and they had three children, David, Miriam (Mim) and Helen. Nesta died in 1981.
He retired as a lecturer in 2000 and travelled widely, mainly in Europe and the far east. On one of these trips, in Malaysia, he met Kim Lee and they entered into a civil partnership in 2006.
Gordon was a kind man who was determined to improve the lot of others. His friends and family will remember his boyish sense of fun and famous birthday parties in his Bristol townhouse.
Helen died last year. He is survived by Kim, David, Mim and his six grandchildren.
