My friend Malcolm Greenwood, who has died aged 86, was a key figure in education in Bradford. From 1958, Malcolm taught history at Carlton boys’ grammar school, and five years later joined Bradford grammar school. There he started and developed the economics department, later introducing business studies and philosophy. When Malcolm retired from BGS in 1993, his pupils acknowledged how much future students would benefit from his foresight.
Malcolm subsequently taught for three years at the Bradford University Management Centre, where he contributed modules to the MA business studies course. He published on management in education and competition in business, and in 2013 published A Life Well Lived, on female experience of the SOE, based on the recollections of his neighbour Fan Craig, a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fany) in the second world war.
In the 1950s, it was unusual for those from Malcolm’s modest background to achieve such academic success. Born in Bradford, he was the son of Hilda (nee Piggin), a typist, and Edward Greenwood, a dispensing chemist. From Thornton grammar school Malcolm went to the London School of Economics, and then obtained a PGCE teaching qualification from Hull University.
In 1986, he was elected schoolmaster-fellow at Merton College, Oxford, where he completed with distinction an Open University degree in psychology. Malcolm was a great admirer of the OU, for which he was a tutor and counsellor, frequently travelling far afield to teach the social sciences. He was especially keen to encourage mature students.
A proud Yorkshireman, Malcolm chaired Bradford’s industry and commerce committee and was an early promoter of heritage tourism. He fought the Bingley Rural ward for the Liberal party in council elections in 1982 and 1983. For more than a decade, he volunteered at the Skipton Citizens Advice Bureau.
In 1961 he married Winifred Dean, and they had two children. After her premature death from cancer, he was sustained by his rich hinterland. He was a keen cricketer, golfer and enthusiastic angler.
His beautiful tenor voice led to him meeting Anne Wicks at a local choir and the couple were married in 1978. Malcolm is survived by Anne, his daughter, Sarah, and son, Jonathan, from his first marriage, two stepsons, David and Robert, and nine grandchildren.
