Our father, Ramesh Vyas, who has died aged 82, was a gentle, modest man who had an unerring sense of justice; someone who took pleasure in quietly challenging whatever prevailing prejudices and unfairness he encountered.
He was the second of four children born to Harakhji, a shop owner, and Nirmala, a housewife, in Hansot, Gujarat, India. When he was a young boy the family moved to Akyab (now Sittwe) Island in former Burma, but they fled back to Gujarat when Burma was invaded by the Japanese during the second world war in 1942. Witnessing poverty and suffering in both countries profoundly influenced him, and led him to abandon his traditional Hindu upbringing in favour of atheism, and to become a lifelong socialist.
In 1957 he came to the UK to train as a metallurgist in Birmingham. It was here that he met our mother, Marian Walters, a teacher, in 1958, and they married in 1961 – after Dad had refused an arranged marriage awaiting him in India. In 1964 Dad started teacher training and became a lecturer in higher education, obtaining an MSc in 1968 from the University of Surrey. The family moved to Preston in 1970, where he became a senior lecturer in materials science at Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire), before having to take early retirement in 1985 because of illness. Shortly after this he was awarded a PhD in x-ray crystallography at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
After retirement, Dad became heavily involved in supporting the local community in Preston. He was a governor of two local secondary schools, and spent four years on the board of the local area health authority. He was proud of his long-time membership of the Preston and Western Lancashire Racial Equality Council, whose education subcommittee he chaired, and he also volunteered as an interpreter for Lancashire constabulary. In 2000 he was diagnosed with multi-infarct dementia, and the next 15 years saw his sharp intelligence being eroded. Despite this, and even in his last few days, he never lost his innate respect for, and empathy with, others.
He is survived by Marian, by ourselves, and by five grandsons, Walt, Dylan, Aneurin, Dominic and Isaac.
