My father, Robert Blackburn, who has died aged 80, was a passionate and gifted academic, musician and university teacher, known affectionately by his students as Dr Bob.
Robert was born in Preston, Lancashire, and grew up in Chorley, the son of Robert Blackburn, the borough librarian, and his wife, Annie (nee Thompson), a primary school headteacher. He learned the piano from an early age, and at Bolton school he became well known as a classical pianist.
Robert went up to Queen’s College, Oxford, to study history, graduating in 1961. He then took the Bachelor of Music degree at Manchester University, finishing in 1964. He married Barbara Mount-Stephen in 1965. After stints teaching in Strangeways (now HMP Manchester) and at Repton school in Derbyshire, in 1968 he became a senior lecturer in music at the University of Durham. He and Barbara settled in the village of Witton Gilbert, where they had two daughters.
In 1977 he completed a PhD on German and Austrian opera. In the early 80s Robert found himself victim to Margaret Thatcher’s education cuts. Like many Northerners at that time he headed south, and became head of music at Bath College of Higher Education (now Bath Spa University). He loved his time there, and became assistant dean (research) of the new Faculty of Arts and Music from 1984.
He was a passionate and knowledgable teacher, often playing the piano during lectures. It was here that he became known affectionately to a generation of Bath music students as Dr Bob.
Robert retired in 2003 and following his divorce from Barbara he met and married Isabel Rodgers. He did not slow down. He became a voluntary convenor for literature and humanities at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution and between 2010 and 2019 he organised five symposia on the historical arts. He and Isabel travelled widely and he always kept up to date with cultural affairs.
He is survived by Isabel, his daughters, Donna and me, and his three grandchildren, Cassian, Cora and Jonah.
