My father, Roger Morgan, who has died aged 82, was a leading figure in the field of international relations from the 1960s onwards.
A fine linguist fluent in German, French and Italian, he maintained a lifelong conviction that European unity provided the best guarantees for prosperity, respect for human rights, peace and international understanding.
Born in Burton upon Trent, east Staffordshire, he spent most of his childhood in Wolverton, north Buckinghamshire, where his father was headteacher of the local grammar school. Roger was a pupil there for several years before going on to Leighton Park, the Quaker school in Reading.
Having read history at Downing College in the early 50s, he returned to Cambridge to complete his PhD after studying in France, Germany and the Netherlands. In Germany, he met his first wife, Annette (nee Combes), who was born in France and was studying in Hamburg. In 1957 they settled in London, where Roger worked as a lecturer at the Workers’ Educational Association; they had four children.
From 1959 onwards, Roger held a succession of academic posts in international relations at Aberystwyth, Sussex and Loughborough universities. It was at Loughborough, in the 70s, that he first obtained a chair. He alternated teaching with research posts at Chatham House and the Policy Studies Institute. He also taught abroad, at Harvard, Cornell and UCLA, at the European University Institute in Florence and at the University of Bonn.
We have happy memories of his great sense of humour. One family joke, in Dutch, for added effect, was a rare triumph of style over substance; he generally combined the two.
A lover of music and cricket, he was proud to have seen Donald Bradman score a century at Lord’s in 1948 when the Gentlemen of England played Australians, and spent many happy days watching matches at the Oval, Lord’s and Wantage Road, home of his beloved Northamptonshire. He played the violin from his schooldays until well into retirement. An avid reader, he wrote many academic books and articles and contributed regularly to Radio 4 and World Service programmes, commenting on politics and current affairs, such as elections in Germany.
Roger had contracted polio at the age of 14, spending a year in hospital. While the consequent disability was something that everyone who knew him remembered about him, his uncomplaining stoicism, willingness to overcome tiredness and pain, and his determination to concentrate on what he could do rather than what he couldn’t, ensured it was never what they remembered most.
His first marriage ended in divorce in 1982, and in 1988 he married Catherine (nee Howell). He is survived by Catherine, his daughter, Caroline, sons Pat, Marc and me, and by nine grandchildren.
