Ron Pepper, who has died aged 81, served as a councillor in Lewisham, south-east London, for more than 25 years and in Canterbury, Kent, for 12 years. He also founded the Blackheath Society.
In Lewisham, Ron helped to establish a self-build housing project, pioneered public participation in council meetings and led a campaign in the late 1960s and early 70s to prevent thousands of homes being destroyed by an urban motorway.
He was elected leader of the Labour group and was acting leader of the council during the infamous National Front march in 1977, which he and others tried to stop.
Ron taught geography at Eltham Green school in the 60s, then took up the post of deputy head teacher at William Penn school, East Dulwich. At the age of 36 he became the youngest head teacher employed by the Inner London Education Authority, taking the helm at Thomas Carlton secondary school in Peckham in 1971. From there he led his 900 pupils to Downing Street when Margaret Thatcher cancelled the building of a new school, and was delighted to be dubbed by the Daily Mail, which he loathed, “Pepper the Pied Piper of Peckham”.
The eldest of three children of Bill, who was in the RAF, and his wife Nell (nee Childs), Ron was born in Canterbury and went to Simon Langton grammar school. As a teenager he worked at the Chislet colliery, Kent, and at Canterbury cricket ground, where he sold scorecards. He joined the Labour party at the age of 15 and was a founder chair of the Labour League of Youth.
He won a state scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford; at a Labour Club dance he met Jane Williams, who became a social worker. They were engaged within three days and married in 1957.
After his successful teaching career, Ron went on to become a schools inspector for Lambeth and Southwark, based in Acre Lane, Brixton. In 1990 he moved back to Kent and settled in Harbledown, near Canterbury. He was elected as a Labour member of the city council in 1995, a position he held until 2007.
In 2004, working with the Kentish Gazette, he instigated the installation of a plaque at Canterbury Cathedral to acknowledge the firewatchers who had protected the roof during the second world war.
Ron’s contribution to local politics was recognised in 2008 by both Lewisham and Canterbury councils at a special ceremony in Lewisham town hall.
A staunch family man, Ron was a keen archaeologist and local historian with a passion for education, politics and Millwall football club.
Jane died in 2012. Ron is survived by his two daughters, Kate and me, his granddaughters, Laura, Nicola, Donna, Charlotte, Amy, Molly and Daisy, and great-grandchildren, Jack, Lilly, George, Ollie and Zachary.
