My friend and former colleague Tony Henry, who has died aged 71, was a college principal with a pony tail, an earring and an extraordinary gift for improving further education.
“Quality is about living, loving, passion, fighting, cherishing, nurturing, struggling, laughing and crying,” he once wrote. There were plenty of all those things in the Birmingham colleges in which he worked between 1972 and 2007.
Tony led by empowering staff and through them, students. There were no “staff only” areas in the colleges where he was employed. He kept an open diary, did not have an office and was known for coming in at 7.30am, making tea for the cleaners and answering phones before the staff came in.
He was born in Birmingham to Joseph Henry, an industrial painter and decorator, and his wife, Beattie (nee Tromans), a factory worker. After Central grammar school in the city he travelled around Europe for two years and then worked briefly as an unqualified teacher at Boldmere secondary school before studying for an English degree at the University of Wales in Lampeter, from where he graduated in 1971.
After gaining a PGCE at Wolverhampton Polytechnic (now University) in 1972 he started as a lecturer in general studies at Garretts Green College in Birmingham, eventually becoming head of department there. After a spell as vice-principal at Hall Green College in the city, in 1986 he returned to Garretts Green, which was by then called East Birmingham College, to become its principal.
Tony made East Birmingham College, where I was one of his vice-principals, into an inclusive, diverse institution, with centres all over the city. In particular he promoted women into management positions and he also enabled thousands of young women from Pakistani/Bangladeshi backgrounds to attend the college’s Women’s Academy and progress on to university and professional careers.
When it became City College Birmingham after a merger with Handsworth College in 1998, Tony became deputy of the new entity, later becoming principal. After he had led the college through years of successful inspections, in 2007, the year before he was due to retire, the college had a poor one. Typically, Tony took responsibility and resigned, leaving further education for new adventures.
Two of his sons, Ben and Danny, travelled the world in 2008, and he did the same, meeting up with them in various countries. He continued to travel extensively for the rest of his retirement, spending a lot of time in Vietnam and Cambodia.
He is survived by his wife, Anne (nee Heath), whom he met at university and married in 1971, by his sons, Ben, Sam and Danny, and two grandchildren, Joseph and William.
