My friend and former colleague Tony Trinci, who has died aged 84, was a world expert on fungi whose knowledge was often tapped by commercial enterprises, including Marlow Foods, when it was developing Quorn, and DuPont, which took his advice when adding fungal enzymes to animal feed.
Tony was born in Swindon, Wiltshirem where his mother, Beatrice (nee Stefani), a restaurateur, had settled after separating from his father, Pietro Trinci, a builder, who had remained in their native Italy. His parents were never reconciled and Tony did not see his father until he was 11.
He grew up in Barking, east London, where, during the second world war, a doodlebug flying bomb passed through his bedroom (fortunately while he was absent), bringing down the ceiling but failing to explode until it landed 100 yards down the road, causing a number of fatalities.
After St Bonaventure’s grammar school in Forest Gate he went on to study botany at Durham University in 1959. Once he had finished his degree he got a job as a science teacher in Rayleigh, Essex, but soon resigned from the post and returned to Durham to do a PhD.
In 1964 he became a lecturer in the new microbiology department at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, where he was my PhD supervisor and, as part of his research work, he developed a comprehensive understanding of the growth of moulds, soon becoming one of the UK’s leading mycologists.
He moved in 1981 to become chair of cryptogamic botany at Manchester University, where he helped to develop the first integrated school of biological sciences, an innovation that has since been adopted in most other UK universities. His influence widened during his period as dean and then pro-vice-chancellor of the university, where I worked with him from 1989 to 2001.
He received many prizes and awards, and served as president both of the Microbiology Society and the British Mycological Society.
A genuinely nice, considerate and modest person, outside academia Tony focused on family and on helping the community, taking on school governorships and positions in various charitable organisations.
In 1961 he married Margaret Doherty, whom he met at Durham University. She survives him along with their children, John, Sarah and Rachel, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
