OBITUARY
| Published date | 01 February 1971 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1971.tb00978.x |
| Date | 01 February 1971 |
OBITUARY
OUR
Society has sulTered
an
irreparable loss through the death,
so
young.
of Donald Robertson. We are only one of the bodies who mourn-his
own
University, all the British Universities, those in charge of the
many
social
and industrial projects he served, the organised institutions of employers
and unions whose relations he helped to sweeten and inform, the British
community itself. His achievements
in
such a brief span are too numerous
to detail, and all our members know of them.
It
will
suflice
to mention his
membership until recently of the National Economic Development Council,
his role as one of the Economic Consultants to the Secretary of State for
Scotland, his advisory and peace-making services to the Department of
Pro-
ductivity and his much-valued contributions to the counsels of government,
industry
and
the academic world. But
it
is fitting that we should
try
to under-
stand how they grew with his character, and sprang from his qualities.
Donald first came to Glasgow University in
1944.
The head of his chosen
Department well remembers the cheerful smiling undergraduate approaching
with his easy rolling gait. When asked what service he had left, he replied
'
Mine-sweeper, Sir
';
and,
on
the comment that mines were dangerous
crockery, his reply was characteristic
'
Easy-good rifle potting practice
'.
He always played down the load he carried, though deeply sympathetic
with the troubles of those who came to him for help. He stayed in the
Political Economy Department all his purely teaching span (after an
initial year at Nuflield College) until his promotion in
1960
to the Chair of
Applied Economics in the Department of Social
and
Economic Research.
What his chief
in
the teaching department most noticed was how serenely
he rose to, and above, every challenge, at each step
of
promotion. He not
only mastered his new responsibilities, he raised them to a higher level. He
was especially successful in the delicate and onerous task of second-in-
command in a large department. And it was there that his special gifts first
flowered: quick clear administration along with the gift of making all his
fellow lecturers happy
in
their collective work. These qualities reached
their fullest growth in his
own
Department. His talent for quick friendly
contacts
and
for instilling confidence
in
his abilities brought a steady flow of
research commissions from outside, as well as the funds they required.
In
this he was gifted with an ability to discern areas which, though perhaps not
yet fashionable, were crying out for serious research as a prelude to the
formulation
of
policy. And this was exactly the work he wished and his
Department needed, and
in
which he excelled.
His
contribution as Economic
Consultant
to
the planning
of
Livingston New
Town
and the Grangemouth-
Falkirk area, for example. was typical in its clear understanding of the prob-
lems to be overcome. His work in the field of labour economics and industrial
relations included an important and original study of factory wage structures
and a valued textbook, which established him among the leading academic
thinkers in this branch of economics. This special knowledge
of
industrial
relations was coupled with a practical genius which inevitably brought
him
hasty appointments to arbitrate in tense industrial situations. His concern
117
To continue reading
Request your trial