Doris Birdsall
Gordon Lakin, former Executive Director for
Teaching and Learning at Bradford College pays
tribute to Doris who died in June 2008:
“Doris Birdsall served as a Labour councillor for 22
years, until her retirement from politics in 1984.
She was awarded the CBE for her services to
politics and education in the same year.
Doris was an enormous friend of the College and
was a significant influence on the character and
role of the institution as it developed through
the final thirty years of the last century and the
early years of this one. She devoted much of her
life to public service in Bradford being eminent
in local politics, a long standing member of the
Council and a year as Lord Mayor. She was a
tremendous enthusiast, never doing anything by
halves. Foremost amongst her enthusiasms were
Bradford, education in Bradford and Bradford
College.
She served on the College Governing Body and its
committees for many years. She was particularly
concerned that the College should function
actively and successfully for the local community,
and should be both a resource for local people
seeking to improve their life opportunities and
a resource for the local economy. She was an
active supporter of the moves that began in
the 1970s and that have continued through to
the present day, to develop a ‘whole-College’
curriculum that offered ladders of opportunity
through which people can progress from basic
education to higher education and professional
qualifications. She was a proponent of widening
participation and lifelong learning before these
terms ever gained standing nationally. She had a
particular commitment to equality and to equal
opportunity, and was a longstanding and active
member of the joint governors’/academic board
Equal Opportunities Committee. In this work she
was eminent in the development of the College’s
provision and services for people with learning
difficulties and disabilities and much of our
excellent work in this area today is a consequence
of Doris’s vision, commitment and energy.
She took a real interest in the day-to-day life of
the institution and was a regular and frequent
visitor. She was always pleased to attend
exhibitions, awards ceremonies and other
occasions when the institution was ‘on show’
and was well-known by both students and
staff. Through her many contributions to the
development of the College she touched the lives
of many generations of students. She was always
an excellent ‘critical friend’ to the management
of the institution, and through her interest and
support she will be remembered with respect and
admiration by many generations of College staff
at all levels.”
Photograph courtesy of Bradford Council