Spring Conference Programmes

A few from the archives at Solly Street.

Spring Conferences were a theme for some decades. Some well known names and former Presidents involved in these particular events. More detail to come as time permits once I visit Solly Street again.

The last one was held in the year I was born. Note the address of the GA at the time: at the Park Branch Library on Duke Street.

Also note Marguerita Oughton, who has been mentioned on the blog.

Norman Pye - someone who was never President but "should have been"

Updated October 2020

That is according to former President Sheila Jones and several others...
I decided to find a little more about him.
Norman Pye was Professor of Geography, and later Emeritus Professor at the University of Leicester.

Born in Wigan, where he attended the local grammar school, Professor Pye graduated from the University of Manchester in 1935 with a first class honours degree in Geography, followed by a Diploma in Education ( Class I ).

He then pursued postgraduate studies at Cambridge and in 1938 was appointed assistant lecturer at Manchester. Between 1940 and 1946 Professor Pye was seconded to the Admiralty, Hydrographic Department, as Cartographic Officer and upon return to Manchester was made lecturer and in 1953 senior lecturer.
At various times he held visiting Professorial positions at the Universities of Alberta, Edmonton, Vancouver, Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.

Professor Pye’s main research interest was in the field of physical geography particularly climatology, cartography and surveying and he published in all these three sub-fields. He was a member of the 1938 Cambridge expedition to Spitsbergen to study the movement of glaciers and many of its findings are used as the benchmark for several contemporary studies.
In 1946 he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for research in climatology and in 1952 a Fulbright award for research in geomorphology in the Mojave and Sonora deserts, USA.

He also served on the councils of a number of academic societies including the Royal Geographical Society, Geographical Association, Institute of British Geographers and Royal Meteorological Society. Between 1965 and 1979 Professor Pye was editor of Geography and in 1972 he edited the volume, Leicester and its Region, to coincide with the British Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting held at the University.

He took over as Editor of 'Geography' from another former President David Leslie Linton.

Throughout his career Professor Pye strove to enhance the reputation of the University and the maintenance of standards during periods of rapid change. Those values that he held so strongly and which guided his contribution to the development of the University were expounded at length in his last seminar to the department in February 1979. From reading Tony Budd’s notes made at the time it is significant that so many of the points he made over a quarter of a century ago are still relevant today; for example,

“the most precious thing in a department is not the gadgetry but the students. I cannot conceive of a University without teaching but without research it would degenerate into a high school” 

“students need to distinguish between discussion (working towards truth) and debate (working towards victory of one’s own argument)” “on University members of staff…….there is a danger of them becoming so expert that they cannot be contradicted but are not worth contradicting. There is always need for stimulating contradictions”

In 1979, he was made an Honorary Vice President of the GA and elected as an Honorary Member in 1983, when Sheila Jones (who mentioned him) was made an Honorary Vice President.



In his retirement Professor Pye remained a great advocate of the University, always keen to hear news of new developments. He was Chairman of Convocation from 1982 to 1985 and a regular supporter of University events including his beloved Wine Club of which he was a founder member and President.

References
https://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/people/bereavements/2000-2009/2007/04/nparticle.2007-04-18.3867066183/index.html

Lovely descriptions here:
https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/50105/page/13

Update
A picture of Norman Pye (Honorary Editor, 1965-1979) with Mrs. D M Ellis (Assistant Editor) was included on p.59 of the Balchin Centenary book.

Norman was also mentioned by other Presidents including Richard Daugherty.