Sir Alex Smith (15 October 1922 – 28 February 2003) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

industrial scientist Applied science is the use of the scientific method and knowledge obtained via conclusions from the method to attain practical goals. It includes a broad range of disciplines such as engineering and medicine. Applied science is often contrasted ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. Born in Lossiemouth,

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

, he was educated at Lossiemouth, Elgin Academy and, following the winning of a scholarship, Aberdeen University. The Second World War interrupted his university years, but he returned to Aberdeen after serving the war years in the Royal Navy. After graduation, he went to work for Rolls-Royce, where he worked his way up to Head of Advanced Research and played a major part in the development of the RB211 aircraft engine. On leaving Rolls-Royce, Smith took up the challenge of creating Manchester Polytechnic, which eventually become Manchester's largest university,

Manchester Metropolitan Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

. He was immensely proud of his achievements as Polytechnic's first director. He died in Alderley Edge,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England at the age of 80. His autobiography Lock up The Swings on Sundays was published by The Memoir Club.

External links

Obituary in the ''Times Online''
1922 births 2003 deaths Royal Navy sailors People from Lossiemouth Alumni of the University of Aberdeen People associated with Manchester Metropolitan University Scottish aerospace engineers 20th-century Scottish businesspeople Scottish physicists Scottish scholars and academics Royal Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century Scottish engineers Military personnel from Moray {{Scotland-engineer-stub