Professor Emanuel Eppel, the first director of the University's Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), died on 18 February aged 85. Also known as Manny, he came to Sussex in 1964 as Senior Lecturer in Developmental and Educational Psychology. In 1968 he became Professor of Continuing Education and the founding Director of CCE.
Until retirement in 1986, Manny built CCE into a significant academic unit and a major player in continuing education. A forceful and charismatic figure, he enjoyed a close and fruitful relationship with Asa Briggs, then Vice-Chancellor. His strength of personality and his considerable professional skills enhanced CCE and made a reality of his vision of university lifelong learning.
As Director, Manny was responsible for building a strong team of academic and administrative colleagues. A broad range of liberal adult education courses, open to anyone in the region who wanted to join and run in collaboration with a host of partner organisations, was complemented by many other media, including courses on BBC Radio Sussex.
On retirement Manny became an Emeritus Professor and continued to serve on the University Court. Manny had broad ranging academic interests, some shared with his wife May, who was also a member of the University, and survives him.
Fred Gray, Professor of Continuing Education and Dean of the Sussex Institute
Professor Sir Hans Singer, one of the world's most eminent development economists, died on 26 February aged 95.
Hans left the United Nations (UN) in 1969 to become one of the first research fellows of the newly founded IDS at Sussex. He did much to attract international recognition both to the University and IDS.
In his early years at IDS Hans was chairman and co-author of the radical and wide-ranging joint IDS-SPRU report, Science and Technology to Developing Countries (1970), which was referred to the UN General Assembly as the Sussex Manifesto. He played a leading role in the initiation of many UN agencies designed to help the world's poor.
In 1990 the University of Sussex awarded Hans - by now a Sussex Emeritus Professor and Professorial Fellow of IDS - an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Professor Sir Richard Jolly, Director of IDS from 1972-1981, said, "He was an outgoing and most generous colleague, and had many friends within the University, especially in the areas of economics and international relations."