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Bulletin

Obituary: Ray Howard

Ray Howard, who died on 11 August at the age of 86, was the University’s first and, by a considerable margin, longest serving Finance Officer (Finance Director).

Ray Howard 1989He and Geoff Lockwood were the first two appointments to the Administration in 1961 when it was based in Stanmer House. 

With John Fulton (the founding Vice-Chancellor), Asa Briggs (founding Dean of the School of Social Studies and the first Pro-Vice-Chancellor) and Ted Shields (the first Registrar and Secretary), they can claim to have laid the organisational and administrative foundations for all that has followed. 

When Ray first took up his post, substantial resources were being made available to the first wave of new universities, among which Sussex was the forerunner.  

At that time, the initial emphasis was on capital expenditure on buildings and scientific equipment and Ray played his part in ensuring that the physical development of the University took place in the context of appropriate financial regulation and procurement procedures. 

As student and staff numbers increased through the 1960s and early ‘70s, particular attention needed to be paid to recurrent income and expenditure as funding for capital expenditure tailed off. Ray was instrumental in developing robust systems of resource allocation and control that stood the test of time. 

By the mid ‘70s, increasing reductions in public funding and fundamental changes to the way in which overseas students were financed resulted in increasingly difficult financial constraints facing the university sector. 

Sussex was not exempt from this, and difficult decisions on cutbacks and re-allocation of resources had to be taken. Ray was steadfast in persuading senior colleagues and the wider community to adopt a long-term strategy to achieve financial stability rather than the short-term, palliative measures that were being urged on him from various quarters. 

After a turbulent few years, that objective of stability was achieved in the early 1980s and, by the time of Ray’s retirement in 1988, the finances of the University were on a strong and sustainable basis. 

Among immediate colleagues working with him in the Finance Office, Ray was regarded very much as a father figure, easily approachable and always prepared to offer guidance and advice. But he was also willing and able to lay down the law if standards or deadlines were not being met. 

Ray also had good relationships with external agencies. At a time when government funding was channelled through the University Grants Committee (UGC) and its successors, Ray maintained good relationships with their senior officers - which reflected positively on the University’s standing. Ray was also a senior member of the national University Finance Directors’ Group, which was active in advising government agencies on resource and funding issues. 

For 15 years until retirement, Ray also fulfilled the role of the University’s chief officer responsible for industrial relations and negotiations with the trade unions with regard to staff terms and conditions of service.

A loyal servant of the University, Ray was a man of high integrity who was widely respected and well liked both among colleagues in the Administration and the wider academic community. 

In May 1989 the University demonstrated the high regard in which Ray was held at Sussex by awarding him an honorary DUniv degree, which was presented in the Meeting House during a special graduation ceremony to honour former staff. 

Ray’s funeral will take place at 2.30pm on Friday 29 August at Eastbourne Crematorium. 

Tony Sims, former Finance Director