Obituary: John Burns 1935-2016
John Burns, Laboratory Superintendent/Manager of Technical Services for 29 years in the former School of Biological Sciences, died on 30 May.
John Burns, who served for 29 years as Laboratory Superintendent/Manager of Technical Services in the former School of Biological Sciences, died peacefully after a short illness, on 30 May.
John left school at the age of 16 in 1951 and went to work as a laboratory technician at Birkbeck College. At 19, National Service took him to Malaya with the Medical Corps, serving with the Gurkhas and the Royal Scots Fusiliers for three years, before returning to his old job, and later joining Westfield College as a Senior Technician in Botany and Biochemistry in 1959.
In 1965, he was hired by Professor John Maynard Smith (JMS) as the first Laboratory Superintendent of the School of Biological Sciences at the brand-new University of Sussex, and worked with architect Sir Basil Spence on the design of the new Biological Sciences building, based on JMS’s vision of “science without walls”.
John also recruited the first set of central service technicians, and became a strong champion of improving the working conditions of university technicians – entirely in keeping with his life-long socialist perspective and strong commitment to workers’ trade unions.
His championing of the contribution made by technical staff to the success of the University is recorded in his letter to the Bulletin internal newsletter in February 1986.
He was a well-known and much-loved character on the campus who adopted the tradition, on the last day before the Christmas closure, of visiting various parts of the campus dispensing small shots of Yuletide good cheer, sporting a back-to-front shirt to give him an ecclesiastical appearance.
Sixty years a member of the Institute of Science and Technology, he was made a Fellow in 1988.
In recognition of his long and distinguished service to the University, particularly in the area of health and safety, he was also awarded an honorary degree by the University at his retirement in 1994.
John is survived by his two sons, Alex and Nick, and four grandchildren.