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Patrick (known as Paddy) O'Reilly, Professional Administrator of the Students' Union from 1973 to 1984, died on 28 April 2010.

In his role he created and developed the commercial activities of the Union; activities that gave the Union a role both in the lives of all the students and in the University's planning and management of life on campus.

As the chief permanent officer of the Union, he was a close advisor to its student officers, and a key player in campus politics. Paddy used his experience not to challenge the aims of successive Presidents, but to advise them to pursue those aims by less controversial and more effective means.

But Paddy was more than his formal role. In those years there was much more social contact cutting across sectional, managerial and hierarchical lines in the University. Much 'business' was done or conditioned by such contact in the Gardner Centre bar, the Sport Centre,  the Library 'basement' café etc. Paddy was active and adept in such daily conversations; and through that he influenced many University tactical decisions.

Paddy was dedicated and believed in not just the Students' Union but the University of Sussex.

Geoff Lockwood, former Registrar of the University of Sussex 

Paddy was Patron of the Mandela Scholarship Fund and was instrumental in achieving charitable status for the fund in 1985. His family asks that, if anyone wishes to make a donation in Paddy's memory, it should be sent to the Mandela Scholarship Fund.  Cheques should be made payable to the 'Mandela Scholarship Fund' and sent to Sue Cornford, current Patron of the Mandela Scholarship Fund, at University of Sussex Students' Union, Falmer House, Falmer, Brighton, Sussex BN1 9QF.