Mergers, muppets and 'merican studies

The retirement of David Berridge Swinfen by Mike Bolik

The first time I met David Swinfen I was somewhat intimidated. It was 1978 and I had gone to what was then the modern history department to ask about a place on the American studies programme. With his Olivieran good looks and almost aristocratic demeanour he was an imposing presence. Yet, getting to know him better over my junior and senior honours years I became aware that there was a warm, informal, good-humoured side to him which made him eminently approachable. He was keenly interested in the progress of his students and had the greatest gift any teacher can have - the ability to inspire his students to a love of the subject. One of our papers was about modern American society and its critics. Amidst heavy tutorial discussions about the perspectives of such writers as Ken Kesey, Saul Bellow and Norman Mailer, Dr Swinfen would suddenly ask whether any of us had watched the previous night's Muppets show, since there too, was an insight into the American psyche.

It was while he was an Oxford University postgraduate student that David Swinfen joined the modern history department of Queen's College, Dundee, in 1963, the beginning of a double-edged career in academia and administration.

As a historian, his involvement with the Centre for Tayside and Fife Studies led to a desire to look beyond the traditionally negative stereotyping of Dundee's history -what became the successful History of Dundee project. In 1970, against the advice of those who believed such ventures were doomed to failure, he initiated the inter-disciplinary American studies programme and became its director.

He has authored a number of books on both local and international themes. He co-authored The Life and Times of Dundee and in 1994 produced the popular The Fall of the Tay Bridge, of which, because of its succinct and clear nature, he is particularly proud. He also took advantage of the unlikely collection of American Civil War drawings held by the University archives to write Ruggles' Regiment.

David Swinfen is more than an academic. As an administrator his contribution to the growth and success of this institution will be difficult to match. From 1984 to 1988 he was Dean of Arts and Social Sciences and presided over the dissolution of modern languages and its replacement by applied languages. As Deputy then Vice Principal he was involved to varying degrees in the mergers that saw the University treble in size during the 1990s. Although these involved a multitude of parties and interest groups he proved to be an able and trusted negotiator and good at defusing mutual suspicions. His ability to win people over to his viewpoint was especially compelling and an important factor in his successful handling of the merger negotiations. He is proud of the fact that through these mergers Dundee has done more to rationalise higher education than any other institution. He is also proud of the University's recent new approach to teaching and learning, which has resulted in the creation of the new centre.

And from the current Dean Professor Chris Whatley.

It was as an historian that David Swinfen came to the University of Dundee. It was in the role of teacher and researcher that he has spent the greatest part of his career. During his early years as Vice Principal David managed to write and publish - and for at least a couple of years after his transfer to 'The Tower' David continued to teach - well - in the department.

He managed too to carry out research for and publish The Fall of the Tay Bridge in 1994, an unlikely venture for a colonial constitutional historian. This book, which attracted the attention of the media nationwide, provides a pointer to one of David's remarkble assets - the great range of his knowledge and capacity to adopt new skills. The Tay Bridge book required him not only to read predictable sources like newspapers and business records but also to understand the complexities of climatology, structural engineering and even metallurgy. Equally importantly he managed to make readable a book which includes an assessment of the role of lug failure in the bridge's fateful collapse. Clarity and authority are the trademarks of David's writing as well in his dealings as a senior academic in and beyond the University.

David published his first article in 1967, in the Juridicial Review. His ability to make sense of the labrynthine regulations which govern the University may have been been partly developed through the work he did in legal history for his third book, Imperial Appeal: The Debate on the Appeal to the Privy Council, 1833-1986, published in 1987. The award of a personal chair followed not long afterwards, in 1990. He has not been the kind of historian who immerses himself for a lifetime in a narrow area however and by the end of the 1970s David had begun to publish notable work on American history.

When David arrived in Dundee he was accompanied by his wife Ann, and a single child. Subsequently the family has grown, and played an enormously important part in David's life. David's is not the retiral of a single individual however. Ann has been a constant companion and in her own right has made a distinctive contribution to the University. Arguably even more of a polymath than her husband she has taught on a range of courses for adults and embarked on a successful career as a novelist, with The Anniversary, The Travellers and A Running Tide.

The Swinfen partnership has been a long and significant one for the University. In history and the faculty of arts and social sciences we hold them both in the highest regard. If David now wishes to return to the world of historical scholarship, a warm welcome awaits on the fourth floor of the Tower extension.

He was involved in a number of external bodies and again brought to bear his typically reasonable and commonsense approach, especially during 1997 to 2001 when he held the chair of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Credit and Access.

Another aspect of his work in the Principal's Office was his involvement in student discipline, and his experience with the British Army in Malaysia often stood him in good stead. On one occasion two students came to see him complaining about their Far-eastern flatmate, a man of questionable habits who kept criticism at bay by threatening to use a ceremonial cleaver he possessed. It was when one of the students turned up with the rear end of his bicycle, complete with cleaver marks on the tyre, that Professor Swinfen realised something had to be done immediately. Fortunately, student discipline was normally less fraught!

Those who work for and with David Swinfen regard him as an exemplary colleague. At committee meetings he liked to keep matters simple yet effective, leaving no room for bombast or self-promotion. His legacy is one of great integrity, ability and ultimate success. He possesses an uncanny ability to perceive the way forward for higher education in general and this institution in particular.

When the next history of the University of Dundee is written it will be difficult to overstate David Swinfen's role in the development of a university fit for the 21st century.

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