Obituaries

Professor Ian H Stevenson (1937-2005)
By Former University Secretary, Robert Seaton

Professor Ian Stevenson, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology and a former Vice-Principal of the University of Dundee, died on 19 November at the age of 68.

Born and educated in Dundee, at Morgan Academy and Queen's College (then part of the University of St Andrews), Ian also pursued his distinguished academic career mainly from his home city. Following his 1st class honours degree in Biochemistry and completion of his PhD in that department of biochemical aspects of drug metabolism under the supervision of Geoffrey Dutton, he spent two years in the United States, in Tennessee and Boston, before taking up a lectureship in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Dundee. On that bedrock were built many achievements.

While he continued to pursue most successfully his research interests in drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics and age-related pharmacology, Ian's contributions to the University community and the wider community of Dundee and beyond were equally distinctive. As a teacher, research supervisor and head of department he nursed and inspired both science and medical students in the Department who greatly respected and learned from his presentational and organisational skills.

Outside his academic subject Ian had a great interest in sport. He was a leading figure in developing a joint staff-student squash club which reached and performed creditably in the top Scottish national league for many years. He himself inflicted defeat on less skilled opponents with consideration, while accepting generously the less frequent defeats he suffered. But most significantly, he developed a tremendous rapport with a generation of student squash players, many of whom maintained contact with him long after their graduation from Dundee. Ian himself continued playing squash right through his life, eventually at Scottish international "vintage" level.

These organisational and personal talents and sporting interests were latched onto by the University which appointed Ian convenor of its Physical Education Committee. A considerable expansion of the University's sporting facilities and activities could be credited to Ian's steady support as well as to the vision of successive Directors of Physical Education. And the stability of the students' Sports Union over this period owed much to Ian's wise counsel.

Within the University it was no surprise that he was appointed Deputy Principal (1988) and Vice-Principal (1989) and no surprise that he carried out the multifarious duties of these posts with great skill and acceptance by his academic and administrative colleagues.

Outside the University Ian was also in great demand. An early but continuing role was as cofounder in 1982 of one of the University's spin-out companies, DDS Medicines Research. He long held office in the fundraising charity Tenovus Scotland, initially in Tayside but latterly as the national chairman. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1987, he was active in the affairs of that body, most recently as a member of Council and as Programme Convenor. He was the first chairman of the Sensation Science Centre in Dundee and a director of the Scottish Science Trust. And he was a past-president of Dundee Rotary Club and boxmaster and deacon of the Bonnetmaker Craft of Dundee. Truly he spread his talents and his time widely.

Ian is survived by his wife of 47 years, Pat, and by his two daughters, Evelyn and Jane, and grandchildren. Pat, herself head of the University's Counselling Service for six years, shared Ian's sympathy and enthusiasm for students, many of whom enjoyed their hospitality in their west end home.

Professor Sir Ivor Batchelor (1916-2005)

Dr Ivor Batchelor came to Dundee in 1956 as Physician Superintendent of Dundee Royal Mental Hospital, later re-organised under his direction as Royal Dundee Liff Hospital. One of his early aims was to forge a stronger relationship with the University (then Queen's College, Dundee) and soon all medical undergraduates were required to visit and assess patients at Liff. In 1962 Batchelor was awarded the first Chair in Psychiatry at the University, a post he held until his retiral in 1982, having been awarded a knighthood the year before.

During his time at Dundee a huge increase in psychiatric research work occurred, leading to the establishment of a new Teaching & Research Centre, and the formation of units for the study of metabolic changes in mental illness and for the drug treatment of depression. The fact that the University now has a RAE-5 rated Psychiatry department owes much to his pioneering work in the 1960s.

Prof Batchelor also had a keen interest in art, commissioning Alberto Morrocco to paint two large murals at Liff and becoming one of the most active members of the University's Fine Art committee in the 1960s and 70s, which oversaw the purchase of key works of Scottish art, including Raeburn's James Duff, 4th Earl of Fife and Peploe's Roses & Still Life. Curator of museum collections Matthew Jarron said: "His knowledge and enthusiasm were vital in securing some of the University's finest art treasures. It's largely thanks to his committee that we now have one of the finest University collections of Scottish art in existence." Sir Ivor also had an impressive art collection of his own, and in his will has generously left the University a large landscape piece by local artist James Morrison.