Ex-York lecturer and education Minister dies (From York Press)

Ex-York lecturer Malcolm Wicks dies aged 65

9:09am Wednesday 3rd October 2012 in News

A FORMER Government Minister who worked as a lecturer at the University of York in the late 1960s has died, aged 65.

Malcolm Wicks, an expert on poverty who became a Labour minister for education, pensions and energy under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, was one of the first members of staff in the university’s then Department of Social Administration and Social Work.

“He was appointed a junior research fellow with Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust funding in 1968,” said a university spokesman.

“While at York, he worked on an MPhil on the 1965 Rent Act, served on the CPAG welfare rights stall in York market and was an active member of Walmgate Ward Labour Party. As a believer in evidence-based policy, Malcolm Wicks was a great supporter of the University’s Social Policy Research Unit. He often returned to visit his friends at the university, all of whom will miss him greatly.”