A FORMER York teacher and deputy head, keen amateur actor and respected local churchman has died, just a few weeks short of his 84th birthday.

Alan Reed, of Blakeney Place, York, was born in London and graduated in Classics from New College Oxford in 1958 before being appointed to teach Latin at Archbishop Holgate’s Grammar School in York.

He taught Latin there until the school became comprehensive in 1985. He was then appointed deputy head of Oaklands School, Acomb, which had just opened and later merged with Lowfield School to become York High School.

Alan took early retirement from Oaklands in 1992 and went back to teaching Classics for a few years at Howsham Hall Preparatory School.

John Lowe, a teacher at Mill Mount School in the 1970s, who became friends with Alan when they were in a group of York teachers who taught Classics, and took over from Alan at Archbishop’s in 1985 to teach Latin, said he was ‘very thorough and down to earth’ with his pupils. “He was very well liked, and a good cricketer, coaching the school cricket teams,” he said.

Alan was a churchwarden at St Lawrence Church in Lawrence Street from the early 1980s until 2016. With fellow warden, the late Brian Fletcher, he was involved in securing major grants of more than £1 million which saved the building from demolition and enabled it to become a flourishing church once more.

Kevin Atkinson, a friend and colleague, said Alan was also secretary of the Parochial Church Council, chaired the Ellen and Dorothy Wilson Almshouses Charity and was chair of governors of St Lawrence Primary School, where he steered an important building project as the school expanded.

He said: “Alan was a major figure at St Lawrence, always positive, and his sound and wise counsel could always be relied on. He was a very steady and reassuring presence, a mediator, an encourager and an enabler.”

Alan, a keen amateur actor, was also a former chairperson and member of York Settlement Players, taking part in many performances, and of the York Shakespeare Project, in which he played Baptista Minola in The Taming of the Shrew and the Duke of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors, both in 2003.

Alan was a bachelor until, aged 60, he married fellow parishioner, York-born Christine Cole in St Lawrence church in July 1998.

She said: “Alan was a wonderful father to Andrew, and grandpa to Erica. A kind and considerate man who helped so many people, former students, and neighbours. He will be missed by so many.”

Although frail recently, Alan’s collapse was sudden and his family wish to thank the ambulance team and ICU staff for their efficient and dedicated care. His funeral takes place with a Requiem Mass at 11.15am on Wednesday at St Lawrence’s church.