Educational Foundation loses founding father

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Professor Harold Hankins CBE, who has been the administrator of the Bodycote Educational Foundation since its inception more than 12 years ago. Professor Hankins was a former non executive director of Bodycote plc and, along with Joe Dwek, the first Chairman, and John Chesworth, the first CEO, he founded the Educational Foundation as a way of attracting high calibre students to the company through the Prize Paper Competition and student placement programmes. Harold’s infectious enthusiasm and tireless hard work for the Prize Paper is already missed and he was very much looking forward to this year’s final in Cologne and to welcoming Bodycote’s new CEO, Stephen Harris, to his first Prize Paper final.

Professor Hankins attended Crewe Grammar School and then became an engineering apprentice in the field of telecommunications with British Rail. By 1952 he was a full-time student in the Faculty of Technology of the University of Manchester from where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in Electrical Engineering three years later.

Over the next thirteen years he worked for Metropolitan Vickers and for Associated Engineering Industries, leading increasingly large groups and teams of engineers applying themselves to the research, development and design of communications equipment, and spending some time on the Woomera rocket range in Australia. One of his many concerns was the visual display unit (VDU), the screen which enables users to see what computers are doing. His particular interest was in in cathodoluminescence, in developing or exploiting the luminous properties of phosphors so that screens could be read in daylight and in industrial situations. He was associated with one of the first transistor computers, the A.E.I. 1010. In a famous conversation, a sceptical supervisor asked him, ‘This device of yours, does it have a future?’ and received the prophetic reply, ‘One day every child will have one in their room and play games on it’.

In 1968 he went to UMIST as a Lecturer where he acquired a PhD and rose rapidly to the ranks of Senior Lecturer, Professor, Head of Department and Vice-Principal, all within the 1970s, when he was also working for the Medical Engineering Unit. He was instrumental in the long-term success of UMIST, which went from strength to strength under his leadership, winning many awards for innovation and export achievement.

It had long been a dream of Professor Hankins to bring education, industry and commerce together in a school of business and management which could one day come to rival Harvard. Following his retirement, the University of Manchester named a building after him (The Harold Hankins Building) which is part of the Manchester Business School and home to many of the University of Manchester’s research centres, including the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research.

A colleague of Professor Hankins, Professor Pullan of UMIST, once commented: “There is a convincing theory which maintains that the most effective leaders are those who never appear to be leading and invariably give the other person the impression that he is taking the initiative, though in fact he is being gently and imperceptibly nudged in a certain direction. This is very much the Hankins style, for he has a reputation for being mild-mannered but tough as old boots. The Professor may, in the friendliest way, tell you what not to do, for one of his hobbies is building dry stone walls and the technique is useful in the field of management. His positive wishes are indicated in a much more subtle fashion, and this is one of the secrets of his success.”

He was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1993 and awarded the CBE in 1995 for services to higher education.

During his career Professor Hankins has held many posts including a Chairmanship of The Trafford Park Manufacturing Institute, non-executive director of Thorn EMI Lighting Ltd (1979-1985) and, of course, non-executive director of Bodycote plc (1992-1997). He has also acted as a consultant to many national and overseas companies and colleges. He was an Honorary Life Member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and a member of the Western Front Association.

As well as walking and music, Professor Hankins had a keen interest in military history, and was an expert on the battlefields and cemeteries of the First World War in France and Belgium, visiting them regularly.

Perhaps Professor Hankins’ contribution to Bodycote’s Educational Foundation and the Prize Paper can be summed up in his reason for first becoming a Lecturer at UMIST: ‘To make sure that ideas are properly nurtured’. This he has done admirably throughout his life.

He will be missed by a great many people, not least his wife, Kathleen, and his three sons and daughter. The University of Manchester will be holding a Memorial Service later this year.