I met Patrick when he was on the job market, visiting Essex for the first time. He was in the process of switching fields, a huge endeavour that he carried off beautifully over the course of his career with us.
Patrick really threw himself into the work here, quickly becoming active in all sorts of leadership activities, and becoming a very popular teacher. He used to have a line of students outside of his office every week at academic support hours, his own students and students of others who simply found him helpful. As a result of his great abilities to organise and deal with students, he became our director of research students quite early in his career. That was a particularly tough job at the time, as we were just starting to structure the programme more formally. He managed this diplomatically but firmly, earning the respect of staff and students alike. We started to see improvement in the programme under his directorship, which led to further improvements that have continued.
Research success, grant success, and consulting accompanied this At the time he passed, his hard work and investment was really bearing fruit. It seems cruel to have snatched that away.
My own memories are of a funny, lively, and thoroughly enjoyable person to spend time with. Patrick was good at self deprecating humour, laughing easily and getting laughs in return. Of course, there was a lot of serious talk, too. He was deeply concerned about recent developments in society, including US politics about which he felt passionately. Still, a good joke could wash those away and get the laughter going again.
I will miss him deeply.
I met Patrick when he was on the job market, visiting Essex for the first time. He was in the process of switching fields, a huge endeavour that he carried off beautifully over the course of his career with us.
Patrick really threw himself into the work here, quickly becoming active in all sorts of leadership activities, and becoming a very popular teacher. He used to have a line of students outside of his office every week at academic support hours, his own students and students of others who simply found him helpful. As a result of his great abilities to organise and deal with students, he became our director of research students quite early in his career. That was a particularly tough job at the time, as we were just starting to structure the programme more formally. He managed this diplomatically but firmly, earning the respect of staff and students alike. We started to see improvement in the programme under his directorship, which led to further improvements that have continued.
Research success, grant success, and consulting accompanied this At the time he passed, his hard work and investment was really bearing fruit. It seems cruel to have snatched that away.
My own memories are of a funny, lively, and thoroughly enjoyable person to spend time with. Patrick was good at self deprecating humour, laughing easily and getting laughs in return. Of course, there was a lot of serious talk, too. He was deeply concerned about recent developments in society, including US politics about which he felt passionately. Still, a good joke could wash those away and get the laughter going again.
I will miss him deeply.
