Family's tribute to academic Norman Dennis

Nov 16 2010 by Vicky Robson, The Journal

TRIBUTES have been paid to a respected academic and former councillor who has died at the age of 81.

Norman Dennis, a university lecturer, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Sunderland, on Sunday.

The father-of-two had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia in July this year.

Among his vast achievements, Mr Dennis penned several academic textbooks, including Coal is Our Life – a widely known work about a mining community in North Yorkshire.

He worked at Newcastle University in the department of Social Studies for more than 40 years.

Mr Dennis, a behavioural scientist, later produced a controversial report co-authored with George Erdos, a senior lecturer in the psychology department, in 2005, which called for the number of police on patrol to be doubled.

The report, The Failure of Britain’s Police, was compiled for Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, in 2005, and was in favour for a back-to-basics approach to policing.

Last night, his daughter Julia Hodkinson paid tribute to her father and described him as “a massive brain and intellect” as well as being a “traditional family man”.

Mrs Hodkinson, 52, said: “He had chemotherapy, but it didn’t work and once he knew that, he just wanted to fade away peacefully.