David Reeder: Obituary
David Reeder was a gifted teacher and one of the most influential historians of his generation. He was a key figure in the study of Urban History, during a period of intense inner-city redevelopment, and of Education History, at a time when ideas about schooling were undergoing re-examination. In both of these fields Leicester University led the way, and Reeder's contribution to the university's reputation was sustained over a long and varied career.
Reeder was born in Hull in 1931. His father, Alec, worked for the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and his mother, Elizabeth, at Reckitt's starch works. In 1940 the family moved to York, where Alec Reeder was to drive The Flying Scotsman.
David Reeder was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar, followed by a degree in Social Studies at Durham University and a postgraduate certificate in education at University College, Leicester. At Leicester, he met Barbara Hunt, a student of mathematics, standing at a bus stop on University Road. They were going different ways at the time, but married in 1955.
While in the RAF, and after teaching in Leicester, Reeder took a London external degree in Economic History. This was followed by an MA and a PhD at Leicester on 19th-century suburbanisation, supervised by Jim Dyos. In the early 1960s the Reeders moved to London " David in teacher training " before being tempted back to Leicester in 1966 by a Research Fellowship in Economic History.
He resumed his intellectual friendship with Dyos, and together they set about winning recognition for the flourishing sub-discipline of Urban History. The body of their argument was set out in March 1967 at a conference in Bloomington, Indiana. There they made the simple but startling point that, beyond a certain critical mass, cities ceased to be aggregates of other 'social forces' and became forces in their own right; and, moreover, that all cities " all suburbs indeed " were different. Reeder and the Leicester School would spend their lives exploring the implications of this insight but, in essence, this was it. Fernand Braudel had likened cities to electrical transformers; Karl Marx had said they were the first divisions of labour; Reeder said they were independent variables of infinite variety.
Reeder was born in Hull in 1931. His father, Alec, worked for the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and his mother, Elizabeth, at Reckitt's starch works. In 1940 the family moved to York, where Alec Reeder was to drive The Flying Scotsman.
David Reeder was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar, followed by a degree in Social Studies at Durham University and a postgraduate certificate in education at University College, Leicester. At Leicester, he met Barbara Hunt, a student of mathematics, standing at a bus stop on University Road. They were going different ways at the time, but married in 1955.
While in the RAF, and after teaching in Leicester, Reeder took a London external degree in Economic History. This was followed by an MA and a PhD at Leicester on 19th-century suburbanisation, supervised by Jim Dyos. In the early 1960s the Reeders moved to London " David in teacher training " before being tempted back to Leicester in 1966 by a Research Fellowship in Economic History.
He resumed his intellectual friendship with Dyos, and together they set about winning recognition for the flourishing sub-discipline of Urban History. The body of their argument was set out in March 1967 at a conference in Bloomington, Indiana. There they made the simple but startling point that, beyond a certain critical mass, cities ceased to be aggregates of other 'social forces' and became forces in their own right; and, moreover, that all cities " all suburbs indeed " were different. Reeder and the Leicester School would spend their lives exploring the implications of this insight but, in essence, this was it. Fernand Braudel had likened cities to electrical transformers; Karl Marx had said they were the first divisions of labour; Reeder said they were independent variables of infinite variety.