Roger Morgan, 1932-2015

Roger Morgan was born in Burton upon Trent, East Staffordshire, on 3 March 1932 and educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School and Leighton Park School, Reading, before studying history at the University of Cambridge (1950-53). After a year as a language assistant at the Lycée Michelet in Paris, he began a Cambridge PhD on German history (1958), with much of the research carried out at the University of Hamburg and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.

A lecturer for the Workers’ Educational Association from 1957 to 1959, Professor Morgan then served as a lecturer in international politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (1959-63) and lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex (1963-68), the last post including a year as a visiting fellow at Harvard University.

“Roger was one of the most determined supporters of the European integration process and of the UK as central to that project succeeding,” recalled Helen Wallace, now foreign secretary at the British Academy. As deputy director of studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1968-74), he co-created “a far-sighted series of studies on the nature of the then European community”, where she arrived “as an untested PhD student to write one of the little books…I was to benefit hugely from his commitment to giving us the opportunity to publish early in our careers.”

Promoted to a chair in European studies at Loughborough University (1974-78), Professor Morgan served as director of research at the Policy Studies Institute in London (1979-86) and ended his career abroad as a professor in the department of political and social sciences at the European University Institute in Florence (1988-96), then visiting professor at the University of Bonn, Germany (1996-97) and the University of California, Los Angeles (2001).

An early promoter of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies, Professor Morgan wrote or edited more than a dozen books, including Germany 1870-1970: 100 Years of Turmoil (1970); High Politics, Low Politics: Toward a Foreign Policy for Western Europe (1974); Partners and Rivals in Western Europe: Britain, France and Germany (with Caroline Bray, 1986); and Choice and Representation in the European Union (2003).

A lifelong cricket fan, a talented violinist and an accomplished broadcaster, he remained a valued contributor to Times Higher Education’s books pages until his death.

Professor Morgan died of multiple myeloma on 19 February and is survived by his wife Catherine, three children from an earlier marriage and nine grandchildren.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com