Obituary: Norman Mackenzie

Obituary: Norman Mackenzie Emeritus Professor Norman Mackenzie, who died on Tuesday (18 June) at the age of 91, was the founder-director of the Centre for Educational Technology at Sussex and Director of the School of Education for several years. Norman came to Sussex in 1962 from the New Statesman , where he had been assistant editor for the previous 20 years. It was Professor Asa Briggs, an old friend and the then Dean of the School of Social Sciences, who channeled Norman's long-standing academic interests and brought him to the newly established University of Sussex as a Lecturer in Political Sociology. With his first wife Jeanne, Norman wrote several biographies of H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens and others, and edited Beatrice Webb's diaries. But it was in educational technology and development that he made his mark at Sussex. After chairing a Senate working party on the use of television in the University, he obtained funding from the Rank Organisation to implement some of its recommendations, together with those of parallel working parties on language laboratories and programmed learning. The new Centre for Educational Technology (CET), formed in 1966 with Norman as Director, developed a role of academic research and development, teaching and consultancy.