Mary John obituary

Original article by Nicola Kent

My mother-in-law, Mary John, who has died aged 85, was a developmental psychologist and an instrumental figure in the movements for equal rights for people with disabilities and for the rights of children.

Mary found her vocation in the 1970s and 80s, as an academic specialising in disability in the social sciences faculty of the Open University, where she worked closely with Vic Finkelstein. During this time she also served on the US Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped under the Jimmy Carter administration, and helped to set up the European Commission’s Bureau for Action in Favour of Disabled People.

In 1992, now at the University of Exeter, Mary hosted the first global conference on children’s rights to involve children themselves, and later edited the book series Children in Charge, which included her own title, Children’s Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century (2003). In 1996 she was given a European Woman of Achievement award, and in 1999, the OU awarded Mary an honorary doctorate for her lifetime’s work for disadvantaged people.

Born in Wigan, Lancashire, Mary was the daughter of Elvira (nee Evans) and William John, a headteacher. Aged seven, she was hospitalised with peritonitis and septicaemia, and put in an iron lung. As was medical orthodoxy at the time, her parents were not allowed to visit – but no one explained any of it to Mary. She later wrote she was “a child abandoned, bewildered, drugged, hallucinating and desperately solitary … This child faced the same problems that have beset children in many places, at many times – problems of recognition of her needs, of establishing identity, agency, of managing relationships wisely and richly, of exercising power and of finding a voice that is heard.”

After Wigan county high school for girls, Mary studied psychology at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1962. A Medical Research Council scholarship under Elizabeth and John Newson, who were revolutionising the study of parenting, followed, and in 1996 she completed her PhD on the social adjustment of children. Mary then lectured at Nottingham and Bristol universities, and for seven years at Exeter, before joining the OU in 1974.

In 1990 she returned to Exeter as the first female professor of education. She became dean of education and director of the Women’s Studies Centre in 1995, before being appointed deputy vice-chancellor the following year. After retirement in 1998, Mary continued to work as an author, editor and consultant.

Outside work, Mary turned her hand to all kinds of creative endeavours: from a full-size papier-mache pony for her student union ball, to watercolours for friends, and an immaculate pair of curtains that still hang in our window. In 2008, she was learning calligraphy when a stroke left her with severe disabilities. Characteristically, she reflected on her situation from a societal and academic perspective.

A marriage to John Croxen in 1964 ended in divorce in 1978. She is survived by her sons, Dan and Adam (my partner), four grandchildren, Cerys, Huw, Martha and Harry, and her sister, Heulwen. Her brother, Gareth, predeceased her.