Paul Herrington (1939-2019)

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Paul Herrington, a member of the University’s Economics (and latterly Geography) Departments for over 40 years.

Paul grew up in South London and then Essex. He attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford, after which he studied Economics at Nottingham, Brown and Southampton Universities. As a founding member of the new University of Lancaster, he taught and researched economics 1964-67, before joining Leicester in 1967.  There Paul spent most of his career in the Department of Economics, specialising in macro-, monetary, public utility, regulatory and environmental (especially water) economics. He spent the later part of his career lecturing/tutoring in the area of natural resource management. Throughout his time at the University, Paul loved teaching and in particular the interaction with his students.

Paul was a pioneer in the field of environmental economics. He was particularly interested in bringing practical application to his particular areas of economic interest. He wrote a series of significant reports for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1987, 1999 and 2003 that examined how the developed world attempted to deal with the issue of affordability of water services, with increasingly greater emphasis on the environment. He was a specialist Adviser to House of Commons Select Committees (1997 and 2001) and advised various enquiries on water supply and reservoir management. His most significant piece of work was a 1996 Department for Environment report on Climate Change and the demand for water. In 2007, he wrote a significant report for WWF-UK on the various detailed social tariffs which could be used to reconcile social and environmental objectives in the provision of domestic energy and water utility services.

Paul had a wide range of other interests. He was a very keen cricket fan, in particular of Kent County Cricket Club. He also enjoyed playing for the Economics Department in the Inter-Departmental cricket competitions. He was a lifelong supporter of Charlton Athletic Football Club, regularly suffering with the ups and downs of their performance!

More broadly, Paul was an avid social campaigner. He undertook a variety of voluntary management roles in Leicester Shelter and SHARP (Shelter Housing Aid and Research Project). During his retirement he contributed to campaigns against the closure of rural post offices and co-organised a local recycling project.

Paul was a vibrant, humorous man who was generous of spirit with colleagues and dedicated to his family. He passed away in the summer and is survived by his wife Margaret and children Dominic, Kate, Damian and Nancy.