MyGlasgow News

Scores of University of Glasgow colleagues gathered this week to bid farewell to Dr James Currall at the end of a long University career spanning many different departments and disciplines.

Dr Currall is leaving the University after more than 25 years' service, during which time he has filled a large and varied number of positions including Senior Research Fellow with the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), Director of HT Strategy and Planning, Espida Project Director, Head of Learning and Technology Unit and latterly Director of  Information Policy and Service Delivery.  In September 2013, at St Columba's in Largs, Dr Currall was ordained as a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

At Dr Currall's retiral, the Director of IT Services, Sandy MacDonald, made a presentation and said Dr Currall had served more than 30 different departments at the University and had worked in research, information technology, teaching and had supervised PhD students: his committment to the University had been 'immense'.

To applause from the colleagues gathered for the presentation, Dr Currall said he'd worked for eight different people in his time at the University, had visited twelve countries and contributed at three or four dozen conferences. At one academic gathering he had been introduced as 'an iconoclast'! He told the audience he rather liked being labeled as one who questions conventional wisdom: that was what the academic world - and its support - should be like.

The presentation was attended by staff from nearly every colleges and university service.

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First published: 19 December 2014