Professor George Overend 1921–2012
Tribute to a former Master of Birkbeck from 1979-1987
Birkbeck was saddened to hear of the death of Professor George Overend, Master of Birkbeck from 1979 to 1987, on 18 September 2012. This tribute has been contributed by his son, Dr George E Overend:
“My father was born in 1921, in Benthall in Shropshire, oldest son of Harold and Hilda. In 1926 the family emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, with neighbours from Benthall, settling initially at Ponsonby. The family returned to Shropshire after a number of years, residing eventually in Shrewsbury where George attended the Priory School for Boys before apprenticeship at the Shrewsbury Gas Works.
“He went to Birmingham University in October 1941, as he said himself, virtually directed there by the Government, as he had been awarded a State Bursary in Chemistry. In the 15 or so years he was at Birmingham, George Overend was successively undergraduate, postgraduate research fellow and member of academic staff. He graduated with first class honours BSc at Christmas 1943 and completed his PhD thesis on the chemistry of pyridazin derivatives in May 1946. For a short while after he served as an assistant lecturer in the Chemistry Department at University College Nottingham, and worked at the Dunlop Rubber Company at Fort Dunlop before rejoining the Chemistry Department at Birmingham University. He was awarded a DSc degree in 1954 and also during this period took a sabbatical year in the USA as a Fulbright scholar at Penn State College.
Loyal supporter
“In 1955 he joined the Chemistry Department at Birkbeck. He was successively Reader, Professor and Head of the Chemistry Department and Dean of the Faculty of Science of the University of London. He was appointed Master of the College in 1979 and retired in 1987, becoming an Honorary Fellow of the College. Throughout his 32 years at Birkbeck he was its loyal, dedicated and distinguished servant and a keen advocate and supporter of its special role and position within the British higher education establishment.
“My father participated in many activities on behalf of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Society of Chemistry and Industry, and as President and Secretary of the International Carbohydrate Organisation. He served on countless government committees and advisory groups, most notably the Home Office Poisons Board and the British Pharmacopeia Commission. Latterly he was Chairman of the Governors of the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now London South Bank University).
“My father married Gina in 1949. This was the beginning of a strikingly happy partnership, one which he described in his memoir as ‘magnificent’. He didn’t give a recipe for a successful marriage but said that despite different temperaments and approaches to problems, they were each tolerant and made allowances for different points of view! They had two sons and one daughter.
“He will be sorely missed by family, friends and former colleagues alike.”