In memory of Bob Looker

Posted on 27 August 2025

Remembering our esteemed colleague

photo of Bob Looker

In memory of Bob Looker

The Department of Politics and International Relations is very sad to report that a former colleague, Bob Looker, died on 20 August. Bob was appointed Lecturer in Politics in 1965 and he remained a stalwart of the Department, eventually taking on the role of Head of Department for one year (1994-95), before retiring in 2000.

Bob arrived in York on the back of strong recommendations from two famous LSE tutors of sharply contrasting political loyalties: Ralph Miliband and Michael Oakeshott. As a young lecturer, Bob’s teaching, research and his practical politics all overlapped. His interest in radical socialist politics resonated with the political mood of the late 1960s/1970s.

A charismatic and popular lecturer (reportedly not averse to lecturing with a large gin and tonic in one hand – different times….) Bob taught various modules in comparative working class and socialist politics. He also edited the widely cited Rosa Luxembourg: Selected Political Writings (1972), while other academic contributions included thoughtful essays on the work of political theorists such as Perry Anderson and Adam Przeworski. Bob was also a longstanding tutor for the nascent Open University, where he inspired many mature students from working class backgrounds to develop their untapped potential.

As one former student, Marion Horton recalls, ‘In 1984 Bob Looker became my Open University tutor on an Introduction to Social Science foundation course. I left school at fifteen and in my late twenties I was a frightened wife and mother of two little children, who was completely out of my comfort zone. I resigned after three months but Bob persuaded me to find a ‘room of my own’; to find a space in my extremely busy life to learn, to gain an education at degree level and find a place in the world. I later studied at the University of York and again Bob Looker became my Pol/Soc tutor in his teaching partnership with Phil Stanworth. Education needs tutors like Bob Looker who believe not only in education but are willing to invest in students who need a system of lifelong education who come to study through unconventional routes.’

As a political activist, Bob was a member of the International Socialists (precursor of the Socialist Workers’ Party) and a member of the editorial board of its journal International Socialism in the late 1960s. In York, Bob – along with Peter Sedgwick, David Coates and others – ensured the local IS branch was very active, notably working hard to set up tenants’ associations on York’s council estates. He also stood for various socialist parties in York council elections, but never directly contested against his formidable wife, Janet, a longstanding Labour councillor, Council Leader and former Mayor.

Away from work, Bob possessed a successful streak of capitalist entrepreneurship. He boasted the unusual distinction of being an international expert on certain rare Rhodesian postage stamps and a very successful dealer in ‘superhero’ comics. He was also an accomplished bridge player.
Bob was an unforgettable character, capable of great wit and wise counsel, who exerted a distinctive and idiosyncratic impact on the Department. Bob was a man to whom legends, true and false, were frequently attached. He will be greatly missed by Janet, his three children and grandchildren, and his many friends and former colleagues.

Neil Carter