Jim visited the Department as part of a reunion of events in 2015 and 2018 with fellow students, contributing to a day-long event. In 2015, he provided the following reflection of his life as a student in Sheffield.
"For a young lad from the mining town of Seaham in County Durham, who left home on a steam train, and was the first ever pupil from my junior school to go to university, 1965 to 1970 was a defining and mind-stretching period. Three things helped me to settle into University life. The first was that I lived at Crewe Hall of Residence, the smallest and sportiest of the halls, and that helped me to integrate with all kinds of people from different backgrounds and geographical locations. The second was the fact that I was able to get into the University First Eleven football team during freshers’ week along with another first year TRP student, Howard Morris. That caused some problems with Head of Department, Alastair Sutherland, who, on one occasion, asked if we were serious about getting a degree. He was, understandably, concerned that he was losing 20% of his group on a regular basis! We missed Wednesday lectures almost every week during the football season though we occasionally, if cheekily, reminded Alastair that we were representing the University and our absence was a necessity! But finally, I must say that our small department was very focussed and everyone got on well with each other. We had some great field trips and really enjoyed each others’ company."
Our thoughts are with his family. A longer obituary can be found at: https://www.thenhc.co.uk/death-of-former-chief-executive-jim-gale/