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Example to others
• JEFFREY Gordon was a dynamic teacher and friend committed to helping others.
At a time when government and local authorities were only beginning to encourage a more open and positive attitude to people with mental health problems, I was delighted to be invited by Jeffrey to give talks at Holloway Boys School.
It was amazing to see the warm relationship Jeffrey had with his students who were friendly, relaxed and confident.
In particular, the egalitarian atmosphere, with mutual respect between pupils and teacher, enabled lively debate.
Jeffrey Gordon’s devotion to his family extended to the welfare of often disadvantaged students.
He made a great contribution in being so unstinting in the love and support he gave his students to such good effect.
His legacy is the example he set for others to learn and follow from.
DORIS HOLLANDER
Consultant Psychiatrist (retired) Address supplied
A proud socialist
•I WOULD like to add my voice to the eloquent and moving tributes to Jeffrey Gordon.
I was a privileged to work with Jeff at Holloway school from the mid 1970s until his retirement.
Not only was he a brilliant teacher of sociology he was also, much more importantly, totally dedicated to the welfare and care of his students. He had a very clear grasp of the relationship between educational attainment and social background.
Jeff devoted much of his energy helping and advising working class boys of all ethnicities about life and survival outside of school. There would always be a queue of boys outside his room waiting for him to fix them up with part-time jobs in the local area. It’s impossible to calculate how many were helped in this way, but the voices in the article would have found an echo in hundreds more. This commitment was his way of putting the principle of the comprehensive ideal into practice.
He was a stalwart of the school’s NUT group, a personification of the tradition of solidarity. He was a proud and unapologetic socialist with a fierce antipathy to all forms of injustice and oppression. All of us who knew him will always remember him with affection and pride.
SHAUN DOHERTY
NUT Rep Holloway School 1974-2001
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