This obituary has been written by Emeritus Professor M Akhtar FRS.
A pioneer and a committed servant of the UoS community.
Professor Kenneth (Ken) Munday, together with Professor Gerald Kerkut, founded the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry in 1959 which later amalgamated with the Department of Biology to evolve into today’s School of Biological Sciences.
Amongst Ken’s passions, shared by Gerald, two were most significant. Championing the integration of Physiology and, Biochemistry. This was a philosophy that served well in the development of the varied research interests of its graduates and giving prominence to the needs of undergraduates. The staff were required to have an open-door policy for the undergraduates, a practice embraced by those who grew up in the department. Professor Chris Anthony remembers Ken’s diktat “they pay your salary and are your priority.”
He was a great believer in the expansion of Higher Education and took every opportunity to increase student numbers. He would also hold staff meetings on Saturday mornings.
Apart from establishing Physiology and Biochemistry as a major discipline, Ken played a pivotal role in bringing the Medical School to Southampton. Subsequently, Sir Kenneth Mather, the then Vice-Chancellor, looked to Ken to carry out long and laborious negotiations to secure funds from the University Grants Commission to help establish what is currently known as the UoS Faculty of Medicine. With the persuasive skill of a Trade Union Leader, Ken was a great asset to the University. He always tried to get his way and, in the process, if he had to ‘hit-below-the -belt’, then so be it.
Professor Kenneth (Ken) Munday was a father figure to both students and staff, although he used to say in his strong Gloucestershire accent, “if you can’t teach any topic in the first two years of the degree my boy, you are not the person I thought you were.”
