My father, Jim Gardner, who has died aged 94, was a leading light in local government in the north-east of England from the early 1970s until the 90s, particularly as chief executive of Tyne and Wear county council from 1973 until its dissolution in 1986.
In that role he became well known locally for leading the negotiation team that helped to bring two big Japanese firms, Nissan and Komatsu, to the region – an achievement for which he was dubbed “the job finder general”, or alternatively “Tokyo Jim”.
Post-1986, he branched out into advisory roles, including as chair of the Prince’s Trust from 1986 to 1994.
Jim was born in Preston, Lancashire, to Elizabeth (nee Huggins) and James Gardner, an insurance agent. After attending the local Kirkham grammar school he gained a law degree at Manchester University in 1952 and did his articles at Preston council from 1952 to 1955 .
After two years of national service in Germany with the East Lancashire regiment (1955-57), he returned to Preston council, and nine years later, in 1966, became town clerk at the unusually young age of 34 at Stockton-on-Tees council in County Durham.
He was town clerk at the London borough of Greenwich for a short while, before achieving the position of town clerk and chief executive of Sunderland borough council in 1970.
In 1973 he became the first and only chief executive of the newly formed Tyne and Wear county council, serving until it was abolished 13 years later. During his time there he met every member of the royal family who came to the north-east of England. He was made CBE in 1986 in recognition of his services to the region and to local government.
Later he was made an honorary fellow of Sunderland University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1995 he was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
Jim’s first wife, Diana Sotheran, whom he married in 1955, died in 1999. His second wife, Joan Adamson, whom he married in 2002, also predeceased him, in 2018. He is survived by the children from his first marriage, James, Jeremy, Emma and me, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
