My father, Neil Salmon, who has died aged 91, was for many years an English teacher and head of English at Northgate high school in Ipswich, Suffolk, where he introduced generations of pupils to the delights of literature and film.
He spent his entire working life at Northgate, and during that time also kept busy outside school as a key member of the Ipswich Chamber Music Society (for 60 years); chair and secretary of the Ipswich Film Society (40 years); a film reviewer for the Ipswich Arts Association magazine (20 years); and an editor of, and contributor to, the journal of the Ipswich Society (23 years), for which he also instigated the town’s blue plaque scheme in 2001. He did not waste a moment of life.
Born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, to Victor, a bus conductor, and his wife, Grace (nee Green), Neil went from Sudbury grammar school to study English at Downing College, Cambridge, where he became friends with the artist Quentin Blake and was taught by the critic FR Leavis, whose book Education and the University (1948) had, a few years earlier, inspired him to commit his life to communicating the value of literature and the wider arts.
After staying on at Cambridge for teacher training (1956-57) he joined Northgate, rising to be head of English from 1974 until his retirement in 1986. He enthusiastically endorsed the school’s transition from grammar to comprehensive status and encouraged many pupils to apply to leading universities – among them Trevor Nunn, who became a longstanding friend. Well into his 80s he was hailed in the streets of Ipswich by those he had taught.
In 1957 he married Joyce Forrest. They were members of Ipswich Labour party from the 1960s onwards, and always took the Guardian. Their shared passions were for music, socialism, travel and sport: Neil lived to see his beloved Ipswich Town FC return to the Premier League.
Joyce died in 2023. He is survived by their three children, Tom, Kay and me, and three grandchildren.
