My friend Roger Kojan, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 75, was an economic development officer with Wakefield council, in West Yorkshire, and an advocate for social change and sustainability in the workplace and the wider community.
He liked to be practical, helping to set up a claimants’ union or working in the creche at a feminist event. Alternative ideas also informed his personal life, which included stints of communal living during his student years.
Roger was born in Chelmsford, Essex, where his parents had met during the second world war. His father, John, an electronics graduate from Cleveland, Ohio, had arrived in the UK as a GI on a troopship and was swiftly recruited by Marconi to work on the development of radar. His mother was Betty Kinmonth, a Dubliner, who worked as a landgirl before marrying John.
After boarding at Ratcliffe college, Leicester, which Roger said inspired his sense of rebellion, he had a false start studying French at Durham. Then he gained a sociology degree at Leeds University in 1978.
A relationship with Annette Stansfield, a public sector researcher, for 12 years produced two sons, Ross and Tom, and prompted Roger to become an active member of the local Woodcraft Folk. From the 1990s he was in a long-term relationship with Janis Goodman, an artist.
Other than a post-university year spent in Greece, during which he and Annette taught in Athens, Roger lived in Leeds for the rest of his life. He worked for a trade union resource centre in the city until it lost funding in 1987; from then until retirement he worked for Wakefield council, devising strategies for more sustainable employment in the former coalfields.
Roger was one of life’s volunteers, happy to take on unglamorous roles, whether that be putting up posters for political campaigns, joining his allotment’s work group or stewarding the local farmers’ market. A socialiser as well as a socialist, his appetite for culture and counterculture, both high and low, meant he could enjoy a punk gig as much as a classical concert.
His pleasure in learning, combined with a flair for pedantry, made him a formidable Scrabble player. He also squeezed in a part-time degree in modern Greek, enjoyed a crossword and was a Guardian and Observer subscriber until the end.
Roger once said that he had left the International Socialists in the early 70s when he felt they were losing their sense of humour. That was something he never lost. Despite spending far too many of his final 18 months in hospital, with stoic affability he continued to share a joke and smile with staff and visitors alike.
Janis and his children survive him, as do his brother, Mike, and sister, Melissa.
