Erika Cox obituary

Erika Cox began educating for the Open University in 1978 and later taught at summer season colleges at the University of Sussex

My buddy Erika Cox, who has died of cancer aged 69, was an Open University tutor for half her lifetime. She was loved and respected by students and her fellow tutors on psychology courses.

Erika Connelly was born and brought up in East Finchley, north London. Her mother and father were teachers and, right after her mother’s death when Erika was eight, her maternal grandmother played a crucial function in her upbringing, which was somewhat unconventional. She accumulated a modest set of O-ranges at Woodhouse grammar school (now Woodhouse school, in Finchley) and, soon after sixth type, went to University College London to research psychology.

At the age of 22 she married Robert Cox, a potter, and moved to Norfolk, settling in the village of Whissonsett, exactly where she remained for the rest of her daily life. Following the births of Justin and Flora, Erika taught German at Hamond’s substantial college (now the Nicholas Hamond academy), in Swaffham, prior to moving to Fakenham school exactly where, as head of psychology, she established the curriculum for the topic. College students discovered her inspirational and numerous went on to pursue degrees in the subject. She was an examiner for the AQA board and wrote well-regarded psychology A-level textbooks and guides.

Erika’s OU career began in 1978, with a group of students on a psychology of education program. In 1984 she manufactured her initial visual appeal at an OU summer college at the University of Sussex. By 2010, when unwell wellness intervened, she had amassed 71 weeks of residential school support. Students valued her grasp of the topic matter and her potential to clarify it in accessible language. These skills have been put to even more use at research weekends organised by the Open University Psychological Society and, a lot more not too long ago, in the revision sessions she gave at Peterhouse, Cambridge.

Erika’s abilities and enthusiasms extended way past psychology. She delighted in wild swimming near the family’s second home in Lagrasse, France. Her artistic capabilities encompassed jewellery generating and knitting. She excelled at cryptic crosswords. A voracious reader, she had revisited the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen in the months prior to her death. She loved the Guardian and the obituaries page was her very first port of contact each morning.

She is survived by Robert, Justin and Flora, and her granddaughters Kaya and Molly.

Erika Cox obituary