ALEX SMITH may have been a surprising choice as the first Director of Manchester Polytechnic, since he was best known for his work in industry, but he was just the right man. It was a triumphant choice partly because of his personal qualities, but also because he understood how a system complementary to traditional university education could be built around vocational courses with links to business, industry, the professions and other bodies.

He advocated the creation of qualifications that clearly stated their industrial basis, such as Bachelor or Master of Industry. Regarding this new kind of education as providing “many arts and many skills for many people”, Smith also championed flexible attendance patterns, with day-release and evening- only courses available, and scope for lifelong learning.

Alexander Mair Smith was born in Lossiemouth into a hard-working and God-fearing family. Thanks to his parents’ encouragement, he did not follow the family tradition of going to sea as a fisherman at the earliest opportunity, but instead went from Lossiemouth School to Elgin Academy and thence to Aberdeen University.

His academic career was interrupted by war service. He was one of the first radar officers and served the Navy with distinction in the North Atlantic and the Far East. On his return from war duties he completed his degree in mathematics and natural philosophy and proceeded to a doctorate.

While in the Navy he had married Muriel Harris, who was serving as a Wren. When their daughter Hilary was just 11 months old, Muriel died during minor surgery.

Smith then felt that it was time to leave the university environment and took a post at Sellafield, where he worked on the development of a fast-breeder reactor and he became interested in the use of nuclear power to propel submarines, after the launch of the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, in 1954.

He was then headhunted by Rolls-Royce to work in this area and on gas turbine aero-engines. As chief physicist he was responsible for an experimental project known as Neptune, designed to provide power for Britain’s first nuclear submarine, the Dreadnought. Work ceased, however, when the decision was taken to use an American reactor.

Smith then began research on new structural materials, on plasmas and high-speed gas dynamics, and on air-lubricated bearings. In 1965 his laboratory set up a facility to produce carbon fibre laminate on a large scale for use in fan blades of the Rolls-Royce RB211 aero engine, of which large-scale production began in 1967.

Two years later, Smith became Director of Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University), the largest of the 30 polytechnics created around that time. Although he was principally an industrial scientist, he published several papers in learned journals, and was committed to this new form of education. He chaired both the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics and the Schools Council.

Smith, who was knighted in 1975, was also a member of the University Grants Committee and the BBC’s general advisory council, and served as vice-president of the City and Guilds of London Institute and as patron of the Educational Institution of Design, Craft and Technology.

He retired from the polytechnic in 1980 and thereafter became a director of various companies and a freelance consultant. He remained an excellent companion and an inspiration to his friends from many walks of life. He was a good golfer and a great music-lover.

After the death of his first wife, Smith married Doris Neil (née Patrick) in 1956, only to see both her and their elder daughter die from cancer. After leaving Manchester Polytechnic he had the good fortune to meet Jenny Lewis (née Pearce), who in 1984 became his third wife and who for the rest of his life was a source of joy and comfort. The bond between them was unfailingly strong, never more so than through his last illness.

She survives him, along with his two stepsons and a daughter from each of his first two marriages.

Sir Alex Smith, Director of Manchester Polytechnic, 1969-81, was born on October 15, 1922. He died on February 28, 2003, aged 80.