Mr Simon (Perry) P. McClean (Wye College 1953)

Provided by Helen McClean

Perry McClean, who died suddenly aged 76, was one of the most influential practical researchers of his generation. The last Director of the independent and farmer-owned Norfolk Agricultural Station (now part of the enlarged The Arable Group), he joined in 1978. A quietly persuasive and hugely energetic man, he had studied agriculture at Wye College. When he joined the Ministry of Agriculture's National Agricultural Advisory Service after graduation, he was seconded to Norfolk Agricultural Station, then based at Sprowston, near Norwich.

Although a member of a medical family, his father, who was involved with the Lister Institute, wisely recognised that his elder son, Simon Peregrine, had a taste for the outdoor life.

Perry, as he was always known, caught the farming bug when helping with the harvest in Essex during war-time holidays. His natural affinity with the land was to stand him in good stead throughout his later career as he rose through the ranks of the ministry, including spells in London.

In 1969, he was appointed Director of the light land experimental husbandry farm at Gleadthorpe, Nottinghamshire, where he remained for nine years. His reputation and ability to communicate the practical results of trials and research had spread and impressed many forward¬ thinking Norfolk farmers. And so, when Dick Owers retired in 1978, Perry was effectively head-hunted, recalled Frank Oldfield, of the Marquess of Townshend's Raynham estate.

He also took the station's change of name to the Morley Research Centre in November 1989 in his stride and relished the challenge of widening its appeal to arable farmers across the eastern counties.

Mr Oldfield, who was a longstanding member of the executive, said: "He had a much broader perspective on the industry. Nobody in the research and development industry ever questioned anything Perry put out.

"He was so highly respected and regarded and that's why I felt it was such a sadness that he left when he did. He did an awful lot for Morley. He got over the changes and really put the place on the map."

Christine Hill, also a member of the executive, and Deputy County Chairman of Norfolk National Farmers' Union, said "He was a character in Norfolk farming at a time when the industry was really flying.”

Perry, who retired in April 1991, never lost his zest for the farming community and was also a long-serving secretary to the Chadacre Agricultural Trust. He was Secretary to Norfolk Agricultural Club for many years and also wrote the official history before it was wound up.
 
A committee member for many years of Stoke Ferry Agricultural Society, near Downham Market, he was also Chairman of Stalham Farmers' Club in 1992, and elected a Vice-President. He was also a former chairman of Wymondham NFU branch.

Outside work, he enjoying sailing with his wife, Helen, who had crewed for him from the age of 17 when he spent most of the time trying to pitch her into the freezing Solent. In more recent years they kept a Cornish shrimper on Hickling Broad. He was also a great skiing enthusiast and was a trustee of Wymondham's Central Hall, where he was heavily involved in its administration. He leaves a widow and a son and daughter.