Obituaries
Harry Cracknell
Harry Cracknell, former head of catering and hotel management at Oxford Polytechnic and Oxford Mail food columnist, has died aged 91.
Mr Cracknell trained at Westminster Technical College in London before working at the Dorchester Hotel, the Royal Palace and the Savoy Hotel.
He appeared as a regular demonstrator on BBC cookery programmes in the late 1950s and was a good friend of Fanny Cradock.
He also wrote and co-wrote 14 catering textbooks which are still used in universities around the world.
During the Second World War, Mr Cracknell served in Palestine in the Army Medical Corps. It was here he met his first wife Shoshana, a refugee fleeing Nazi perse- cution.
The couple married and moved to England, where they had two children, Sonia and Celia.
In 1964 Mr Cracknell moved to Oxford, living in Carey Close. He helped to set up and run the school of catering and hotel management at the polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University.
In 1970 Mr Cracknell's wife died. Five years later he met Myrtle, who became his second wife a year later.
The couple had two children, Louise and Cheryl.
In 1976 Mr Cracknell became catering officer at the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, now Bournemouth University.
Following his retirement in 1980, he volunteered his catering services to charities for fundraising events.
At the age of 80 he returned to education to complete a BA in hospitality management at Bournemouth.
His wife said: "He was quite a hit with all the other students, they all took to him and he would bring them back home for tea."
In 2004 he enrolled at Bournemouth again to study for an MSc in tourism and hospitality management.
Mrs Cracknell said he was remembered for being a "real gentleman."
3:55pm Wednesday 19th March 2008
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