Dr D. I. Williams 1941-2025

David Islwyn Williams was always known as 'Dave'. He has been one of my closest friends since 1971 when, for all too brief a time, we were colleagues  in the Department of Psychology. I am one of many people who knew him and worked with him, and have remained close friends with him throughout his life. That, in itself, tells you a lot about Dave.

Dave's academic career centred  on the University of Hull, although as his career developed he made major contributions to postgraduate degree programs in universities around the world. As a schoolboy he failed his Eleven Plus Exam at the first attempt, but passed a resit, and went on to read Psychology at the University of Hull, obtaining his BSc in 1963. He completed a PhD at Hull and stayed on with appointments as Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. Not long before he retired he was  presented with a Certificate from the University of Hull in recognition of his long service, and in 2005 he was honoured with the title Senior Fellow of the University of Hull. 

Not only did Dave like the University of Hull but he liked Hull and its culture, and the East Riding, especially its coast. He used to say that there was much to recommend a city with two rugby league teams and a whaling museum, and so much more.

In terms of teaching and research Dave had three related but distinct careers at the University of Hull. The first concerned what everyone at that time described as the biological bases of behaviour, namely associative learning in animals (mostly pigeons or rats). Dave's PhD thesis dealt with aspects of discrimination learning in pigeons, and his subsequent work was funded by the Medical Research Council. At this time his work was published in journals dealing with animal behaviour, behavioural biology, and psychopharmacology.

In those days 'learning theory' was perhaps the big area in academic Psychology and was subsumed under the general rubric of 'Behaviourism'. Throughout his career Dave grappled with the tensions between Behaviourism (scientific but not Psychology?) and the psychology of lived experience (Psychology but not scientific?). Dave was passionately in favour of a genuinely scientific Psychology that combined scientific rigour with deep human understanding and strove to achieve this in his own work.

Partly because he became allergic to 'animal houses' and partly, I think, for some of the reasons just mentioned, Dave retrained to become a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. He described his work in this area as within the domain of 'Cognitive Ergonomics'. At this time I think that his major intellectual concern was with the nature of applied psychology, with all of its strengths and all of its weaknesses. In particular, I remember his collaborations with Martin Crawshaw (also a friend and a colleague), helping people to understand and control their use of energy. Their collaborations were of a kind in which Dave excelled. They involved areas neglected by others, who did not see their full potential, and they allowed Dave to conduct rigorous research in ways that informed others' lived experience. His research was also applied in that it was designed to help specific groups of people. This work was published in peer reviewed journals such as Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics, and Contemporary Ergonomics.   

As he explored these concerns he became interested in problems of 'rehabilitation' (to use his own words) and this led directly his third career, in Counselling Psychology. He became a Chartered Counselling Psychologist and helped the field to become established within British Psychology. He helped it to grow by offering practical, compassionate approaches for people in real need: from firefighters coping with trauma to couples navigating infertility (which he thought one of his main contributions). He set up a Master's  programme in Counselling at the University of Hull. His work in counselling is dominated by a long list of publications in which he collaborated with Judy Irving, one of many of his ex-students.

Dave was a consistent supporter of the British Psychological Society and very much in favour of the registration of Psychologists. He served on many BPS committees, particularly the Membership and Qualifications Board (1985-1990), and he was Chair of the Postgraduate Admissions Committee (1988-1992). He was elected a Fellow of the Society.

Throughout his career Dave published in more than 30 peer-reviewed journals, but above all he was a superb teacher and mentor. He made major contributions to postgraduate courses in Austria, Kuwait, and especially Portugal (for 13 years at the Universities of Coimbra, Aveiro, and Minho). He also provided various kinds of support for the British Council. He supervised 18 Ph.D students, all of whom were successful, and a very large number of MSc projects in Occupational and Counselling Psychology. Very many of his students (and colleagues) remained his friends and kept in contact with him throughout his life.

Dave had an exceptional talent for recognising the potential in students and helped them to grow emotionally and intellectually. As he grew older he began to explore philosophical questions in more detail, particularly those that contrasted the need for scientific rigour with the need to understand lived experience. When he embraced qualitative methods he was very concerned that they provided proper data and were not just an excuse to indulge in informed speculation. Despite the constraints of academic rigour, his writing was always elegant, often whimsical, gently humorous and laced with many philosophical insights.

His retirement was spent living in France with his third wife, Gillian. For too much of this time Dave's health was slowly deteriorating. He was diagnosed with Churg-Strauss Syndrome, with Parkinson's Disease, and then with prostate cancer, which spread to his spine. He bore all of this with immense courage and fortitude. When he needed carers towards the end of his life, they described him as resilient in the way described by Boris Cyrulnik, a French psychoanalyst, in his book Resilience. They were right and Dave would have loved to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the book. I am proud to have been his friend.