My wife Rachel Cooper, who has died aged 71 of gallbladder cancer, was one of Britain’s leading design management academics. Her major contributions were to socially responsible design, sustainable urban environments, general policy and anti-crime schemes. She was an adviser to UK research councils and many international boards.
Born in Derby, to Elizabeth and David Withers, both of whom where local civil servants, Rachel suffered many personal tragedies in her teenage years, with her father dying of leukaemia at 42, her brother, Rod, being involved in a vehicle crash that led to his death at 19, and her grandmother being hit and killed by a car at around the same time.
