These days when colleagues write a dull quote in my name, I think of Mervyn as I urge them to humanise it. Confidently explaining the technicalities of Pension Credit on Radio 4, he managed to balance advocacy, information and advice, with saying something interesting. Mervyn was a master of detail, but had a knack for explaining technical issues in a way that worked for everyone. He loved technology and innovation, and was passionate about how they might improve older people’s lives. Despite decades in the same sector, he never became predictable. From his desk, piled high with papers, he resisted the move to keeping an electronic diary for years, but when the time finally came he made the shift overnight. Mervyn saw Help the Aged grow from a tiny organisation, to a huge multi-million pound charity supporting hundreds of thousands of older people. He wanted to change the world and he thought that was best done from outside the tent. While Mervyn could have probably gone into Government after the 1979 election win, I remember him telling me that opposition was much more fun. It was only at his memorial service that I learnt that he led there on issues around race and ethnicity. He was a walking CityMapper.īut of course Mervyn was best known to me, and to many, for his unparalleled insight and enthusiasm for the ageing agenda.īefore joining Help the Aged, Mervyn worked for the Conservative Party. He taught me the importance of the considering the distances between different platforms at interchanges. It was from Mervyn that I stole an enthusiasm for sharing with others the best way to travel by underground between different bits of London. He had an unusual knowledge of London’s rivers and sewers. He was passionate about history and cross about badgers destroying historic sites. There was little he didn’t know, and care, about. ![]() ![]() Mervyn Kohler was a man of enormous insight.
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