The Record 2006 - Keble College - University of Oxford

The Life of the College
Air Commodore Kenneth John Lovett, CBE, MA
Air Commodore Kenneth John
Lovett, CBE, MA, Bursar and
Fellow 1991–2000, Emeritus
Fellow 2000–5. Born 4 August
1935, died 15 July 2005.
Address by the Warden at a
memorial service in Keble Chapel,
19 November 200:
There are so many stories and so many good memories about Ken
Lovett. One that springs to mind is his retirement party from Keble
in the summer of 2001. A sunny day in Hayward quad, and very
funny and very affectionate sketches put on by the College staff.
It was so typical somehow of the atmosphere that Ken created and
the marvellous rapport he had with everyone. Not for nothing had
he been Station Commander of RAF Wyton and Air Commander
of the British Forces in Gibraltar, and been awarded the CBE.
Combine that with the challenge of Moscow in the years when the
Soviet Union began to crumble, and there could be no more perfect
preparation for being Bursar of an Oxford college. Managing tricky
people, working within a tight budget, watching out for potential
threats, keeping the show on the road, and all with good humour
and above all tact: these were the qualities that my predecessor as
Warden, George Richardson, looked for when Ken was elected, and
which he knew he had found in him in abundance.
When Ken became Bursar in 1991 the College was distinctly poor.
We were still on a tight regime when I became Warden in 1994, and
I well remember Ken himself driving off to Ikea to buy the extra
bookshelves I wanted for the Lodgings (they are still there). When
fellows went to London for a College dinner they were firmly told
that they must go on the bus and not the train. He used to tell me
that I should start worrying if the list of fellows went over onto
a second page in the University Calendar. He also used to give
bursarial approval to the appointment of a new fellow or research
fellow by reference to how much he estimated that they might eat
– on that scale, some cost more than others.
Ken had spent all his life in RAF postings and risen to the top, and
I sensed when I was elected Warden that he found it rather difficult
to imagine working with, let alone for, a woman, and an academic
woman at that. In those days Ken, and what I used to call to myself
‘the hard men’ always sat together at lunch at the far table and I
usually made myself go and join them. It did not take long before we
got on extremely well. Ken prided himself on taking care of things
without fuss, and would come along for our regular meetings with
a little list of things I should probably know but need not worry
about. In fact I never had to worry. He used to tell me that his brief
from my predecessor was to avoid conflict in the Governing Body
at all costs, and at that he was a master of diplomacy and skill. His
philosophy about College and University was that it was best for
Keble to be safely in the middle on controversial matters and not to
raise our heads unnecessarily over the parapet or get too involved in