My mentor, Toby Wall, who has died aged 77 of cancer, was a committed educator and scholar who made a globally significant contribution to the field of occupational psychology.
Through his research as director of the Medical Research Council Social and Applied Psychology Unit (Sapu), then its successor, the Institute of Work Psychology (IWP), over three decades at Sheffield University, Toby identified aspects of jobs that enhance workers’ motivation, health and wellbeing, transforming the quality of millions of lives. He developed new theoretical explanations for how work affects learning, as well as how, working with automated robots, human workers might retain their agency and health. These and other discoveries still resonate, with Toby’s research reminding us of the need to keep human interests front and centre in today’s digital revolution.
Toby’s passion for research that makes a difference came from his roots. Born in Birmingham, he was the son of Doris (nee Satchell) and William D Wall. William was a prominent educational psychologist who judged his work according to its practical benefit for children, adolescents and teachers.
Following secondary school at Friends’ school, Saffron Walden, Toby gained undergraduate and PhD degrees in psychology from the University of Nottingham, which is where he met Ann Rowe, whom he married in 1969 and who became a politics lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. In 1971, Toby joined the University of Sheffield as a researcher at Sapu. It was there that he developed the industry-based longitudinal research projects for which he became renowned.
He was awarded a professorship in 1986 and took over from Peter Warr as director of Sapu in 1994, then of its successor, the IWP, in 1996.
At Sheffield, Toby also became the first director of the MSc in occupational psychology, which has trained hundreds of successful psychologists, and on which I was his doctoral student. I and other mentees benefited greatly from his wisdom and valued his humility, generosity and integrity.
Toby stepped down from the directorship of IWP in 2006 and retired the following year. He enjoyed a fulfilling retirement, travelling, playing bridge and table tennis, gardening and reading.
Ann survives him, as do his children, Gemma and Ben, and three grandchildren, Luca, Arlo and Ora.
