Tom Hume, who has died of a cardiac arrest aged 81, was an inspirational head of art at Middlesbrough high school from 1971 until 1990, the happiest years of his teaching career. Past pupils, of whom I was one, talk of the unconventional atmosphere he created in the art block – a record player was a key element and Tom would put on his pupils’ favourite albums. He provided the ideal conditions for students to thrive and many achieved good exam results.
He was stylish: he drove a Citroën Dyane, occasionally wore white clogs and colourful outfits, trendy perhaps, but admired by colleagues and pupils alike. He either drew or painted every day, and there was a major exhibition of his work at Billingham art gallery in 1976. When a heart attack at the age of 48 curtailed his teaching career, Tom turned to regular painting in his studio in Durham, where he lived in an 18th-century clergy house on the banks of the Wear.
Tom was born in Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, a month after his father, Thomas Hume, died of head injuries sustained during the second world war. He was brought up by his mother, Marion (nee Patterson), and his grandparents, licensees of the Regent hotel in Stockton, until Marion remarried, and Tom was given his stepfather’s surname, Morgan.
When he was 10, his grandfather took him aside and told him about his father, and that he was to go off to Barnard Castle school as a boarder. There, a charismatic teacher, Douglas Pittuck, became Tom’s role model. Douglas had studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford and Tom followed in his footsteps. He was thrilled to see the paintings in the Ashmolean Museum: Cézanne, Poussin, Claude and Sickert were on display upstairs and Tom described his time there as “truly wonderful … loved it”.
After studying art at Goldsmiths in London, Tom returned to Stockton to marry Barbara Hare, a former primary schoolmate, in 1962. The following year they travelled by Lambretta for him to begin his career at St Michael’s Roman Catholic secondary school in Newport, Middlesbrough. The area was poor, with a reputation for toughness, but Tom warmed to the pupils, and they to him. Later his talents were recognised by George Morris, the head of Middlesbrough high school, where an innovative new art block was being built, and Tom was chosen to run it.
In retirement, Tom applied his instincts for design and knowledge of exotic plants to a remarkable garden plot that stretched down to the river and was also a perfect spot for beekeeping.
In the last years of his life he said he wanted to push the boundaries of art further and he made a series of circular revolving abstracts he called Roundels, a considerable achievement for an artist in his eighth decade.
He was content just to create in the beautiful setting of the Wear or the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, where from 2001 onwards he lived for six months of each year.
Barbara survives him, as do their children, Benjamin and Jessica, and grandchildren, Ella and Noah.
