My mentor, Toby Wall, who has died of cancer aged 77, was a dedicated 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 for Work Psychology (IWP), over three decades at Sheffield University, Toby identified aspects of work that improve workers’ motivation, health and well-being, changing the quality of millions of lives. He has developed new theoretical explanations for how work affects learning, as well as how human workers can maintain their agency and health by working with automated robots. These and other discoveries continue to resonate, with Toby’s research reminding us of the need to put human interests first 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 to children, adolescents and teachers.
After secondary school at Friends’ school, Saffron Walden, Toby gained undergraduate and PhD degrees in psychology at Nottingham University, where he met Ann Rowe, whom he married in 1969 and who was a politics lecturer at became 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 known.
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 trained hundreds of successful psychologists, and on which I was his doctoral student. I and other mentees greatly benefited from his wisdom and appreciated 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, traveling, 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.
