Mary John, a developmental psychologist who made significant contributions to disability rights and children’s rights advocacy, passed away at age 85.
John’s academic career began in the 1970s and 80s at the Open University, where she specialized in disability studies within the social sciences faculty and collaborated with fellow scholar Vic Finkelstein. During this period, she served on the US Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped during the Jimmy Carter administration and participated in establishing the European Commission’s Bureau for Action in Favour of Disabled People.
At the University of Exeter, John organized the first international conference on children’s rights that included children as participants in 1992. She subsequently edited the Children in Charge book series, which featured her own work titled Children’s Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century, published in 2003. Her contributions to these fields earned her a European Woman of Achievement award in 1996 and an honorary doctorate from the Open University in 1999 for her work on behalf of disadvantaged populations.
John was born in Wigan, Lancashire, to Elvira Evans and William John, a headteacher. A childhood hospitalization at age seven with peritonitis and septicaemia that required iron lung treatment significantly influenced her later work and perspectives on children’s needs and agency. She earned her psychology degree from the University of Nottingham in 1962 and completed her PhD on children’s social adjustment in 1996. Her academic career included teaching positions at Nottingham, Bristol, and Exeter universities, as well as the Open University beginning in 1974. She became the first female professor of education at Exeter in 1990 and subsequently served as dean of education and director of the Women’s Studies Centre before retiring in 1998, though she continued consulting and writing afterward.
John is survived by her sons, four grandchildren, and her sister. Her brother predeceased her.
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