We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Ted Milburn CBE, a towering figure in the history of youth work and community education in Scotland, whose contribution over many decades simply cannot be underestimated.
Whether people knew Ted as a youth worker, colleague, boss, tutor, mentor or friend, they encountered the same thing: an unwavering commitment to young people and the value of youth work and community education.
Ted’s career took him from frontline youth work and the YMCA into senior leadership in local government, including roles in Renfrew County and later as Assistant Director of Education with Strathclyde Regional Council. There he held responsibility for Community Education across one of the largest local authorities in Europe.
Ted was also a genuine pioneer in higher education. He became the first Professor of Community Education in Britain, at the University of Strathclyde. Through his teaching, research and mentoring, he helped educate and inspire generations of youth and community workers. His work consistently explored the world of adolescents, informal learning and social justice, helping strengthen both the professional standing of youth work and its contribution to the wider field of community education.
His influence extended far beyond the university. Ted chaired and contributed to a number of government committees, helped shape the professional foundations of community learning and development in Scotland, and was a respected and much sought-after speaker. He also continued to serve the youth work sector directly through his involvement with YMCA Scotland, YouthLink Scotland and Young Scot.
His contribution was recognised nationally when he was appointed CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours for services to Community Education and Young People — a fitting recognition of a lifetime spent championing youth work, informal learning and opportunities for young people. In 2008, YouthLink Scotland had the privilege of recognising Ted with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Youth Work Awards, reflecting not simply the length of his service but the extraordinary breadth of his contribution to youth work. At the time, he was described as someone whose contribution to youth work “cannot be underestimated” and as a man of both “humour and talent”.
That captures something important about Ted: his legacy was not only in policy, institutions or academia, but in the people he encouraged, challenged and inspired. Ted understood youth work as something deeply human: built on relationships, trust, informal learning and a belief in the potential of young people. He combined intellectual rigour and professional authority with warmth, humour and generosity, and he never lost sight of the young people and communities that had inspired his career in the first place.
Ted helped build many of the foundations on which youth work and community learning and development in Scotland stand today. We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and all those across the youth work and CLD community who had the privilege of knowing him.