THE man credited with putting the Bolton Institute of Technology on the road to becoming a university has died, aged 84.

Timothy Potts lost a long battle with Parkinson’s disease last week.

He will be remembered for his groundbreaking work at the Bolton Technical College and latterly the Institute Dr Peter Marsh, the University of Bolton deputy vice-chancellor, said: “We are saddened to hear of Tim Pott’s death. He was principal when we took our first strides towards becoming a university in the 1970s. It was under his leadership of the Bolton Institute of Technology, that we first began to offer degrees — the first milestone in our journey to university status. Tim Potts is a part of our history.”

In 1970, at the age of 43, Mr Potts became the country’s youngest college principal when he was appointed at Bolton Institute.

He had taken up a position with the Bolton Technical College 10 years earlier and introduced degree courses. The college was among the first of its kind to offer such courses.

After Mr Potts completed a civil engineering degree at Nottingham University, and began a career as a teacher in London. He moved to Salford Royal College of Technology before joining Bolton Technical College in Manchester Road, as a senior lecturer in the building department.

He became head of the new civil engineering department and introduced degree courses in civil engineering and electronic engineering. His department expanded with the opening of the Bolton Institute of Technology in Deane Road, and under his leadership degree courses in humanities and psychology were added.

He retired in 1986 and moved to Rochdale.

Mr Potts’ widow, Dorothy, said: “Even after retirement he carried on taking qualifications. He had a love of learning and wanted to pass that on to others.”