Although Sanford Arms failed to match the success of the original Aunt Esther and the cast were far from dead

Although Sanford Arms failed to match the success of the original, Aunt Esther and the cast were far from dead. They returned in Sanford (1980-81), when Redd Foxx reclaimed the role of Fred, without Demond Wilson as Lamont, and Dennis Burkley played Cal Pettie, his new partner in the junk business. However, the original magic was not recreated.Page also landed starring roles on television as the loud-mouthed Charlene Jenkins, one of the students trying to become a private eye, in Detective School (1979) and Ma, owner of a popular neighbourhood restaurant frequented by the police team – including the then unknown Michelle Pfeiffer – featured in B.A.D. Cats (1980).The actress was always in demand for character parts and appeared in internationally successful series such as Starsky and Hutch (1977, 1979), The Love Boat (1977) and Diff’rent Strokes (1979), as well as films that included Zapped! (a supernatural spoof with Scott Baio, 1982), My Blue Heaven (featuring Steve Martin, 1990) and Friday (a comedy starring the rap star Ice Cube, 1995).Anthony Hayward. As the economist member of the official Northumberland Committee which reported on the 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak, David Walker was among those who felt that, had succeeding governments taken the committee’s recommendations more seriously, last year’s disaster in the countryside could have been contained more speedily and effectively. But he was not one to dwell on the past and took no part in the recent post-mortem (though he was heard to mutter: “We told them that 30 years ago”). David Walker, economist: born Liverpool 21 March 1926; Professor of Economics, Exeter University 1963-91 (Emeritus), Head of Department 1963-91, Deputy Vice-Chancellor 1977-80; OBE 1991; married 1950 Joan Stanley (two sons, and one daughter deceased); died Budleigh Salterton, Devon 8 September 2002.

His service on the Northumberland Committee led to other activities connected with the agricultural industry, most notably on the Agricultural Wages Board, of which he was Chairman from 1984 to 1990. He commanded the respect of both workers and employers, introduced the framework for using farm incomes data to assess the feasibility of wage-rate adjustments, and his success in arriving at sensible judgements may have helped this statutory body to survive despite Margaret Thatcher’s determined efforts to get rid of all government involvement in the fixing of wages. For this work he was appointed OBE in 1991.Economists in general have usually been content to leave the study of agriculture to their specialist brethren, the agricultural economists. But Walker had first become interested in it during his time in Uganda, where he was Professor of Economics at Makerere during the late 1950s.

The place of agriculture in the African economy has long been a tendentious one as recent events in Zimbabwe have all too tragically shown.Walker made many subsequent visits to Africa, including one notable stay helping the Ugandans to improve their economic policies so as the qualify for an IMF loan. With his help, the Ugandan parliament approved a sensible budget but two days later Idi Amin began expelling the Ugandan Asians and understandably no IMF loan was forthcoming Many of his other visits were as an external examiner. He also served as chairman of a UK charity which supported development work in Nzega, one of the poorest districts of Tanzania.David Walker was born in Liverpool in 1926 and was a star pupil at the Liverpool Collegiate School. From there he went up to Peterhouse, Cambridge, on a wartime short course to be followed by two years in the Royal Navy. He had a tough time serving on minesweepers in the North Atlantic but ever after retained a warm affection for the both the Navy and the sea.Returning to Peterhouse in 1948 he read Economics and, as befitted a keen member of the Labour Club, he was supervised by the redoubtable left-wing economist Joan Robinson. He was a popular member of the college and, although it was not noted for its rowing prowess, he forsook rugger and became a vigorous and enthusiastic member of the college’s First VIII.

After taking a First in the Economics Tripos, he spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he found that, in spite of the high reputation of the Cambridge school, still basking in the reputation of Maynard Keynes, the teaching of economics there was far behind that of the United States.From MIT he returned to Manchester University. As a young lecturer, he was expected to give two lecture courses as well as pursuing his own academic research, which at that time was mainly concerned with issues of public finance. Five years at Manchester was followed by five years in Uganda. He then went to the newly created Institute of Economic Research in Dublin, where again public finance was the main focus of his work But he missed teaching. A former colleague at Makerere has written: When I myself became head of department I often found myself trying to do things that David had taught us to do – like making sure in a seminar it was the students   who did most of the talking, as well as encouraging colleagues to retain an interest in economics as a whole instead of becoming immersed in some very small specialism.