ARCHITECT, professor, writer and broadcaster - Patrick Nuttgens was a man who could turn his hand and his talents to many subjects.

But it was his warm personality and his constant accessibility, which will see him remembered with fondness by the people of York and North Yorkshire.

Born on March 2, 1930, the third of 12 children, Patrick Nuttgens was educated at Ratcliffe College, in Leicester, Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh University, from which he graduated in 1954.

He contracted polio when he was 12. Walking off the school rugby pitch after captaining the junior XV, he suffered a terrible pain in his back. Within a day he was paralysed from the chest down.

He learned to walk again after being confined to a London open-air hospital for two years. The disease would cause him problems in later life, with post-polio syndrome and multiple sclerosis.

Despite his health problems, he refused to allow his disabilities to stand in the way of his ambition.

He taught at Edinburgh University, but travelled south in 1962 when he became the first academic to be appointed at the newly founded University of York. He was made director of the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies.

He had first fallen in love with the city when he visited York with his father as a child.

It was at York where he came to real prominence, making local and national headlines by attacking the city's planning policy. He resigned from the Architects Advisory Committee in protest at the modern developments being planned and wrote in the Yorkshire Architect Journal in 1969: "The town council of York is a group of long-haired, way-out, rebellious and aggressive cranks".

He left the university in 1970 to become the first director of Leeds Polytechnic. Under his stewardship, the centre came to be recognised as one of the country's leading institutes of higher education and grew to more than 10,000 students.

Retiring from the Polytechnic in 1986, he was appointed honorary professor at York and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of York, Sheffield, Heriot Watt Universit in Edinburgh and the Open University.

If his career as an academic was impressive, it was his commitment to writing and broadcasting which won him plaudits all over North and West Yorkshire.

His publications include The Landscape of Ideas (1972), The Story of Architecture (1983) and Understanding Modern Architecture (1988).

A frequent broadcaster, his films included studies of the Arts and Crafts Movement, mini-serials on York and Leeds and a major series on social housing titled The Home Front. He was awarded the CBE in 1983.

Professor Nuttgens' son, Nick,said his popularity could be an annoyance when the children were younger.

"I remember that, as children, we were frustrated that we could hardly walk down the street without people coming up to him, talking to him, wanting his autograph," he said. "That was a measure of how incredibly open he was and how much he meant to people."

A University of York spokeswoman said the institution owed Professor Nuttgens an "immense debt of gratitude".

"Patrick Nuttgens was the first academic to be appointed to the University of York," she said. "He was a riveting public lecturer. The University owes him an immense debt of gratitude. His contribution was a lasting one, he maintained close links with the University. He will be sadly missed."

A proud contributor to York society, he was President of York Georgian Society and York University of the Third Age. He helped to turn around the York Theatre Royal while chairman between 1990 and 1996 and served on a number of BBC Advisory Boards.

A Theatre Royal spokesman said: "We are extremely saddened to hear of the death of Patrick. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family."

Professor Nuttgens is survived by wife Bridget and nine children. Nick said: "We were always amazed at how much love there was for him, but the most important thing for us was that he was very much loved just as a dad."

Updated: 14:41 Tuesday, March 16, 2004