A FORMER principal of York College has died from leukaemia.

Dr David Mason, 74, of The Green, Acomb, died on April 19 after living a full and varied life which saw him teach all over the country.

The talented physicist is survived by his wife Gillian, 72, their three children Sarah, 49, Susanna, 47, Matthew, 46, and seven grandchildren.

Dr Mason was a devout Christian and spent years caring for underprivileged children in Malawi, Africa, through the Project Malawi Trust, which he established in 2006.

The couple met in 1959 during a Sixth Form production of Cyrano de Begerac at Hinckley Grammar School and married in 1964.

Dr Mason received a BSC and PhD in Physics from Durham University and the couple's first child, Sarah, was born in 1966.

York Press:

David and Gillian Mason

Sarah was only five weeks old when the family moved to the United States to allow Dr Mason to take up a Post Doctoral Fellowship in the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Michigan.

The family lived in Cheshire from 1968, where Susanna and Matthew were born. Dr Mason worked for ICI before moving to Manchester Polytechnic in 1973 as a senior lecturer in Physics.

He later became vice principal of Melton Mowbray College of Further Education in 1979 and principal of Hinckley College of Further Education in 1983 before moving to York College in 1987. He retired in 1999.

Dr Mason devoted many years to teaching but was also committed to his faith.

He was a Methodist preacher for 42 years and chairman of Community Bible Study International UK from 1993 to 2012.

Mrs Mason said: "This gave him intellectual and emotional satisfaction.

"He transformed his teaching skills into something that was down to earth particularly for the very poor people in Malawi.

"He was a man of faith and he lived it out.

"He didn't think about himself, he thought far more about what other people did and died very much at peace and at home."

The Project Malawi Trust is still working with children in Africa and more information can be found at www.madalitso.org A service of Thanksgiving will take place on Thursday, May 5, at Acomb Methodist Church, from noon.