My daughter Janet Altman, who has died aged 57 of a brain tumour, was a translator and interpreter, and for the past decade taught at the Centre for Translation Studies at Leeds University.
According to Svetlana Carsten, programme director of the university's MA course in conference interpreting and translation studies, Janet "helped to establish the reputation of the course. Her contribution as a trainer of high standing in the language courses and the summer schools for European parliament interpreters had a tremendous impact on the way Leeds came to be seen by EU institutions as the centre of excellence for interpreting training."
Many tributes to Janet have been paid by her colleagues, and her former students regarded her as a role model.
Janet was born in Manchester, but grew up in Leeds, where she attended Allerton high school. She graduated in French and German from Bath University, followed by a course in translating and interpreting at Bradford University. She worked in Brussels for several years as a full-time conference interpreter for the EU, but in 1981 moved to Rome as a freelance, with regular return visits to Brussels, having added Italian as one of her working languages.
In 1983 she was awarded a master's degree by Bradford University, and was appointed as a lecturer in the languages department of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. She remained on the staff there until 1992, when she moved to Manchester, but continued working at times for the EU, doing translations at home.
She taught in the summer schools at Heriot-Watt, and served as external examiner for language departments in the universities of Bath, Bradford and Salford. She was much in demand as a translator, and led a team which produced the English version of the annual report of the European group of trade unions. Based upon her tremendous reputation as a conference interpreter and interpreter trainer, she was invited in 2001 to join the team of interpreting tutors at Leeds University.
She was a keen walker, and joined a walking group in which she met her future husband, David Hayes, whom she married in 1993. For the past 19 years they had lived in Sheffield. They both loved the hills of the Peak district as well as enjoying foreign travel.
Janet was a great music lover and soon joined a local orchestra, the Endcliffe, for which she played first flute. She also enjoyed playing chamber music in smaller ensembles. Her strong social views were demonstrated in her commitment to the Sheffield Anti-Fascist Movement.
Janet is survived by David, her mother, Pam, me and her sister, Deborah.