My friend Erika Cox, who has died of cancer aged 69, was an Open University tutor for half her lifetime. She was loved and respected by students and her fellow tutors on psychology courses.
Erika Connelly was born and brought up in East Finchley, north London. Her parents were teachers and, after her mother's death when Erika was eight, her maternal grandmother played a key role in her upbringing, which was somewhat unconventional. She accumulated a modest set of O-levels at Woodhouse grammar school (now Woodhouse college, in Finchley) and, after sixth form, went to University College London to study psychology.
At the age of 22 she married Robert Cox, a potter, and moved to Norfolk, settling in the village of Whissonsett, where she remained for the rest of her life. After the births of Justin and Flora, Erika taught German at Hamond's high school (now the Nicholas Hamond academy), in Swaffham, before moving to Fakenham college where, as head of psychology, she established the curriculum for the subject. Students found her inspirational and several went on to pursue degrees in the subject. She was an examiner for the AQA board and wrote well-regarded psychology A-level textbooks and guides.
Erika's OU career began in 1978, with a group of students on a psychology of education course. In 1984 she made her first appearance at an OU summer school at the University of Sussex. By 2010, when ill health intervened, she had amassed 71 weeks of residential school service. Students valued her grasp of the subject matter and her ability to explain it in accessible language. These skills were put to further use at study weekends organised by the Open University Psychological Society and, more recently, in the revision sessions she gave at Peterhouse, Cambridge.
Erika's talents and enthusiasms extended way beyond psychology. She delighted in wild swimming near the family's second home in Lagrasse, France. Her artistic skills encompassed jewellery making and knitting. She excelled at cryptic crosswords. A voracious reader, she had revisited the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen in the months before her death. She loved the Guardian and the obituaries page was her first port of call each morning.
She is survived by Robert, Justin and Flora, and her granddaughters Kaya and Molly.