My father, Alan Bromley, who has died aged 88, was one of the driving forces in promoting the new town developments of the 1940s and 50s, and thus contributed to the government's masterplan to modernise postwar Britain.
He was born and brought up in north London, the son of a cabinet maker. An industrial injury to his father meant Alan had to leave school early to become the family breadwinner, and he took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter in the local gasworks.
During the second world war he was conscripted into the RAF and was stationed in Scotland, where he used his skills to build motor torpedo boats.
He was a keen motorcyclist and trials rider with the Wood Green club. When the war was over, he set off on a trip across Europe, his adventures meticulously captured in his surviving diary. The trip left an indelible impression on him of the need to rebuild Europe, and this shaped his future career.
When he married my mother, Lillian – they had met at the gasworks, where she was a secretary – they moved to Stevenage New Town. There he worked as a model maker, training at night school in graphic design and exhibition design. He then took a job as a designer for Coventry city council before qualifying as an architectural technician. He lectured at Nottingham University and went on to become head of exhibition design at Milton Keynes Development Corporation and later at Northampton Development Corporation.
He had huge energy and determination: not only did he take on ever-increasing professional challenges but along the way he renovated and restored an eclectic mix of four homes for his family of six children.
During his retirement in east Devon, he pursued his lifelong interest in gliding. He was flying solo until his late 70s, then somehow found the energy in his last years to go ballroom dancing.
My mother died in 1994. He is survived by me and my siblings, Caroline, Claire, Andrew, Helen and Matthew, and nine grandchildren.