Famous and Fabulous

Andy Hargreaves

Andy Hargreaves grew up in a working class community in the small Lancashire textile and engineering town of Accrington in England – famous for its legendary football club, Accrington Stanley. Andy went to school at Spring Hill Primary School where the teacher in his last year, Mary Hindle, was one of his greatest sources of inspiration to become an educator. The youngest of three brothers, Andy was the first in his extended family history to move on to higher education – studying sociology at Sheffield University.

Professor Hargreaves qualified for and went on to teach primary school before studying for (and some years later) completing his Ph.D. thesis in Sociology at the University of Leeds in England. He then lectured in a number of English universities including Oxford until in 1987 he moved to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Canada, where he co-founded and directed the International Centre for Educational Change. From 2000-2002, he was also Professor of Educational Leadership and Change at the University of Nottingham in England.

Ron Hill

Ronald "Ron" Hill, MBE, BSc, PhD (born 25 September 1938), is a noted runner and founder of Ron Hill and Hilly Clothing Company. Hill was born in Accrington, Lancashire, England and attended Spring Hill School. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, but never laid claim to the marathon world record.[nb 1] He has run two Olympic Marathons (Tokyo 1964 and Munich 1972), and has a personal marathon record of 2:09:28. In 1970, Hill won the 74th Boston Marathon in a course record 2:10:30. He also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in 1969 and the Commonwealth Games in 1970.