The Operational Research Society deeply regrets to report the death of Emeritus Professor Peter Checkland, formerly of the Management Science Department at Lancaster University.
His funeral will be held on Wednesday 17 June, 13:00, at Stockport Cemetery and Crematorium, SK2 6LS. All are welcome to attend.
Peter Bernard Checkland died peacefully on 17 May at Chapel Lodge Care Home, Chapel-en-le-Frith, aged 95.
Peter was born on 18 December 1930 in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Just a five-minute walk from home, he attended the George Dixon Grammar School for Boys, where he was school Captain. He was awarded a scholarship to read Chemistry at St John’s College, Oxford, but before taking up his place, compulsory National Service intervened. He completed this in the RAF as a science instructor, with the impressive rank of sergeant.
At Oxford he was the Casberd Scholar and graduated in 1954 with an MA First Class honours. A PhD beckoned, but instead, Peter chose science-based industry and joined ICI Fibres, where for the next 15 years he worked initially as a research scientist, rising to become Group Research Manager. To help in the role he looked to the ideas in Management Science. He found them useful for recurring situations, but less so for the multifaceted problematic situations involved in managing a 100-strong research group. Project management, especially ‘systems’ concepts, became of interest as a possible means of tackling this complexity.
In 1969, Lancaster University was at the forefront of developing new subjects, including Systems Engineering. Peter was aware of this development and when the opportunity to join Professor Gwilym Jenkins arose to take this new subject further, he changed career. Appointed as Professor of Commercial Systems, he was tasked with creating a research strategy for the small group in Systems Engineering, which would link theory and practice, a core, shared concern with Jenkins. With colleagues, this was the start of a thirty-year programme of action research using rigorous systems thinking in the context of real-world organisational problems. Mature students on the MA in Systems Engineering, with staff supervision, undertook five-month organisational projects to tackle such problems.
Through this managed programme Peter developed Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), and in doing so changed our understanding of systems profoundly. His contributions have been field defining, involving a paradigm shift from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ systems thinking. No longer were systems ‘out there’ to be discovered and engineered, but systems conceived as epistemological devices to explore real-world problematic situations. SSM became a process of inquiry which, through hermeneutic cycles, learns its way to ‘actions to improve’. Such an approach is fundamentally interpretive and concerned with ‘relationship-maintaining’, rather than the ‘goal seeking’ characteristics of earlier approaches.
The impact of Peter’s work has been significant in areas as diverse as operations management, strategy, engineering, information systems, and across all sectors: private, public and voluntary. In the academic world, his work is cited throughout the management analysis literature and beyond. Specifically, in the field of Operational Research, his influence on the development of ‘soft OR’ has been profound.
Peter’s research journey has been captured in over 80 papers in leading journals. His citation record is exceptional. Underpinning these are six key books, which include the accepted classic texts: Systems Thinking, Systems Practice (1981, 1999); Soft Systems Methodology in Action (1990); and Systems, Information and Information Systems (1997).
Recognition of this original contribution is reflected in five Honorary Doctorates: City University 1991; Open University 1996; Erasmus University 1998; Czech University of Economics 2004; and Linnaeus University, Sweden 2014. Similarly, recognition has come from the three learned societies most closely associated with his work: the UK Systems Society Gold Medal 1997, the OR Society’s Beale Medal 2006, and the Pioneer Award from the International Council for Systems Engineering 2008.
Alongside his research and teaching, Peter was Head of Systems Department for 15 years and co-founder of ISCOl, a university consultancy company that supported the action research programme. From 1985 to 1987, Peter chaired Board F, the School of Management and Organisational Sciences. In this role he was instrumental in persuading departments and the University to adopt a full faculty structure, including Deans. In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship, the highest award Lancaster University can bestow.
His last public lecture was at the OR60 conference at Lancaster University in 2018, where he gave a plenary lecture and was warmly greeted by many who had followed in his footsteps using SSM and related concepts.
Peter formally retired in 1997, and life took on a new rhythm. The family had a small fisherman’s cottage in Sennen, Cornwall, where he loved to spend time with his two daughters Kath and Kris, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. There, sea, sand and his passion for rock climbing would fill the long spring and summer days, and when fixtures allowed, he could cheer on the Cornish Pirates RU team.
Come autumn, Peter could be found back home in Bolton-le-Sands enjoying his jazz collection, his TV, with sport and Detectorists among his favourites, and tackling his reading stack. In 2017, Peter moved home to Hathersage in the Peak District to be near his daughters. Later, when his dementia worsened, he moved to a care home in nearby Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Peter lived a long, happy and fulfilled life, darkened only by the loss of his wife Glen, aged 60. Throughout, he was always good humoured and excellent company. Peter’s academic narrative is, of course, one pillar of his legacy. The other is the impact he made on the minds of countless others. Many have written to say so. The student experience, direct and indirect, mattered to Peter. We will miss him.
David Brown
June 2026