Christina Knussen obituary
My friend Christina Knussen, who has died aged 69 of pancreatic cancer, was a lecturer who worked at universities in Scotland and England.
In the 1980s, she was a full-time researcher at the Hester Adrian Research Centre at the University of Manchester, which undertook study into the lives and circumstances of people with learning disabilities. Then she became a lecturer and researcher in the psychology department at Glasgow Caledonian University, where she remained until ill health and caring for her husband and her parents led her to retire in her mid-50s.
Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, to Emilie (nee Alexander) and Erik Knussen, a musician and administrator at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, she grew up in Glasgow with her younger brother, Erik. After attending Bishopbriggs high school, where she was the dux (head girl), she studied psychology at Strathclyde University between 1974 and 1977 and, following a series of research contracts, received her PhD at Manchester University in 1993.
In retirement she spent many hours savouring the views from her book-filled home in Kilcreggan, a picturesque village on the Rosneath peninsula in Argyll and Bute. She also joined the Women's Institute, was a moderator on her local Facebook group, and helped to run the village's community website. She enjoyed an astonishing range of music and literature.
On one occasion, looking at family photos, she asked me: 'Is that a photo of your great-niece or just you in a flattering light?' , which perfectly captured her sense of fun. Christina relished talking about arriving at, and living, in middle age and beyond, but there were no topics off limits: grammar, dormant grievances, pets, celebrity culture, gardens, ancestral origins and countless life absurdities.
After her 1978 marriage to Robin Somerville ended in divorce, Christina married Alan Tuohy, who was also an academic, in 1984. I benefited indirectly from her second marriage since she gave me a Kenwood food processor that had been a wedding gift in 1978 and had been surpassed with a superior version given to her at her second marriage. When mine finally gave up the ghost I enquired about the possibility of inserting an item on to the wedding list of a third marriage; her response was loud and very funny. In any case, the prospect of another marriage was remote because Christina and Alan were soulmates.
Alan died in 2015. Christina is survived by a niece, Ana, and by Erik.
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