A fond farewell to Frank Heyworth
Frank Heyworth passed away on 12 January 2025. It was a great pleasure to get to know and work with Frank over a period of many years. He was a true gentleman, whose accomplishments are enviable – to pick out just a few: Frank studied with JRR Tolkien; was an Oxford blue at rugby; lived and worked in over 10 countries; was the Director of Eurocentres and the first Secretary General of EAQUALS and was a devoted family man and latterly grandfather.
His first encounter with the European Centre for Modern Languages took place over 25 years ago – delivering a workshop in 1999 entitled ”Innovative approaches to the organization and set-up of language education” which led on to the publication of “A guide to project management”. The guide served as an essential reference for all projects organized at the ECML - when the Centre was beginning to move from hosting series of workshops to a project-based format of activities. The ECML was fortunate to be able to benefit from Frank’s expertise and commitment at a particularly crucial stage of its development, helping to shape its future work. In his early days at the Centre he focused on forward-looking topics breaking new ground such as, the “Organization of innovation in language education”, the “Status of language educators” and “Facing the future in language education” – proposing a new paradigm for language education in the light of the major developments at European level through the publication of Council of Europe instruments (such as the Common European Framework of Reference and the European Language Portfolio) in which Frank was also actively involved . He seemed to thrive most when working collaboratively within a team, bringing together and capturing expertise and experience from wide a range of contexts. This is reflected in his work on the series of Qualitraining activities together with Laura Muresan, which focus on developing a quality culture within language education, and in the “TrainEd Kit” a practical guide for newcomers in the field of language teacher education, developed together with Gabriela Matei.
Having contributed so much in terms of content to the development of the ECML, Frank was invited to take on the role of programme consultant – where he offered advice on the Centre’s projects and acted as a sounding board and source of encouragement for ECML project coordinators. He fulfilled this role with great passion and skill, reaching up and coming generations of language professionals for 12 years. In stepping down from the function in 2019 – he made a typically modest appreciation of his contribution to the ECML at the Centre’s 25th anniversary conference (naturally he had been on the editing team of a publication to highlight the impact of the Centre’s work over a quarter of a century!).
Although this was supposed to mark his official ‘retirement’ from the ECML – that word didn’t seem to exist in Frank’s vocabulary! With the onset of the Covid pandemic, in the autumn of 2020 Frank was a driving force behind an EAQUALS initiative (together with Richard Rossner and Peter Brown) to highlight how the pandemic was affecting language education and look at ways in which the skills and insights gained during this turbulent period could lead to beneficial lasting changes in the teaching and learning of languages. The initiative took wings and led to a survey completed by thousands of language education professionals.
It is a true reflection of Frank’s character that at a time when he could have been winding down and enjoying a well-deserved rest, he instead devoted time to setting up an entirely new initiative for the benefit of future generations of teachers. Frank had a huge heart and was an inspiration to us all at the ECML and indeed to the many people who worked with him. Where others might have become jaded and cynical, he proposed creative new ideas looking towards the future and sought to help others develop their competences - even as his own health was beginning to fail. He is the embodiment of the quote by Henry Adams, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”– we cannot imagine just how important Frank Heyworth’s influence has been but we would like to pay tribute to a wonderful human being whose life has enriched us all.
On behalf of all those who worked with him at the ECML we would like to express our deepest sympathy to Frank’s wife, Anne-Marie, and his family. We will miss you, Frank!
A book of condolences for anyone who worked with Frank and would like to post a message has been opened below.