Tributes paid to devoted special needs teacher Roger Segelov

TRIBUTES have been paid to a former teacher who devoted years to helping people with learning difficulties.

Roger Segelov taught in schools across the Swansea Bay region, including Danygraig and Newton Primary Schools, where he was deputy head, and was later headteacher at Glyncorrwg in the Afan Valley.

For 40 years, he worked with Swansea Mencap, which helps people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.

He was the group's chairman, and in 1990, his work with the group was recognised when he was appointed an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours, which colleagues said was "never more richly deserved".

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Eifion Wynne, secretary of Swansea Mencap and headmaster of Oystermouth Primary School, said: "Roger will be remembered with affection by the many children he taught, motivated and helped.

"He was very heavily involved in promoting the cause of people with special needs in Swansea and district."

He began as leader of Friendship House, a leisure club for special needs adults in the 1960s, where his innovative practice led to a change of perception of how people with special needs were seen, and he worked tirelessly to improve their lives. He was a strong advocate for the rights of our members to be treated the same as other members of society. All of us in Swansea Mencap will miss this caring and compassionate man. We are immensely saddened by his death, but he leaves behind a legacy that few of us can claim — he cared and did all in his power to make a difference to the lives of so many people."

Director of Mencap Cymru, Wayne Crocker, added: "Roger was a dedicated and long-standing volunteer and had spent decades supporting people with a learning disability and their families at Friendship House. His commitment to Swansea Mencap will always be valued and remembered by all who knew him. Our thoughts go to his wife and family on their sad loss."

He leaves behind wife Gill, six children, and a number of grandchildren.