Sir Norman Adsetts death: Tributes to businessman and charity campaigner, nicknamed ‘Mr Sheffield’
Tributes have been paid to Sheffield businessman and charity campaigner Sir Norman Adsetts, nicknamed ‘Mr Sheffield’, after his death, aged 92.
Tributes, following his death on April 25, have been led by ex-Home Secretary and Sheffield Council leader Lord Blunkett, who described Sir Norman’s contribution to investing in education and into the charitable and voluntary sector in the city as ‘unequalled’.
He said: “Sir Norman Adsetts was one of those pillars of Sheffield who was not only successful in his long and prestigious business career, but who wanted to put something back into the city.
“His contribution to investing in education and into the charitable and voluntary sector was unequalled. From the facilities at Sheffield Hallam University to the smallest charity, thousands of people have good reason to remember Norman Adsetts with both affection and thanks.
“We desperately need more Norman Adsetts who, having been able to build on the skills and innovation of our city, had been prepared to put so much back, and in doing so, to help others to succeed.”
Sir Norman spent over 30 years as managing director of Sheffield Insulations Group, steering the firm towards being the multi-billion-pound business it is became. He was also a prime mover in the city’s regeneration, championed culture and played an important role in the birth of Hallam University - so much so that the student library on Arundel Gate bears his surname.
Born in Withington, Manchester, in 1931, his family came to Sheffield in 1934. HIs father ran an ice cream company, Abbetts, based on Ridgeway Road, but he initially planned to join the Royal Navy.
Winning a scholarship to King Edward VII school in Broomhill aged 11 he slowly changed his mind towards business. He was a bright boy, and was steered by the grammar school towards a scholarship at Oxford, where he read PPE - philosophy, politics and economics, later getting involved in his father’s business.
After university Norman joined Fibreglass Ltd, and moved to St Helen’s, Merseyside, having married his wife, Eve, in 1956.
After his dad set up the Sheffield Insulating Company, as it was originally known, he joined his father in the company aged 35 in 1966.
He was Hallam University’s first chairman of governors when the polytechnic transformed itself in 1992.
In the 1980s and 90s he was the chairman of Sheffield Theatres, and drove forward the restoration of the Lyceum where, as a schoolboy, he avoided football by watching plays on Wednesday afternoons. He also applied his thinking to the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, becoming its first chairman in 1994 and overseeing the relaunch of Kelham Island Museum and the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet.
He retired from SIG in 1996 and was knighted three years later.
Sir Norman Adsetts was also motivated by his grandsons’ autism to change the way the condition was dealt with in everyday life.
He spoke to the National Autistic Society, who reported a shortage of professionals - such as teachers and police - who understood about the condition in children. His talks helped lead to the Autism Centre at Sheffield Hallam. Sir Norman went on to work with autism charities and in 2008 launched the The Adsetts Partnership, which offers work to people with the disorder.
