Life Stories
Michael Frederick Orlik
Michael Frederick Orlik (1962 BA History) died on 31 January 2026 aged 82.
Michael Orlik was born in 1943 in Witney near Oxford, where his family had moved to from London during the second world war. Michael’s parents were both of Central European Jewish origin: his paternal great-grandfather left Vienna for London in the 1890’s for economic reasons; his mother and grandmother made the same journey in 1938 after the Anschluss. The family moved shortly after the war to Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and from the age of 13, Michael travelled each day to St Paul’s School in West Kensington, London.
At St Paul’s Michael was hugely inspired by the then Senior History Master Philip Whiting, a leading UK scholar in Byzantine history and numismatics. Michael read history at Keble College from 1962 to 1965, where he was also President of the Junior Common Room. A year in Ghana teaching English as part of a Voluntary Services Overseas Programme (VSO) followed his time at Keble.
St Paul’s, Keble College and Ghana: these were all significant influences on Michael’s life. Throughout his life he retained a great love of history and international affairs and was passionate about the importance of education and supporting the voluntary sector, particularly regarding young people. He had a rigorous, analytical mind, a great love of reading and was a humorous speaker and strong debater, no doubt all skills developed at school and university. He stayed for many years in touch with a number of contemporaries from St Paul’s and Keble College, and regularly enjoyed the annual dinners at Keble in his later years.
The law became one of Michael’s other great passions. He qualified as a solicitor in 1970 whilst working for West Sussex County Council and held several senior local government positions before becoming Chief Executive of Surrey Heath Borough Council in 1984. In 1990 Michael moved into the private sector, working for over 30 years for a number of legal firms in the Midlands. He specialised in Planning Law and became one of the leading UK authorities on footpaths and byways. He was instrumental in securing changes to the law on compensation for compulsory purchases, ensuring advanced payments to help displaced landowners pay off their debts during lengthy negotiations. In 1993 he published “An Introduction to Highway Law’’, which has become a seminal guide on the subject. Having joined Lodders & Co in 2002, he remained their specialist in this field long beyond his official retirement in 2013, continuing to work as a highly respected part-time consultant for them right until 3 weeks before his death. In 2020 the Birmingham Law Society presented Michael with a Special Award, recognising his then 50 years in the profession.
Michael enjoyed two very happy marriages, first with Rebecca Beels, the mother of his two sons, and then with Susan Pitts. Both wives’ lives were unfortunately cut short by cancer. Three years after Rebecca died in 1982, Michael married Susan, a secondary school headteacher who shared his love of history. In their seventies both Michael and Susan completed MA’s in History at the University of Birmingham, with Susan going on to complete a PhD in 2018. Michael took great pleasure in closely supporting his wife research and write ‘’Decorating the Parish Church in Post-Reformation England’’ a well-reviewed social and architectural history of the period 1560 to 1640, published just after her death in 2022.
A man of strong principles, he was an active supporter of the Edgbaston Labour Party and supported many UK and international charities, including setting up a programme to help apprenticeships in the West Midlands which will continue posthumously. Michael was acutely aware that his happy and fulfilled life had been a consequence of his mother and grandmother escaping extremism in the 1930’s; not all people – then as now – were so fortunate.
Throughout his life – even when helping his beloved partners or suffering himself from pancreatic cancer from 2023 to 2026 – Michael remained a positive and eternally optimistic man, always seeing the potential in every person or situation. His broad smile, sense of humour and keen interest in others endeared him to many. Michael died peacefully at his Edgbaston home. He is much missed by his 2 sons and their wives, 4 grandchildren, and a very wide circle of relatives and friends.
Kindly provided by his son Phillip Orlik