My husband, John Needham, who has died aged 84, was an active member of the Labour party, a highly regarded permanent secretary of the Open University Students’ Association (OUSA) and a lifelong Arsenal supporter.

He was brought up in a tenement flat near King’s Cross station in London. His parents, Lydia (nee Pateman) and John Needham, both worked at Whitbread’s Brewery. John was two when the second world war broke out and his father enlisted. He and his mother spent much of the war in underground shelters; their building was bombed twice.

Leaving William Ellis school at 15, John worked as an office boy in the City. In the 1960s, he became an active member of St Pancras North Labour party and was eventually elected to Camden council. As chair of the libraries and arts committee, he oversaw the building of the St Pancras library and Shaw theatre.

He was one of a small group of councillors who stood with tenants during the rent strike against the notorious 1971 Housing Finance Act. As a result, they were surcharged. The huge debt hung over him for years until it was revoked by the House of Lords. John and I met in the run-up to the February 1974 general election, when John was the agent for St Pancras North and I signed up as a campaign volunteer.

John was one of the first to enrol in the Open University in the early 1970s, studying both the social science and science foundation courses. After the OU negotiated with a number of universities to admit students with OU course credits instead of A-levels, he became one of Lancaster University’s first full-time mature students, graduating at 40 with a 2:1 in organisation studies and sociology.

After work at Sunderland Polytechnic, as general manager of the student union, John moved to Milton Keynes in 1983 to be permanent secretary of OUSA. He believed passionately in the mission of the Open University and had personal experience of its power to change lives. Soon after he joined, the university was under serious threat from a hostile Tory government. John spearheaded a campaign to support the OU, engaging students throughout Britain. A 160,000-signature petition was delivered to 10 Downing Street in November 1985. He retired in 1999 and in 2001 was awarded an honorary master’s degree, for services to OU students.

John devoted much of his retirement to campaigning for patient and public involvement in the NHS – and playing golf.

He is survived by me, our daughter, Jessica, and grandchildren, Teddy and Poppy.