Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Representing England | ||
Men's Athletics | ||
British Empire Games | ||
1930 Hamilton | Long jump | |
1930 Hamilton | Triple jump |
Reginald "Reg" William Revans (14 May 1907 – 8 January 2003) was an academic professor, administrator and management consultant who pioneered the use of Action learning. He was also a long jumper who represented Britain at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam where he finished 32nd in the long jump event. At the first British Empire Games, in 1930, he won the silver medal in both the long jump and triple jump competition.
He was born at Portsmouth, where his father was a marine surveyor. As a boy he saw his father receive a visit from seaman’s representatives after the wreck of the RMS Titanic. He recollected attending the funeral of Florence Nightingale with his mother.
In the late 1920s he was a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. A Commonwealth Scholarship in 1930 took him to study astrophysics and astronomy at Michigan, and on his return to Cambridge as a fellow to Emmanuel he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford and Sir J. J. Thomson. There were five Nobel prizewinners in the department, but Revans found them humble enough to share their puzzlements and to listen, rather than claiming to know and be able to instruct. Revans always remembered Albert Einstein saying to him: "If you think you understand a problem, make sure you are not deceiving yourself." It was here that Revans began to develop his thinking on the role of 'non-expert' in problem solving, distinguishing between knowledge and wisdom in so doing.