Dr Henry Drucker, who has died aged 60, will be remembered as a man who transformed Oxford University's finances in the early 1990s.

Dr Henry Drucker

The Campaign for Oxford, of which he was Director, raised £340m for the university, and helped secure his reputation as one of the founding fathers of modern fundraising in Britain.

Dr Drucker arrived in Oxford in the late 1980s, when universities were facing reduced Government funding and strong central control.

The campaign was launched in 1988 and, over six years, produced spectacular results. Among its legacies are the Said Business School, the Sackler Wing at the Ashmolean Museum, several research institutes and a host of newly endowed professorships and scholarships.

Dr Drucker was born in Paterson, New Jersey, USA. After a PhD in Political Philosophy at the London School of Economics, he taught politics at Edinburgh University between 1967 and 1986.

He set up his own fundraising consultancy business, Oxford Philanthropic, based in Headington, after leaving the university and was asked by the Labour Party to help raise money for the 1997 election war chest.

But it was to be a short-lived association. Dr Drucker was critical of the party's use of 'blind trusts', through which donors were supposedly able to make anonymous donations.

His call for transparent party funding went largely unheeded, with some unhappy results once Labour was elected. Dr Drucker, who died on October 30, is also credited with helping the NSPCC build one of the most successful fundraising campaigns of any UK charity.

He is survived by his wife Nancy. A memorial event is planned to take place in London in January.