KEIGHLEY-born university lecturer Doctor Ann Prior has died at the age of 72.

Doctor Prior grew up in Cross Roads and attended Lees Primary School and Keighley Girls Grammar School.

After her first job in a shoe shop, she worked for well-known Keighley companies like Peter Black, NSF, Emu and Pennine Weavers.

Dr Prior, originally Ann Eccleston, married in 1962 and moved with her husband Kenneth Ambler to Oxenhope, bringing up three children David, Beverley and Christopher.

Soon after meeting her current husband Ralph, in 1981 Dr Prior began a mature students’ course at Keighley College, before going on to Lancaster University.

The couple moved to Lancaster, and later Dr Prior became a tutor in the university’s economics department and later was senior tutor at Grizedale College.

Dr Prior’s son David Ambler described his mother as a wonderful, caring and very clever person and a brilliant tutor, who was devoted to her grandchildren.

Dr Prior was diagnosed with cancer in September last year, and spent her last days at St John's Hospice in Lancaster.