When someone as important as a Vice-Chancellor dies suddenly in office, the period of mourning has to be coupled with swift action to find someone to take on his responsibilities as soon as possible. Within hours of Robert Whelan's death, an emergency meeting of senior officers took place in the Vice-Chancellor's Conference Room in Senate House. The Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Frank Harris, the Registrar, Bob Nind, and those lay officers who were available agreed to set up a Joint Committee as provided for under the University's Statutes, and to proceed with urgency to appoint an Acting Vice-Chancellor. It took them only 13 days. From the two names under consideration they chose an able administrator, a reformer, and a man trusted and admired. Professor J. F. Norbury, known to everyone as ‘Fred’, had spent almost his entire academic career in the University, from entering as a student of mechanical engineering in 1943 to holding the Harrison Chair of Mechanical Engineering from 1966. From 1977 to 1980 he was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor during Robert Whelan's first three years in office.

The interregnum over which Fred Norbury presided witnessed major changes affecting almost every aspect of university life. He made it clear to the lay officers that he was not prepared just to be a caretaker: too many issues required attention, and he was determined to deal with them.