From Salford


A lot has changed for Ray since winning a scholarship to study at Salford 50 years ago


Total Technology (PhD students researching in industry on the totality of an industrial problem). Happily the TT department just kept on growing, and it was extended to cover Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University and, I’m delighted to say, Salford University. At its peak, over 150 Research Students were working on projects with numerous UK companies, and I was appointed Professor of Industrial Technology. Then, in association with other UMIST industrial schemes, TT helped win the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, presented by Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace. The writer was the Senior Academic in the Presentation Party. Truly a day and an evening to be treasured.


So how else have I spent my time? Well, one year from now my wife and I will celebrate our golden wedding. We have 4 wonderful children, and 8 energetic grandchildren. And for hobbies? I have supported Manchester City since boyhood, and now they have more money than sand! Golf was my passion for longer than I care to admit, and Thursday


evening was always devoted to Snooker. Next we come to writing. Somehow I managed to publish over 200 scientific papers and two text books. It was always my ambition however to write a novel, but this had to have an intriguing theme. My first novel, The Nostradamus Inheritance, had an archaeologist find the true tomb of Nostradamus and his secret equations. These were then put on a super computer to chart the future – with chilling results. The Jesus Clone, related to cloning a man from the blood on the Turin Shroud, believed by devotees to be the burial cloth of Christ. The third novel, OMEGA, was set in the near future. Here the world was running out of resources, and the only way forward was to obey the commands of a computer of mammoth intellect but unknown ambitions. SPATEL (SPAce hoTEL) was a futuristic murder mystery, set in space – with bizarre characters and space age murders. Mandalay, was set at the height of the British Empire, and embraced passion, intrigue and the drums of war.


The novels were well received worldwide, and even found translation into Japanese and Hindi. Then the poetry bug struck. Seventeen years of ‘stolen hours’ were devoted to writing a collection of poems entitled Pearls Along The Path. Although out of print for some time, the novels and poems are now available on Amazon Kindle for a nominal price, or in book form, see www.raymondleonard.com.


What are my conclusions regarding the past 50 years? My Salford degree could not have been bettered. In addition to the excellent engineering lectures, I offer my sincere thanks to the patient man who tried so valiantly to teach me English! I wish Salford University every success in the future, and feel sure that the next 50 years will more than match the last half century of continued achievement. Someone else will need to write this report in 2061, but perhaps I can start it for them. Beer was £3.00 a pint, David Cameron was Prime Minister, Manchester City had just won the F.A Cup and.....


Alumni Magazine 2011 15


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