Dr Bob Chaplin, former research associate and tutor in wave energy in the Engineering Department passed away on October 19th 2023. Bob came to the University from the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering in the late seventies to work under Professor Michael French on the ‘floating bag’ wave energy project. Following the death of his wife, Dr Davina Chaplin, formerly of the University’s Italian Department, Bob led Lancaster University’s Formula Student team and was committed to exposing engineering students to the rigours and challenges of working on live projects with real briefs. In his final years at the University, he was recruited to assist the Dean on University-wide initiatives.
Caroline Gilfillan (MA Creative Writing, 1999, Graduate) passed away on September 24th 2023. She was a multi-talented musician, novelist and poet with a vibrant and adventurous spirit. Her poems won awards, including a Yeovil Literary Prize in 2019. She published four collections, including ‘Pepys’ in 2012 and ‘Yes’ in 2010, which won best poetry book in the East Anglian Book Awards that year.
Michael Forster, founding Registrar of the University, passed away on September 3rd 2023, after a long illness. Michael came to Lancaster as Deputy Secretary to Stephen Jeffreys in May 1964, with the title of Academic Registrar added two years later, and was subsequently appointed as Registrar. By the time of his retirement in 1991, Michael had helped the University navigate the initial expansion of student numbers, the cutbacks of the early Thatcher years, the evolution of a faculty structure, and the emergence of league tables, including for the quality of teaching and for the ever-expanding research agenda that would take Lancaster into the top ten of universities in the 1992 Research Assessment Exercise. The award of an Honorary Fellowship in 2011 was a fitting tribute for a life of wholehearted commitment to the values of Higher Education and Lancaster in particular.
Paul Frederick Gurney (Economics & Politics,1967) passed away, aged 77, at home in West Wales on August 31st 2023, after suffering a severe stroke 18 months previously. He was born in Croydon, and was a founder member of the University, where he played in the hockey team, decorated floats for rag week and gained a degree in Politics and Economics. Whilst at University he lived part of the time in a bed and breakfast hotel on Morecambe seafront and attended lectures in the chapel at St Leonard’s Gate in Lancaster. He also rebuilt a Triumph TR2 and ran and maintained a Vintage Alvis, often giving rides to fellow students. He loved every minute of his time in Lancaster. He ran the family business in Croydon for 10 years and bought a farm in West Wales, where he subsequently developed a property business.
Charles Alan Mountain (MSc Cybersecurity, 2019, MPhys Physics, 1997, Cartmel) passed away on August 14th 2023 after a short battle with melanoma. Charles loved Lancaster so much that he returned 25 years later to do another master’s this time in Cybersecurity, and gained a distinction. After his graduation in 1997, Charles secured his first job working for
NNC. He went on to work in IT for EDS for fifteen years and then to DEFRA as a contractor. On his return to Lancaster in 2018, he was especially pleased that, at the age of 43, he could beat the younger Freshers at the rowing challenge!
Ian Miller MBE, Fellow of the University, and the Royal Society’s Hauksbee Award Winner died on August 9th 2023, after a long struggle with pulmonary fibrosis. Ian was key to the success of the Lancaster Low Temperature group, working with Professors Tony Guenault and George Pickett. He used his skills to build “dilution refrigerators” which enabled the group to achieve the world’s coldest temperature, as well as much pioneering work in the field. Ian’s work has been nationally recognised by the award of the new Royal Society Hauksbee Award, created to acknowledge and reward excellence in supporting science in the UK. In addition, Ian was awarded the MBE.
Marion Garner died on August 9th 2023, aged 84, after a short illness. Marion worked in the Mathematics and Statistics Department from 1975 to 1996 as a member of the administrative staff. As Departmental Officer, she had a careful and unhurried approach to her work and always found time to help people.
Professor Emeritus Robert ‘Bob’ Rothschild, formerly of the Department of Economics died on July 9th 2023 after a long and debilitating illness. A graduate of the University of Cape Town, and former Research Student at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he worked in industry in both the UK and Germany. He held visiting posts at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA, at the Australian Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia, Curtin Business School in Perth, Australia, and at the Northwest Polytechnical University in Xian, China. His principal research area was in industrial organisation analysis, with particular reference to cartel behaviour and competition in product-differentiated markets.
Professor John Boylan, formerly of the Department of Management Science, passed away on July 7th 2023, after having been diagnosed with acute blood cancer in May. John was a celebrated academic who can be credited with seminal contributions to shaping the area of supply chain forecasting, as well as influencing the lives of many, as a supervisor, mentor and collaborator. He was a prominent member of LUMS, and the wider academic community. His expertise in forecasting and inventory management was honoured internationally. As well as his teaching role, he was the Director of the Centre for Marketing Analytics and Forecasting.
David Reid (Physics, 1978, Cartmel) died on June 8th 2023, having lived with cancer for more than two years. He became a lecturer, first at Derby and then at Nottingham Trent University, where he worked until he retired. David was a generous and inspiring teacher. He brought warmth and humour to his teaching with a lightness of touch which made complex ideas accessible. David collaborated with a wide range of people from the worlds of contemporary music, art and photography.
Dr Barry Hunt, formerly of the Department of Chemistry, passed away on June 6th 2023. Barry was first an Experimental Officer and then a Research Officer at Lancaster from 1967 until 1999 and ran the polymer characterisation facility within the department. He gained his PhD at Lancaster under the supervision of Professor John Bevington, the first Head of Department. In subsequent research, Barry collaborated with many colleagues in Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Sciences: work that was subsequently published in a wide range of journals and book chapters, and at national and international conferences. In 1999, Barry moved with other members of the Lancaster polymer group to the University of Sheffield where he continued his research, teaching and supervision up until his retirement in 2008.
Emily Morgan (Theatre Studies, Culture & Communication, 1998, County) who worked for more than two decades for ITV News, latterly as the ITV News’ Health and Science Editor, died aged 45, in June 2023, after a short illness. She started with ITV News as a producer and was based in Westminster for five years. She subsequently became a news reporter and progressed to numerous roles including Wales and West of England correspondent, Political Correspondent and Health Editor before being promoted to Health and Science Editor. Emily played a pivotal role in ITV News’ coverage of the Covid pandemic and was described as a “brilliant journalist”’ and a “wonderful woman” by colleagues. Her exemplary reporting throughout the Covid pandemic was a vital public service – helping to keep people safe.
Professor Michael Lea (PhD Physics,1968, Bowland) died on April 24th 2023. Born in Kendal, Michael obtained a Hastings Scholarship to The Queen’s College, University of Oxford and in 1964, he became one of the first physics postgraduates at the then ‘new’ University of Lancaster. He built his first Low Temperature laboratory in the city; his second at Bailrigg; a third at Bedford College University of London and a fourth at Royal Holloway University, where he was appointed Professor of Physics. On retirement, he became an Emeritus Professor at the University of London. Back in 1964, Michael met his wife Katherine (Kate), an undergraduate at Lancaster, and they married in 1966. Both developed a passion for the Arctic and they spent many summers out in the wilds of Greenland, Svalbard and Baffin Island making sound recordings of birds and narwhal.
For full obituaries and tributes visit
www.lancaster.ac.uk/ alumni/in-memoriam
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