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Obituaries V


Vincent de Paul Roper


incent de Paul Roper KSG died on 5 November 2022. He had been increasingly frail for some time and passed away peacefully at home hav- ing been fortified by the rites of Holy Mother, the Church.


Born in Birkenhead on the 19 November 1931, he was educated at Ushaw College, County Durham. He left at the age of 16 years realising that life as an ordained priest was not his vocation. He studied for his Higher School Certificate and did well enough to be considered to study medicine. Sadly, ill health made this impos- sible and, while he was recovering, he started to work in Birkenhead Central Library. From here, he progressed to work in a number of Libraries in and around Liverpool. He was awarded a B.A. (Hons)


from London University which was conferred in the Albert Hall by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in March 1972. Very early in his career he became a Fellow of the Library Association. He moved from public libraries in Liverpool to the College of Commerce in Liverpool where he taught many student librarians. His teaching life continued as the College of Commerce became Liverpool Polytechnic where he was based at Tithebarn Street, Liverpool. He ended his academic career at John Moore’s University. He always identified his particular interest as, “Historical Bibliography.”


John Eyre F


ormer students and staff will remember John Eyre, who died on 20 December 2022, aged 92, as the inexorable force that drove the establishment and development of computer teaching at what was then the School of Librarianship at the North Western Polytechnic, later to become the Polytechnic/Uni- versity of North London.


When almost everyone else had gone home, John and his team could be found discussing and developing future courses. When the telephone rang during these meetings, it would invariably be John’s wife Noreen asking him when he would be leaving. John would assure Noreen that he would be leaving very shortly and then, sometime later, Noreen would call again and John would


gather up his bits and pieces and quickly make his way home. John’s personality allowed him to cultivate important relationships within the Polytechnic. The reputation of the library school grew to the extent that ‘SoL’ was second only to the Department of Computing in terms of computer courses and activities.


52 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


John was aware of the needs of recently qualified librarians who were looking for ways to learn more about library computing. For some, it was their first experience of the new ‘Personal Computer’ technology. It is difficult to imagine now that these courses were initially conducted on computers having, for programs and storage, only a pair of 5¼ inch floppy disk drives.


The Professional Update Programme (PUP) evening course


was initially taught in the main building of the Polytechnic and whoever was due to teach the course would jump into John’s car, a Russian built Lada, and be driven at high speed, across North London.


John encouraged the development of innovative courses such as “Researching the Internet”. This popular course was probably the first such course to run in a UK univer- sity or polytechnic. When it began, Archie and Veronica were the main search tools and web browsers were a thing of the future. The course ran successfully for several years and remains a testament to the way in which John managed his team, encouraging them to experiment and be creative.


Away from the library school, John was active in Aslib. In 1979 John became Editor of Aslib’s journal Program: auto- mated library and information systems – a post he held for five years. He remained a valued member of its Editorial


June 2023


In February 1987 he was appointed a Knight of the Eques- trian Order of St Gregory the Great by the Holy Father Pope John Paul II. This was in recognition of his many years of service as Chief Brancardier of the Shrewsbury Diocesan Pil- grimage to Lourdes and for his work in helping to organise the visit of Pope John Paul II to Liverpool in 1982. At the tender age of 65 years, he then began work again as a book responsible Librarian for the Athenaeum Club in Liverpool and took inordinate pleasure in showing and talking about the great number of treasures owned by that library. He ended his time at the Athenaeum at the age of nearly 90 when failing eyesight and general frailty began to take their toll. In appreciation of his service his portrait hangs in the Library. Throughout his life he travelled to the Catholic Marian Shrine of Lourdes. It was there that he met his wife, Patricia O’Hara, a physiotherapist. They married in 1966 with the date of the Wedding having to be moved so as to avoid the FA Cup final of that year when his beloved Everton Football Club beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2. Vincent’s wife predeceased him in 2009 after 43 years of very happy marriage. They had two sons: John, a Paediatrician and Ted an Engineer. Ted now lives in Australia with his wife Pascale who was a physiotherapist he met in Lourdes. Vincent’s funeral was on the 1 December at St Michael and All Angels, Woodchurch, Wirral. The church was full. The requiem mass was followed by cremation at Landican Cemetery. Donations in lieu of flowers were made to the Shrewsbury Diocesan Lourdes Hospitality.


John Roper (son)


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