OBITUARIES Susan Joan Utting (née Buckwell) S
usan Buckwell was born in August 1934 and died in September 2024. She went to school at the County School for Girls in East Sussex and her first job was at Lewes Public Library in 1952. She completed her reg- istration examinations at Brighton in Winter 1956. She was an Assistant at Westminster City Libraries where her tasks included visiting St James and St Peter Primary School, Soho.
Susan then applied to the City of Plymouth Public Libraries and from July 1956 she was appointed as Assistant-in-charge at the Efford Branch Library. She was involved in setting up a programme for children with reading difficulties in consultation with local teachers and the school psychologist, in
addition to regular children’s activities such as story hours. Four years later she went to Marquette University Library in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, on a one year exchange pro- gramme. The scheme was extended and she stayed at Marquette until 1964. She was recruited by the Jesuits of Wisconsin Prov- ince to set up a library in the new Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. She trained Korean staff and worked with the Architect to design the Loyola Library building at Sogang. She lived with a Korean family and eight years later she was a fluent Korean language speaker.
In 1972 Susan was head-hunted by the British Ambassador in Seoul to become the Embassy Information Officer and Librarian. Before the British Council appointed a representative to Seoul in 1973, her duties included the organising of the visits to the UK of leading Koreans in education, culture and the press.
David Bromley D
avid Bromley was born in 1935. He entered the profes- sion at Coventry City Library in 1951, before undertaking his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals. He attended Brighton and Manchester Schools of Librarianship before taking up his first professional post as Commercial and Technical Librar- ian in Nottingham, where he formed the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Technical Information Service serving Nottingham and surrounding district.
In 1964 he was appointed to a similar post in Sheffield where his interest in library co-operation led to a significant develop- ment in SINTO. He was promoted to
Principal Assistant in 1969 responsible for branch development and budgetary control. In 1975 he was promoted to Deputy City Librarian , a post he held until 1984.
He left Sheffield after 20 years’ service when he was appointed the first Director of Leisure Services for Bedfordshire County Council where he had responsibility for additional areas includ- ing countryside and rights of way. Retiring from Bedfordshire
in 1994, he was immediately appointed a Charter Mark Assessor in the Cabinet Office, where he worked for five years. He finally retired in 1998, moving to the Lake District where he was able to continue his passion for fell walking.
He was actively involved in professional affairs at the Library Association and a part time lecturer in Librarianship at Notting- ham and Sheffield Polytechnics. In 1968 he was awarded the English Speaking Union Travelling Fellowship, visiting business libraries in the USA. From 1979 to 2000 he was a member, and for five years Chairman, of the British Library Consultative Com- mittee on Newspaper provision.
Activities outside the profession included serving as a Justice of the Peace in Sheffield, Bedfordshire and Workington. In retirement he was a member of the Council of the Waterloo Association, joint Honorary Archivist with his wife Janet and co-author with her of three volumes of Wellington’s Men Remembered published by Pen and Sword.
Katharine Purchon (Daughter)
In 1973 she married Stan Utting who was coordinating a British Technical Education AID project at the Ulsan Institute of Technology (UIT), now the University of Ulsan. Susan joined Stan at Ulsan and assisted in developing the UIT library. Their children were born in Busan – Jane in 1974 and Hugh in 1976. The UIT AID project ended in 1976.
After moving to Nigeria in 1977 for a three year contract, the family then lived in Crewe for the next five years. Susan was Chair of Crewe and Nantwich Children’s Summer Workshop and Administrator of the same organisation’s Music Workshop at Nantwich.
In 1985 Stan was appointed to a teaching post at The Univer- sity of Technology at Lae in Papua New Guinea. There, Susan taught in an international primary school and also found time to continue her studies for an Open University Honours Degree. The family returned to Crewe in 1987, when Stan had a heart attack while returning to Lae.
Susan returned to her church and community activities in Crewe and became a Governor at St Thomas More High School. She had many friends in four continents.
Susan is survived by her husband Stan, daughter Jane (aka Sister Hilda of the Bernardine Cistercians Community), son Hugh, daughter-in-law Sora and granddaughters Anya and Marla.
Stan Utting (Husband)
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