Dr Richard Maddison (1955)
died on 22nd November 2020.

Richard came up to Queens’ from Oundle with a Bursary and went straight in to the second year of the Maths undergraduate course. In his third year he did a postgraduate Diploma in the new subject of Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing. Then his PhD research at Oxford was on Nuclear Reaction Calculations, particularly the Optical Model of Neutron Scattering and its applications.

After Oxford, he got a job as a lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Sheffield University where he met his wife through the Scout and Guide Graduate Association and they were married in 1964. He joined British Railways as an OR specialist and was told to look at whatever was appropriate in any aspects of computing or science which might benefit the railways long term. He did extensive work on the planning and implementation of the computerised freight information system, called TOPS. It enabled huge savings to be made by reducing wagon numbers. TOPS underlies the system still in use today and he was still being interviewed about his work on TOPS in the last year.

His final job was with the Open University where he set up and taught courses on computing. He helped start up the University Business School and chaired its first course on Information Systems for Managers, with course materials that were studied by nearly 20,000 adults.

He had many hobbies and lifelong interests. He and his wife were very involved in Scouting their whole lives and organised many camps and (testing) expeditions. He was also one of the first people to produce a way of solving the Rubik’s Cube. He went sailing every year on the Norfolk Broads (from boatyard Eastwood Whelpton) and got very interested as they were building a large new boat called High Seas. He hired High Seas as soon as it was built, and then offered suggestions for improvement for the next boat, Seven Seas. When Seven Seas came along, he hired that boat the next summer. Further suggestions for improvements led to the last and best boat (in his opinion) which was called South Seas.

He had a major heart attack in July 1990, leading to quadruple bypass surgery at Papworth Hospital but it didn’t stop his energy and creative flair. He joined the British Cardiac Patients Association as a life member and was also a governor of Papworth hospital for 10 years. He continued to attend St Andrew’s Church in Bedford regularly where he inter alia ran the Handbells group.

A very talented and charming man who will be fondly missed by so many. He contributed to everything he did, by making it better.