Secretariat

John Mott

Colleagues will be sorry to learn of the death, on 28 May 2014, of John Mott, former Chief Technician in the Department of Earth Sciences, aged 86 years.

A former colleague, has contributed the following obituary:

John was a very highly respected member of staff of the University, with over 40 years of dedicated service, retiring in 1992.

After serving in the Royal Air force he worked for Siemens, before starting at the University as a technician in the School of Chemistry. John then moved to Geology, which was sited in Hillary Place – here he established the first Instrument Workshop.

Geology moved over to a new building in 1967 and was renamed the Department of Earth Sciences.  Here John established the current Instrument Workshop which is now part of the School of Earth and Environment. John was the Chief Technician of Earth Sciences, responsible for technical staff and many other duties within the School. He would also undertake any task, regularly cleaning the School minibus, for example to ensure it was done correctly.

John designed and built 3 mineral separating machines which were very effective and were used in the School for a few decades.  One of these machines was displayed at a British Association (Science Festival) meeting at Aberdeen in 1963.  As a highly skilled engineer, he continued to design and manufacture many other effective mineral separation devices over the years.

His annual family holiday was to the Isle of Wight in August and without fail a postcard was always sent to the School. He regularly visited the local reservoirs and collected the best fresh eggs from a farm close by.  Staff were regularly informed of the reservoir water levels.

John continued to call into the Instrument Workshop/School of Earth and Environment every year before the Christmas break – sadly for the last time in December 2013.

The funeral service was held on Thursday 5 June at Bramley Baptist Church, where John was a Church Deacon.