Celebration of the Life and Achievements of
Professor Robert Christopher Chivers
MA PhD DSc SRCS CEng Cmath CPhys FInstP FIMA FIPEM FIWSc FINDT FRSA JP Barrister
Contributions to the Celebration for Bob held in the Management School Lecture Theatre at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, on Saturday 29 January 2005
Contribution from Professor Richard Challis FREng, University of Nottingham.
“For the Celebration of the Life and Achievements of Bob Chivers”
I have known Bob for many years, indeed since the time when we were both doing our PhDs on a similar subject - simultaneously but in different institutions.
From the beginning I was deeply impressed by his raw ability, particularly in the field of Physical Acoustics, but also in the broader aspects of physics and in the more general and very enjoyable discourse on political and philosophical matters.
Bob, to me, was a generous and supportive professional friend whose company I enjoyed enormously. His wit and charm always oiled the wheels of difficult scientific discussions which I valued greatly over many years.
He was a brilliant public speaker, and we in the Physical Acoustics community were always excited by the prospect of another of his rich presentations - always stimulating, challenging, witty and imaginative - and a hard act to follow!
Bob's scientific output has been world leading throughout his career. His loss will leave many important unfilled gaps as the subject of Physical Acoustics evolves in the future.
We will all remember him fondly and with enormous respect.
We will miss him greatly.
May he rest in peace.
Richard Challis
Contribution from Dr. David Michael Manley PhD BSc(Hons) MIEE MIOA FinstP Cdip AF FICDDS Ceng, Member of UKNA Committee.
“Professor Robert C. Chivers”
Although not working with Robert, I had a lot to do with him concerning the late Dr. Raymond Stephens who were both outstanding Acousticians and were not eclipsed by the large influence of money.
In many telephone calls with Robert I realised what a brilliant modest man he was and also what he did for other people.
It is a great achievement to be called to the Bar, and a Justice of the Peace as well as being a top Academic.
Robert did mention his health problems and he was very brave about this and faced up to the difficulties this made. Despite this, he had a keen understanding of people and was very concerned about the directions life is taking. He will be a very GREAT LOSS to the Profession at the time it needs good and dedicated people.
I will remember him for his gentlemanly manner and extreme intellect and capability and trust that the works he has done will be handed on as an example and inspiration for many years to come.
It is not possible to attend Saturday next at Guildford on health problems, when many of his friends will attend. My sincere condolences to all his family and friends. Despite the health Robert had, he kept going and active setting a very high standard of Professionalism.
Yours very Sincerely,
David Michael Manley (Dr)
Contribution from Sombun Reantragoon, USA
“Celebration of the Life and Achievements of Professor Robert C. Chivers,January 29, 2005”
I am very sorry that I can not be with you today.
When I heard the news that Professor Robert Chivers had passed away, I could not believe it until now. So first of all I want to express my deepest sympathy to his family. I was very fortunate to have had the privilege of working very closely with him and he was indeed an inspiring and remarkable man. He was my tutor and supervisor for my course in Surrey University, and eagerly took on the same role when my supervisor Professor Elliot passed away at the University of Leeds.
During his time as Visiting Professor at Electrical Engineering, Cornell University - USA, he was dedicated to his supervisory role and was generous with his time and knowledge, always willing to discuss ideas and support his students. During this time I had the opportunity to work on my research and complete my thesis. I worked in his departmental office from early morning, while he prepared and gave lectures to engineering students, and I finished around 11:00pm, which was the time that Professor Chivers would expect to see the results of my daily work. My conversations and discussions with him about my research, which usually took place during our meals together, were always challenging and motivating. He always demanded the student to think for himself about which direction of research the student wished to progress (this was refreshing as some supervisors moved the research in line with their own wishes).
He found the time to supervise my project and willingly traveled back to the UK to participate in the Research committee panel to evaluate my thesis. He should be remembered for his intellect and the passion he demonstrated for expanding knowledge on the topics he loved and supervised.
I will always remember him as my greatest and most caring supervisor. He taught me the intrinsic elements of research and I will be forever touched by his kindness.
Sombun Reantragoon
Contribution from Edgar Brown, formerly of Chelsea College and King's College, University of London
I first met Bob through the friendship we both enjoyed with members of the Polish scientific and cultural communities - in particular the late Jerzy Zieniuk and his linguist wife Jadwiga. Later I had regular contact with Bob at the University of Surrey through involvement with John Bowsher's musical acoustics group. Along with John, Bob was one of my longest-standing friends at the University. At our regular meetings we always enjoyed 'getting up to speed' with social as well as scientific goings-on. More recently we talked from time to time about his involvement with the 'Stephens Archive' - the, perhaps legendary, voluminous papers of the late, and eminent, Raymond Stephens, a father-figure of British acoustics. Bob and I both worked in acoustics - but his ultrasonic frequencies, as well as his wide-ranging achievements, were far the higher.
Edgar Brown
Contribution by Mrs. Jadwiga Zieniuk, Professor of Slavonic Linguistics in the Institute of Slavistics, Polish Academy of Sciences,Warszawa / Warsaw, Poland.
“In Memory of Professor Robert C. Chivers”
My acquaintance with the late professor Robert C. Chivers, for my family and me simply - Bob, goes back as far as to 1974. That is when my husband, dr. Jerzy K. Zieniuk, a physicist (died in 1992), returned home from a conference held in Netherlands and told me about a young, very talented scientist and a nice man from Great Britain, Dr. Robert Chivers, whom he had met during the conference. The same year Bob came to Warsaw to visit the Institute of Technical Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, where my husband was employed. Since then we have become friends.
It is not possible for me to make a summary of the thirty years of our friendship in this short memory. So I will only mention few events from among that I keep deeply in my heart and which, I believe, characterize Bob as a person and a friend.
I remember Bob as an open-hearted man, responsive to the needs and feelings of other people. In 1976 Bob spent a couple of months in Warsaw as he got a scholarship to carry out a research in the above mentioned Institute. It happened at that time that my son (then 9 years old) got ill and had to undergo a surgery. I was shocked, the more so because my husband left for the USA as holder of a scholarship a few months earlier, so I had to cope the situation on my own. I have never forgotten Bob's reaction on my problem, how supporting he was and that he spontaneously offered to accompany me to the hospital while my son was operated. It had to be not easy for him considering that he had not yet been sufficiently acquainted with the conditions of life in this country, which then differed much from those in the Western Europe. Bob was very talented and hard-working person with great variety of interests. His relatives and colleagues know that having been outstanding scientist he decided to study low and become a barrister, but probably only few people know that he was successful in learning Polish language which is rather difficult for a native speaker of English. In March 1976 me and my son left Poland to join my husband in the USA, when coming back after six-months stay there I was surprised having found Bob speaking Polish quite fluently. What was really amazing is that he didn't forget this language in the next 28 years and was able to understand and communicate in Polish during his trips to this country. One of Bob's talents was the gift for making friends and for joining people together. His friends made friends with each other. As a young man he become friendly with my parents, despite of the barrier of language, as well as with my brother's family. Thanks to him I have got such friends as his sister Diana and her family, his mother Hazel and recently his loving wife Priti.
The last words of this script I address straight to Bob. Dear Friend, although I know that you have passed the mysterious border between this and the other world, I still feel your spiritual presence here. Thank you for our many talks on the very serious and less serious topics, for your sense of humor and smiling, for your hospitality when having invited me to England, for your kind-heartedness and true friendship. Let your soul rest in peace!
Jadwiga
Warszawa / Warsaw, 22nd January 2005.
“Remembrance”
When we heard of Bob's death, we were shocked and saddened. We stopped our problem-solving for the moment. Infinitely more important than our problems is dealing with the loss of one who had become almost like a family member to us.
He so much enjoyed his last visit to Poland in October, and we enjoyed being with him and Priti too.
Dear Priti, let us try to tell you what we knew of Bob, your husband, in his dealings with us. Bob was compassionate. He came to our home at a time of death in our family. He told me, after the death of Zenon, my uncle: "I'm sure you miss Zenon immensely, and probably always will. However, now that he is no longer with us to remind you, you must take on the responsibility of remembering that you have good friends here in England that are waiting for a visit from you." Dear Priti, you too have good friends here in Poland.
We are sure you know more than we know of this side of Bob - his brilliance, his listening attitude, his honesty, his compassion, his loyalty, his humour. We remember him as the best and dearest of friends.
A reputation for only a few of these virtues is in itself a good fortune for you and his family. We loved a genuinely warm individual - one we will miss greatly. Simply remember that for all these virtues, Bob has not gone unrewarded by his unexpected death. Death is after all only the side of life that we can't see from earth's shores. Who knows what God has in store for his child? We ask God's comfort on you and his family in your time of sorrow.
Malgosia and Jurek
Contribution from Dr. Joe Hatton, Bob's Physics Tutor, Exeter College, Oxford.
I saw Bob at the last college gathering he attended and he told me about the radical surgery he had undergone; it is astonishing how anyone whose life had been so blighted by sickness could achieve such heights in his professional career.
Ever since he came up to Exeter nearly forty years ago I have had a particular fondness for Bob. Not only was he a very able student but he had personal qualities which one couldn't help but admire - conscientious, courteous, considerate of others, while bearing his debilitating condition with admirable fortitude. His life should be a valuable lesson to us all.
He wrote to me after his marriage, and hope it will not embarrass Priti to told that he could hardly find superlatives enough to describe how beautiful and talented his wife was - neither Helen of Troy nor Cleopatra could compete! It is a tragically cruel stroke of fate that this late found source of joy should have ended so soon. I have the profoundest sympathy for you.
Dr. Joe Hatton
Contribution from Richard Scragg, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NewZealand
I met Bob Chivers in 1998. We were both attending a conference on advocacy at the Inns of Court School of Law. Bob, as a man with a New Zealand connection, introduced himself to me and we struck up a friendship which has endured ever since. I have enjoyed his company on subsequent visits to London and had hoped to enjoy his friendship for many years to come.
Bob was a Renaissance man: a scientist, a teacher, an academic, a lawyer, a magistrate and many more things besides. My outstanding memories of Bob concern his great love for the Middle Temple. He was steeped in its traditions and conveyed his feelings for his Inn with immense enthusiasm. The Middle Temple has lost a very loyal member.
Bob was a very warm man who endured poor health with great courage. The world is the poorer for his passing.
Signed: Anne and Richard Scragg
Contribution by Professor Andrzej Rakowski
Polish Academy of Sciences
With great regret Polish acousticians have learned that Professor Robert Christopher Chivers passed away in November 2004.
Professor Chivers, physicist and acoustician, outstanding scientist and respected academic teacher, for many years manifested his great friendliness towards Poland and Poles. He visited Poland many times and had many friends here. He actively participated in Polish acoustic open seminars and in specialized acoustic symposia in Poland. He proved many times to be highly appreciated adviser to our society in both scientific and organizational capacity.
In the years 1999 and 2000 Bob Chivers played an important role in the development of the Polish scientific quarterly Archives of Acoustics. As its Consulting Editor, and later as a member of the Editorial Board, he had his part in outstanding for this journal a new role in Polish acoustics within the United Europe. In the year 2001 he initiated collecting records of Polish scientific works in the field of acoustics and starting archives of those works in the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is supervised now by Dr. Jerzy Etienne and proved to be extremely useful to all Polish acousticians. He facilitated the completion of several doctorates at Gdansk University of Technology, and in 1996 he was an initiator of awarding an honorary degree at the University of Surrey to the outstanding Polish scientist, professor Zenon Jagodzinski.
Profesor Chivers, among other distinctions, was an Honorary Member of the Polish Acoustical Society and recipient of the "Westerplatte Medal" of the Polish Naval Academy. He also received two awards from Gdansk University of Technology, the Medal of Merit (2001) and the Jubilee Medal (2004).
Robert C. Chivers will remain for ever in grateful memory of acousticians from Polish Acoustical Society, Committee of Acoustics of Polish Academy of Sciences, Editorial Board of the quarterly Archives of Acoustics, and of all the Poles that experienced his fascinating personality.
Professor Andrzej Rakowski
Polish Academy of Sciences
Contribution from Hubert and Elsbeth Aebischer-von Kanel
In 1988/89 I, Hubert, was working as a visiting fellow together with Prof. Hans Gottlieb from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. We had found a way to construct a drum with an annular membrane that produces a harmonious tone on a purely theoretical basis. We wrote two papers on the matter and submitted them to Acustica, of which Bob was editor in chief. Somehow our papers must have attracted Bob's attention, for later on when, I was back in Switzerland again, he wrote me a letter stating that he found our idea interesting, and he asked me if I was interested to come to his acoustics lab at Surrey University to make experiments in order to test our theory. He helped me to apply for a scholarship from the Royal Society of England. I was thrilled, it all worked out fine, I got a scholarship for four months, and in the fall of 1990 I flew over to England. Bob was well looking after me, and he was very supportive. I got to know many very fine and helpful people at Surrey University, and it was a pleasure to make so many new friends. The indeed legendary team of Willy and Roger from the mechanics workshop built a prototype of the drum, and thanks to the support from Eric from the electronics workshop, I managed to complete the experiments successfully within the time planned.
During my time in Guildford, Elsbeth visited me for a week. Bob was so kind as to drive me to the airport, and together we met her there, so she also got to know Bob. Then Bob took us to a nice restaurant to celebrate Elsbeth's arrival.
In 1991 Bob supervised a diploma student, Matthew Horne, who was visualising the vibrations of the membrane of the "annular drum", as we called it, by means of laser interferometry, with the help of Prof. Ennos. This gave me the opportunity to return to Surrey University once again for one week in June.
Later sometime there was a scientific fair at Surrey University with all sorts of exhibits. Bob sent me a photo showing the Queen looking at the annular drum. When a similar fair was held at Griffith University in Australia later, this photo was on display, and the public could play a tape with sounds from the annular drum recorded at Surrey.
So far, the drum never got commercialised. More research would have been necessary to overcome the remaining technical problems. We were unable to convince a drum manufacturer to take over.
In summer 1992, a few weeks before Elsbeth and I got married, Bob visited us in Switzerland for a few days. We still lived in Berne at that time. We remember showing him the city, taking him to the Gurten mountain with a superb view of the city and the alps. On one day we made an excursion to the Bernese Oberland, and we took a cable car to drive us high up onto the Niesen, 2400 metres above sea level, with a splendid view of the surrounding snowy mountains of the Alps. We had a very good time together.
We also remember the good news of your marriage. It is very sad that Bob was unable to realise his plan he revealed to us in one of his letters and to visit us in Switzerland again, this time together with you.
Hubert and Elsbeth Aebischer-von Kanel
Wetzikon, 17th January 2004
Contribution from Neil Brown, formerly Honorary Secretary of the History of Physics Group,Manager of Collections Documentation,(formerly Senior Curator - Classical Physics), Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD
May I make a brief comment on an aspect of Bob Chivers' life that may not be widely known. He was interested in seeing that the evidence of the work of physicists was not lost. He attended occasional meetings of the History of Physics Group of the Institute of Physics. At one such meeting in 1998 he indicated that he might be willing to join the group committee and (in the usual manner of such organisations) the offer was accepted with alacrity at the Annual General Meeting later in the year. He gave valuable service to that committee, working particularly closely with my successor as Honorary Secretary, Sophie Duncan. He remained a member until October 2004, shortly before his death.
I think it was at a History of Physics Group meeting that Bob discussed another of this projects with me. He spent much time over several years clearing up the papers of a former colleague who had worked (if my memory is correct) in the field of acoustics. Bob was concerned to find a 'good home' for books and papers that, though not necessarily very old, were rare and unusual. I was pleased to be able to help by placing some of these in the Science Museum Library, which was very grateful for them.
The History of Physics Group committee will miss his contributions, and, though I cannot claim to have known him closely or had very frequent contact with him, I will miss him. We need people like Bob who are prepared, quietly and unostentatiously, to do 'good works', though they might not themselves think of them in those terms.
Neil Brown
Contribution by Vassilis Spiropoulos, Athens, Greece
My dearest Professor,
I do not find the exact words to express my sorrow for your loss. It was a shock.... Our memories go back in 1981-82 when I was lucky enough to have you as my personal tutor and my project professor. You were there like my second father and you took care of me like I was your son.... As we all know to do a Maters degree is very difficult. You have to pass through difficult times. You had your way to guide me through this all the time and you have found the time for me to take me out with you to meet your friends. I remember very well that I was feeling like I am with my father. Talking for my father he came to U.K. for a major operation at the same time I was doing my project with you. How can I forget the extreme care you showed to my family at this difficult time for all of us. You have found a hospital, a good surgeon and you made everything easy for us. At the same time you gave me the strength to go on with my project despite all these problems I had at this time....No Bob, I can't forget anything. You came also in my oral M.Sc. exam despite the fact that you were sick in order to help me. It was a success and you are the main reason... What to remember and what to forget....
You will always be remembered deep in my heart.
Vassilis Spiropoulos, Athens, Greece
Contribution from Paul Clements
My memories of Bob go back longer than most!
We were at school together at KCS Wimbledon and at Exeter College Oxford after that. We also have in common, that most important of backgrounds - a Welsh mother! - both Bob's Mum and mine having found their way from mid-Wales to marriage and Surrey. Bob certainly knew what it was to respond to high academic expectations and total support from Mum. We have all learnt a lot from his devotion as a son.
Three brief anecdotes from those early years.
I well remember a trip to Epsom when Bob revealed his passion for printing. He had purchased the necessary blocks and type. As an 18 year-old he had gone way beyond the John Bull outfit stage and was producing cards, headed notepaper and all manner of stationery. It was only an interest, a side-line, but Bob followed it so thoroughly, so knowledgeably and with such good humour that he made the science of typesetting really interesting. Now we just press 'Font' on the computer.
Second, from Oxford days, when Bob did spend an inordinate amount of time studying. On one occasion I was short of a companion for dinner. I called round and suggested we go out to eat. It looked as if the idea of eating hadn't crossed his mind; obviously some problem was occupying him. Anyway, we found somewhere for a meal and afterwards he was inordinately grateful for being dragged away from his desk for an hour. But that was typical of him not bothering about his own comfort when there were questions to tackle. Years later, of course, he reversed the procedure and when invited to Louis Fields, Susan and I were always made very welcome, with our comfort as Bob's main concern.
My third memory is of times at Christian Union, both in College and OICCU, when Bob shared his deep personal faith. He was not narrow or confessional. He was truly ecumenical and could see spiritual truth in many ways, but humbly. He was a good companion to have when we prayed or studied the bible together or just as students sharing our views on the meanings of things. He was quizzical, wise, non-judgmental; very much part of a group which took faith seriously while trying not to take ourselves too seriously. If I had to recall a scripture for Bob it might be Micah 6.8 "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" That seems to sum him up for me, but I'm also quite sure that Bob would have an even better verse in his head and would have found a way of making us think that we'd discovered it for ourselves.
As one year his senior and a provider of lifts to and from Oxford, I perhaps thought that I was shepherding him; but he has more than compensated over the years - not least by being the catalyst keeping those friendships going between old school and university friends.
So thank you Bob for the happy memories and the legacy of friendships we can see around us here.
Paul Clements
Contribution by Jonathan Ripley
“Bob Chivers 1948-2004”
I've known Bob since joining his class in 1958. We were 9 year olds at The Rowans in Leatherhead, Surrey, a small private school run by the benevolent Miss Haybittle and the sharp and demanding, but underneath it all kindly Miss Schofield, our class teacher. Many years later Bob went back there to present the prizes.
From the start I liked and admired this chap who was always top of our class, was very decent and well mannered, but had a mischievous sense of fun and humour. He came to my 10th birthday party and we've been friends ever since.
He lived in nearby Ashtead, and we would play together, French cricket in his garden, or if it was raining, board games, of which he had huge collection, with strange rules which baffled me but not him. I learnt that his father had died before he was born. My father, who was blind, was paternal towards Bob, and we both felt very welcome in each other's homes.
Within a year, I moved 12 miles away to Wimbledon, but fortunately, Bob's new school, King's College, was about 10 minutes walk away on Wimbledon Common. We swapped stamps, listened to Kenneth Horne on the radio, played and schemed in the air-raid shelter in my garden, and had days out, walking, or taking green or red Rover tickets on the bus to London or unknown parts of Surrey. Wee both liked to round the day off with a big plate of baked beans on toast with vinegar. I went with him to stay with his grandmother in Radnorshire and we had a marvellous time cutting down an old tree for and doing other outdoor jobs for her.
We played a lot of tennis, which I don't ever remember winning, on courts at his school and all over the place. We refused to use the tie break, preferring to let the match take its natural course - so I suppose I must have got close to winning sometimes. Some years later, when he had a moped, we played on courts in Bracknell, and were shocked to be refused entrance to a Chinese restaurant afterwards. We thought it was because we were carrying crash helmets, but it might have been we had sweated too much in our rivalry.
Bob moved to Epsom in his early teens, and at this time was very keen on printing on a little Adana press that was his pride and joy, and earned him some money. I was appalled and fascinated that when he was busy he would sometimes miss a night's sleep altogether to keep working at something. Throughout his life he would like to think of how he could make things possible, and if it was something others had already dismissed as impossible, the incentive was all the stronger. He always had this drive to cram as much as he could into his life as if he knew his time would be short. And from when I first knew him, long before Crohn's disease affected him, his heart was a cause of worry, though he was by no means a sickly child.
I spent week of good fellowship with him and some of the Christian Union of King's on a converted Pullman coach in Yalding station in Kent, where puns and jokes about the cooking combined with the odd layout of the accommodation and the fact that the lavatory was the other side of the railway line provided a lot of fun.
Bob went to Oxford and I started work. I visited him in his timeless rooms on the courtyard of Exeter College and he showed me round Oxford. In Blackwell's bookshop we discovered the drawings of M.C. Escher which intrigued us both. We bought a book of them and exchanged it with each other every few months for years. Only recently he joined my family as am excellent exhibition of Escher's work in Croydon, and we were as fascinated as we had been thirty years or so before. I never really understood his academic life, and still don't. He didn't talk in much detail about his place in the world of physics, and I look forward to learning more about it today.
In 1973 he was best man at our wedding - conscientious, confident (he'd done it before), proper, jovial and looking the part. But his assistance in our marriage was not just ceremonial. Shortly afterwards he supervised and worked hard on the re-wiring of our first house in Tonbridge. This involved several journeys form Guildford before the M25 in his Morris Minor Traveller, and a few nights on a camp bed in a house with as many floorboards up as down. In a favourite picture of us both during the work he looks like a chimney sweep. For years I teased him about a hole for a socket that grew and grew as he searched for something more solid than laths to attach to, but my teasing stopped when a few years ago I put my foot through his ceiling at Guildford while helping him with the wiring and boarding of his loft conversion.
My wife Stella and I were delighted when he married Priti, and we came to see that over the years, in two very different continents, two people had been developing who were right for each other. It is as if they have always been together so Bob's memory lives on in Priti.
There have sometimes been long gaps between my meetings with Bob - months or even years - but the friendship and shared history have remained and been a comfort to us both. He has been a good friend.
Jonathan Ripley
A tribute from Dr Elinor Hughes, Prof Paul White, and Prof. Tim Leighton; Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton
“We had the pleasure of working with Prof Bob Chivers over several years while he was a Visiting Professor at the ISVR in Southampton. During Elinor's work on her PhD into the ultrasonic assessment of bone disease, Bob provided invaluable practical advice on experimental issues, drawing on his substantial knowledge of the field. In particular, his guidance into specific techniques for measuring ultrasonic velocity enabled a crucial part of the final in vitro measurement system to be designed. In 1999 Bob became an official collaborator on an EPSRC grant held at ISVR into developing an in vivo system. As well as providing further practical advice on ultrasonic measurement, his background also enabled cooperation with commercial organisations. Furthermore, he played a full part in getting the work published. We shall all miss him, personally and professionally.”
Dr Elinor Hughes, Prof Paul White, and Prof. Tim Leighton; Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton
Contribution from Professor Juri Engelbrecht,Estonia
To Bob
World is full of people but they are not alone. Unvisible threads connect men and women, old and young. The threads meet in nodes and so a complicated network is formed. Time gives to nodes and threads a special value. Being a node does not depend on somebody's will or official status in numerous man-made hierarchies. Bob was a node with so many threads connecting him not only to his family but to his friends and to all, who had a chance to meet him. He gave so much to everybody.
I came to Britain in 1979 and Bob taught me to discover, understand and love Britain and British - starting from towns and nature, people and community, theatre, music and writings. What was special in our friendship - he shared his friends with me and they became my friends, too. This was his most valuable gift ever to me. At this sad time when he finished his brave long fight against the illness, the bells toll for all of us. But we should not remain depressed, for we should be grateful for having him so long with us, for having enriched us so much and for giving us so many bright moments of life. This was the natural state of his heart - to give. Thank you Bob for all that!
Juri Engelbrecht,Estonia, Friend and colleague since 1978, Professor of Applied Mechanics;President (1994-2004) of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
Contribution from Deborah Jackson
“My Memories of Rob“
In March 1992 my husband Alan and I embarked on our BIG OE. Only for 6 months mind!!
A relation met us at Heathrow Airport, I only knew this relation existed a few months earlier. I was so nervous and homesick already!!! ROB had sent us a photo of himself and we had sent him one of us.
So, we were looking for a bearded gentleman, with glasses - you would be surprised just how many people at Heathrow Airport had beards and glasses!!! But then he appeared - never have I been so pleased to see someone I hardly knew - a relation.
We hugged and introductions took place.
This was the beginning of a RELATION-ship!
ROB took us in the dark of nite round Windsor castle - whizzed us here and there and finally we got to our destination, 14 Louis Fields, Guildford, Surrey.
There we were introduced to another fantastic person Hazel - ROBS mother.
We spent 2 ½ years in England (so much for only staying 6 months!!), always knowing that ROB and Hazel were only a phone call away - ROB always made that very clear. We must have driven Hazel nuts with our whirlwind comings and goings, storing our treasures in the famous LOFT at number 14.
ROB was just so kind to such a DISTANT relative. He mentioned several times 'there must be something in the water in New Zealand - you lot have breed better than us here in England!!' ROB was always loved hearing about our travels and where we were off to next.
ROB also LOVED the element of surprise and several times did indeed surprise us.
He and Hazel called in on our first Easter away from home, with Easter Eggs for us at the pub we worked at. All that way with Easter eggs, just for us. On one occasion he organised a day trip (well that's what he said) to Ruardean, where OUR ancestors hailed from, showing us all around the region and then finally secretly booking us into a fabulous old place for a meal and to top it off - a room for the nite!!! A planned hatched by himself and Hazel weeks earlier. And the pleasure he got from the looks on our faces. That was ROB he loved doing things for others.
ROB last came out to New Zealand in Jan 1998 - a whirlwind surprise trip to attend MY relations wedding - Barry and Deb (who held a special place in Robs heart also, from their time in England) - they were just blown away, when, yet again he surprised them and just walked in!!!! There goes that look again!!! Just pure pleasure! He did have time to catch up with a few more of his relatives here as well.
PRITI, I would just like you to know that although we have not met, ROB waited a long time to find someone as special as you and you certainly bought him a lot of happiness in the time you were together. I know ROB had talked several times about coming out to New Zealand to show you around and introduce you to ALL his New Zealand family here, please remember YOU too are part our FAMILY and are always welcome.
ROB has also helped us in others ways but I won't go on. Needless to say we will always be indebted to his generosity.
Please don't forget about us here in New Zealand and our door is always open to any of you here today (but please not all at once!!)
We are so lucky to have had someone as special as ROB in ours lives, cherish the memories, as we certainly do. Thank you Rob for some wonderful memories.
Thank you, I wish I could have been here with you all.
Deborah Jackson
New Zealand Relation
Contribution from Margaret Rogers
“For Bob”
Bob always had a smile on his lips. Sometimes the smile broke loose, sometimes it remained a promise. This is my lasting memory of Bob. To me, Bob was unfailingly kind and thoughtful, bringing home-grown beetroot to the door, sharing meals or stories, or optimistically arriving at the door to borrow a screwdriver when the car broke down. I was amazed at his energy and his achievements, as well as his commitment to others.
For twenty years, I knew Bob as a friend and a colleague. He was a colleague who became a friend. The past tense still jars.
Margaret Rogers
January 2005
Contribution by Rosalind Malcolm; Leslie Blake; Richard Benny and Amanda Cleary
Department of Law, University of Surrey
Bob Chivers- a physicist who had so much to offer the law.
It was a lawyer, W.S.Gilbert- normally a light-hearted man- who once (in a sombre mood) wrote:
“Is life a boon ?
If so, it must befall
That Death, whene'er he call,
Must call too soon.”
This is not always true, of course. But no one who knew Bob Chivers could have heard of his death without the thought dominating his or her mind: "here was a man who died too soon." To those of us in the law department, who had come to know him after he retired from the full-time teaching at the university, this emotion was made sadder by our realisation that here was a scientist who had had so much to offer to the theory and practice of the law (particularly to the law of environmental protection).
Mathematicians and scientists often make excellent lawyers and some lawyers with such a background (Lord Denning and Lord Mackay, for example) have risen to the top of the legal profession. (Indeed it sometimes happens the other way around- the mathematician Arthur Cayley, was a Chancery barrister.) There is something about the trained scientific mind that finds an affinity with legal reasoning, notably because scientists are so quick to spot 'red herrings', and because English case law (in particular) is inductive in nature and always shows a reluctance to reason far beyond what actual experience has demonstrated to be wise.
Bob became a lawyer (and subsequently a J.P.) at a time when the Magistrates' Courts were increasingly being used to deal with complaints of noise nuisance, environmental pollution, food safety complaints, anti-social behaviour, and other areas of the law where the evidence of expert witnesses is relied upon, and where conflicting expert evidence often has to be evaluated. It was therefore an inspired choice to appoint Bob to the Magistrates' bench, not least because, in addition to his scientific and legal knowledge, he, like any great teacher, had a sympathy for and understanding of people, and in the very nature of his personality ("slow to chide and swift to bless") he exemplified judicial self-restraint.
Rosalind Malcolm.
Leslie Blake.
Richard Benny and Amanda Cleary
Department of Law, University of Surrey
Contribution by Professor Peter Wells, FRS
Although he perhaps never realised it, Bob had a great and beneficial influence on me. He was, of course, much younger, which makes his untimely passing all the more poignant now. When he first began to become established as a significant player in medical ultrasound, he was a shining demonstration of the merits of combining rigorous theoretical understanding with careful experimental work. Many of those active at the time were inclined to the "Heath Robinson" approach which, whilst it sometimes worked, was also liable to embarrassing failure: I was one of these. Bob's own researches, on the other hand, generally included a good blend theory and experiment and they were amongst the examples which I tried to emulate later.
I have two particular memories to share with you. The first is this. Bob had come to Cardiff to give a lecture at a scientific meeting in the Welsh National School of Medicine, where I had recently begun to work. I knew no Welsh. Bob, however, seemed to be fluent in it and wowed his audience not only by his science but also by his linguistic skill. The second memory revolves around a talk that Bob once gave on the measurement of the attenuation of ultrasound travelling through tisssues. Bob reviewed the then-published data and concluded that the best estimates were in a paper of which I myself happened to be a co-author. I clapped more heartily than anyone at the end of that lecture!
In the years that followed, Bob and I kept in touch. We met at conferences and it was always a joy to see him. The greatest joy was when I heard that he and Priti had married. Today is not a day for sadness, but for celebration of a life well lived and a life that has left the world of science a better place and us, Bob's friends, better for having him amongst us.
Professor Peter Wells, FRS
Contribution from Cousin David
“Some memories of Rob”
An “infamous” cricket match at Bryn Haul in the mid 1950's when we were both holidaying at Nan's home. The pitch was on the adjacent field and clearly the groundsman had been tardy with his preparations for the match - hardly to test match standards!
We were, as youngsters would, playing with a hard cork ball and Rob was batting to my bowling. As ever he was giving his all to dispatch most deliveries to the nearest boundary. I for my part was probably trying, I suspect from frustration at the treatment of my bowling, to add some pace to the deliveries.
Rob then decided to attack one ball with a deft sweep to the leg side but was unfortunately a little slower off the mark than previously and sadly allowed the ball to roll up the bat and connect with his chin. He received a nasty cut to his upper lip, which required a stitch by the local Doctor. Such was his spirit that he recovered from his ordeal and we were back to outdoor activity the next day, albeit I recall further cricketing encounters were deferred until another holiday.
When I last saw Rob, just before he died, when he made such an effort to speak with the many people who came to see him, despite the pain and discomfort he was plainly experiencing, I reminded him of the above experience and showed him an old photograph of the field where we played. It was a delight to see him smile at the memory, which he recalled, even though he expressed amazement at the sort of things we remember as individuals from the distant past.
David
Contribution from Dr. Pankaj, Dr. (Mrs) Hemlata, Abhijit and Arpit
A Passionate Tribute To Bob By An Indian Family
When with the dim and blurred eyes,
We think of the shocking and sad demise,
Wrought are we, with anguished agonies,
That left our hearts, with woeful moanings.
Voices are chocked and words do fail,
To express torments, sufferings and wails,
Oh ! That great and irreplaceable loss,
That left us, in a state of shock!
How to cope, for the harmonious rapport,
How to have, that selfless support,
How to fill that irreparable void,
And give solace, to those devoid.
Alas ! it can never be so,
Hence remain composed and bear the woe,
But be sure, he is not so far,
And will always be, our Guiding Star !
So let all of us, should join our hands,
And pray for Bob, for the Gracious Hands,
That will embrace him, in His Affectionate Fold,
And make him reside, in His Loving Hold !
May thy soul, get the Rest,
In the Heavenly Abode, in the Divine Nest,
Live there, in the Celestial Delight,
By having Peace in the Holy Light.
Dr. Pankaj, Dr. (Mrs) Hemlata, Abhijit and Arpit
Contribution from Stan Rackham
My wife and I first met Bob in 1974 at the University of Surrey. We were in a group he had organised to attend the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and all returned to Bob's rooms at Surrey for supper afterwards. On our visits to the UK in 1981 and 1987 we made sure of an outing with Bob. My diary entry of 11th April 1987 records the following note: "Off to meet Bob Chivers and his Polish friend Zen at the Jolly Farmer in Puttenham at 12-30. He looked much improved on yesterday." My entry for the previous day when I visited him at the University had been; "Bob looked wan and pale and clearly in a weakened state". I undoubtedly have other diary entries recording other meetings with Bob. On my visits to UK in the nineties I became one of the many who are listed in his Louis Fields guest book having been quite unable to resist his generous invitations. My wife and I also had the pleasure of seeing him on our home ground on several of his visits to Australia. In ones life, one meets so many people and not surprisingly most of them are forgotten, but not so with having met Bob. I would put it this way- just to have met him is one of the higher level memories of my lifetime. His softly spoken manner had behind it an amazing breadth of knowledge and wide ranging interest. I treasure his friendship and memory. That for a large part of his life he had to cope with a debilitating illness but continued on with an active and most fruitful life is an amazing story. He had packed into his life of 56 years much more than most of us:- it was a life of great value and meaning for his impressive achievements, his wide range of friendship, his way of life and always with a warm generosity to all.
Stan Rackham, Rossana, Australia
Contribution by Kate Zale-Smith
I met Bob when I came over from Poland and applied to Surrey to continue my education. Bob was a course tutor for the course I very much wanted to study. I did not realize that Bob spoke some Polish so you can imagine my surprise when he welcomed me in my language at the interview!
It was because of his subsequent recommendation that I was allowed to join the Medical Physics course at the final year (other universities would not agree to that). Without this start, it would have been very hard for me to have taken a career path in the UK that I subsequently followed.
During my degree year, Bob was always there if I needed help or just as a friendly face. This is how we became friends and he came to my wedding, which took place right after my final exams.
Since Bob spoke Polish, he hatched a plan with my father to bring him over to Guildford for my graduation ceremony. This was a wonderful surprise for me as it was all arranged and executed in secret by Bob and my father! I cannot say how proud my father was to be there.
Later, Bob wrote a reference for me for a job and when we moved to California 5 years ago, he gave me details of his friends there if we needed any help.
Kate Zale-Smith