writing and performing once more. His academic career flourished again at RMCS, and when Cranfield University took over the academic management of the college from the MoD, John became a professor, and the subject leader in the Applied and Computational Mathematics group dealing with all sorts of unique statistical research, from ballistics to the earprinting of criminals. He is a well-published academic with 100 papers and 9 books, often on his pet subject of Chebyshev Polynomials. He organised three very successful international conferences on Algorithms for Approximation, usually based at an Oxford College. Conference delegates were often regaled by John’s after dinner speeches, which became an enjoyable and lucrative sideline in later years. Despite all these other projects, he always found time to work with students, and his postgraduate researchers in particular have gone on to substantial academic careers of their own. He moved to new challenges at the University of Huddersfield in 1994 and loved the Yorkshire countryside and people, despite a hefty commute to and from Abingdon at weekends. Huddersfield appointed him as Emeritus Professor in 2004 and as a Doctor of Science in 2005. By the time she handled lighting and sound for the Edinburgh fringe show, City Lit fellow student Moya Churchill and John had fallen in love and the two of them were married in 1977, shortly after his move to RMCS. A son, Chad, was born in 1981, at which time the family moved to Abingdon, only nine miles from John’s beloved Oxford. He maintained his musical interests throughout his academic career – singing in a local madrigal group in Abingdon and later playing violin on a much older Chad’s debut
album, his son continuing the family tradition of performing as an actor and songwriter. John retired slightly early from Huddersfield as the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease began to develop. The disease had afflicted John’s father forty years earlier, although advances in medical science allowed John more than ten extra years that his father had never been able to enjoy. Even in illness and retirement, John was still always busy, reacquainting himself with a love of watercolour painting, and he even found time to teach Maths evening classes at the local FE college. He also wrote his autobiography, Off at a Tangent, which was published by the University of Huddersfield Press and captured a life full of exciting stops and unpredictable turns. Son, Chad Mason, supplied this obituary. Stephen Christopher Mayers [1970-77] 03.04.1959 – 04.10.2016 Stephen Mayers was born in Redhill, Surrey, as the second of three sons to an economist, John and his wife Sophie. Stephen was only two when Southmead primary school, playing for both their football and cricket teams. When he was ten, the family moved again, to Dulwich. In his final year of primary school, at Dulwich Hamlet school, he led their cricket team to victory in a tournament at The Oval, and he also captained the combined South London Schools Under-11 team, which was a sign of things to come. Stephen came to the College from Dulwich Hamlet and was one of the last beneficiaries from an Inner the family moved to Wimbledon Common, where he attended
London borough of the Dulwich Experiment, having much of the fees paid for by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). At the College, he was in Raleigh, but as one of the outstanding school batsmen of the 1970s, who was in the 1st XI for four seasons and captain in 1977, he had few opportunities to play in house matches. He did well enough to get A levels in Geography, History and Economics, when his form tutor was John Dewes and cricket was a frequent topic of conversation in tutorials. After a gap year working for a metals and minerals consultancy and travelling extensively in the US and Canada, Stephen went to Hull University to study economic history. As usual, cricket occupied a significant proportion of his time, playing for the university as well as a representative English Universities team, but he did just enough work to emerge with a respectable degree. scheme. He enjoyed his time at the Hendon training college, but his first placement as a bobby on the beat in Manor Park came as a huge shock. Always a sensitive soul, he found it hard to come to terms with the harsh realities of life on the streets, as well as the old-fashioned views of some of his colleagues. He left the police after only a year, re-trained in IT, and worked for a number of insurance companies in London. In 1988, he moved to Liverpool to work for Royal Life, a move which allowed him to buy his first house. He re-trained again and qualified as a management accountant, and it was as an accountant that he returned to London to work for several large organisations. Stephen made his final career move in 2006 joining After graduating, he returned to London and soon joined the Metropolitan Police graduate
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