Lost persons and the power of Google

Barbara and I are in the BA lounge at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, waiting for our flight to Denver. We are off to Colorado for 9 days skiing in the Rockies, before returning to Denver for the SME Annual Meeting.

Last night we had dinner in the Terminal with Bob Schofield and his wife Jean, who we have not seen for over 43 years!

With Bob and Jean at the Houldsworth Ball
Leeds University, 1967

Bob and I shared a flat in Headingley during our undergraduate days at Leeds University, and then we went on to spend a further three years of PhD research, after which Barbara and I took off to Zambia, and Bob and Jean to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Bob spent six years with British Gas researching into the materials used for gas transmission, distribution and production. He then spent many years travelling around the world, working on major oil and gas pipeline projects in the UK, France, Netherlands and the Middle East. He is now an independent pipeline consultant, and like me has no thoughts on retiring.

With University flatmates Bob Schofield and Bill Cooke, 1965

We completely lost touch after leaving Leeds and going our separate ways, and in recent years I have tried to trace his whereabouts but to no avail. So it was a great surprise when a couple of weeks ago I had an email out of the blue, to tell me that he had traced me via Google! He and Jean live only 17 miles from Heathrow, so hopefully we will meet up again soon. We have both lost touch also with our other flatmate in Leeds, Bill Cooke, so if anyone has news of him, please let me know.