Philip Gray, a true mineral processing visionary, died two days ago, on the day that the 2017 IOM3 Awards were announced. Philip was the recipient in 2013 of the Futers Gold Medal, one of the Institute's Premier Awards. He was President of the Institute, then the IMM, in 1984-5, during which period he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).
Active and perceptive right to the end, Philip was a great advocate of the Warner Process for direct smelting of sulphide ores, and was a keynote lecturer at MEI's Pyromet '07 in Falmouth. Two years ago I was honoured to interview him for MEI (posting of 2nd February 2015).
None of Philip's close relatives survive him. His wife Joan, to whom he had been married for 67 years, died only three months ago on New Year's Eve.
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| Philip and Joan, Christmas 2016 |
I am sure that many of you will have memories of Philip and I invite you to add your own appreciations to this posting.
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My friendship and professional contact with Philip dated back to 1954, at CSIRO in Melbourne. Conversation with Philip was always interesting and instructive, and often challenging. Philip used to enjoy bird watching from our verandah in the Adelaide Hills during his visits to Australia. It was during Philip’s incumbency as President of the IMM that he encouraged me to write a book of mineralogy for metallurgists. Vale Philip and Joan
ReplyDeleteWalter Fander