Messages - Ken Wade



Messages for Julia and family

Dear Julia and family

I first met Ken over 30 years ago and was struck by the humility, humour and generosity of spirit of a man I only knew previously from text books and his famous “rules”. Over the years I had the opportunity to work more closely with him via numerous collaborative projects and advisory bodies. My initial impression never changed.

When I was considering an enforced change of job, Ken was very supportive and helped with both practical and more philosophical advice. Reasons beyond our control prevented this from resulting in us working much more closely together and it was a lost opportunity we both reflected on from time to time.

Although I hadn’t seen much of Ken in the last few years as he moved south and I moved north, I still regarded him as a friend and will miss him greatly.

Best wishes

Bob

(Prof. Robert Tooze, SASOL, St Andrews, Scotland)

Dear Julia

Ken had a profound impact on my career having taught me as both an undergraduate and a postgraduate here in Durham.

The way he delivered his undergraduate lectures was fantastic - simple, clear, highly amusing and all done with huge humility - especially when describing areas of chemistry in which he’d been a leading light.

Later, he was instrumental in helping me secure funding for a post-doc position, before then becoming an outstanding colleague when I moved back to Durham 10 years ago; throughout his support was very much appreciated. Ken was truly inspiring on all levels and had a great sense of humour to accompany all he did.

He will be very strongly missed!!!

With best wishes

Phil

(Dr Phil Dyer)

Dear Julia and family

My thoughts are with you.

In 1988, I had just received my degree results and got a job offer in London when I thought about doing a PhD but did not expect a PhD studentship to be available at such a late stage. I decided to meet Ken for the first time - even though I was already at Durham for nearly three years - to discuss PhD possibilities.

I thoroughly enjoyed that life-changing one-hour meeting with Ken. I understood Ken easily despite my hearing loss and found his work very interesting. He somehow managed to get a PhD studentship and offered it to me the following week.

As Ken was very busy with his duties while I worked for him, I did not have many discussions with him but each time we had the opportunity to discuss my project it was a ‘magical’ time. It was because Ken was very interested, understood exactly what was going on and gave suggestions no-one else would have ever thought of.

He was highly influential in my career as he recommended me as a postdoc to Dr Greatrex of Leeds, offered me a postdoc position back at Durham and helped me with getting a prestigious 5-year fellowship when he formally retired. Now, after 25 years I am still doing the same area of chemistry Ken got me interested in.

Based on my 25-year experience in chemistry academia, Ken was one of a kind as a chemist and the one I regard as a class above everyone else. More importantly, he was a wonderful person – very humble, kind and had a brilliant sense of humour.

It was a pleasure and a privilege working with him. I will miss him.

Best wishes

Mark

(Dr Mark Fox)

Dear Julia

We were very saddened to hear of your recent loss, and would like to convey our

sincerest condolences to you and your family.

I will never forget the help that Ken gave to me personally in connection with my work with the boron hydrides. The knowledge that he was interested in our work and his continued support and astute advice encouraged all of us in the research group. Through Ken I was privileged to meet and work with his protégé, Mark Fox, who had a major impact on our work in Leeds. However, Ken's reputation was of course worldwide; he was a guiding light in the whole field of chemistry. May the knowledge that your father was held in such high regard, by so many people of all nationalities, help in some way to alleviate your pain during this difficult time. It is with great regret that a longstanding prior arrangement will prevent us from attending the funeral, but our thoughts will be with you.

Kindest regards,

Bob and June Greatrex

(Dr Bob Greatrex, Leeds University now retired)

301 Spen Lane, West Park, Leeds LS16 5BD.

Dear Julia

I was very sad to learn of your father’s death. Unfortunately teaching commitments mean I won’t be able to come to the funeral but I’m glad of the opportunity to pass on this brief message through Mark Fox.

As I’m sure you’re aware by now your father was an absolute giant in the field I work in – boron clusters – but I’m equally sure that you were probably not made aware of that fact by him. Ken was always the most modest of men, but the simple fact is that in Wade’s Rules (a term he never used) he single-handedly systematised an entire area of chemistry and brought structure and order to a field where there was previously none.

I first met Ken in the early 80s when we began a series of UK boron meetings designed in part to provide an opportunity for PhD students and postdocs to get to know people in the field and talk about their work. They tended to be somewhat in awe of him but as you can imagine he always managed to put them at ease and was tremendously encouraging and supportive of them. He was the most senior academic there so we always asked him to give the closing remarks and these were invariably full of insight and quick and gentle humour. One I will always remember is when we were at a venue in the Scottish Highlands. Ken looked out of the window at the mountains Ben Lawers and, beyond, Ben Alder, and talked about the ones we couldn’t see, Ben Zene and Ben Zoyl. Absolutely brilliant.

I always enjoyed meeting and talking with him whenever our paths crossed over the next 30 years. Last year I was very pleased to be asked by the RSC to write a Viewpoint article (pdf attached) reviewing the impact that Wade’s Rules have had on cluster chemistry and took the opportunity to speak to your father about the sequence of events that led up to him devising the rules. His recollection of events 40 years ago was crystal clear and ensured I got the facts correct and in the right order, for which I remain very grateful.

He really was an outstanding scientist and a thoroughly nice person. It’s really sad that he’s gone but his scientific legacy obviously lives on – people will still be talking about and using Wade’s Rules in 100 years.

My sincere condolences to you and all his family at this difficult time.

Yours

Alan

(Prof. Alan J. Welch, Edinburgh, Scotland)

Messages about Ken Wade (collected by John Evans and Mark Fox)

I was shocked to learn of Ken Wade's death. He was a very kind and helpful man as well as being an important scientist. I nominated him for the Chancellor's medal (a rare event: a physicist nominating a chemist!).

Kind Regards,

Arnold.

(Sir Arnold Wolfendale FRS)

This is sad news indeed. I saw Ken in the corridor just last week, and he was cheerful and keen to learn what was going on... When I came to Durham for interview in 1981..Ken was one of two chemists I knew about on the staff...... and he supported me (to the RS) and many others selflessly. He gave his life to Chemistry here, and without him we would not be where we are today. He will be sadly missed in Durham and far beyond. We must mark his passing thoughtfully....

David

(Prof David Parker FRS at ACS Dallas)

Ken was the last person I managed to get promoted as head of department in 1983, before I moved on to pastures new as a research director in ICI. Durham at that time was dominated by small arts departments that had over-representation on both senate and promotions committee. In those days the University Grants Committee imposed strict limits on promotions such that no more than 40% of staff could be above the grade of Lecturer. Promotions were therefore difficult to achieve and I was gratified that my arguments on the promotion committee and in senate lead to Ken’s well deserved promotion in early 1983.It seemed to give his research new initiative and he then went from strength to strength.

Kind regards

David

(Dr David Clark - former Durham Chemistry Head of Department)

Today I heard from Tris Chivers the very sad news that Prof. Ken Wade has suddenly passed away. I would like to send my condolences to his family. I have met Ken only three times during the past twenty years. Two of them were in chemical conferences. The third and the most important meeting with him took place in Oulu, Finland in 1997. He was one of the teachers in Summer School of Chemistry of Non-metals, which I organized in the University of Oulu. I found Ken a very warm person and during those times that we had chance to meet, we got along together very well. He had a very wide and deep chemical knowledge and even in our short discussions provided very many important insights in main group chemistry. I was particularly impressed by his teaching in our summer school. He used up-to-date chemical principles to help students to understand and predict structures and chemical behavior of compounds. I can only hope that there would have been more possibilities to meet with him.

With best wishes,

Risto

(Prof. Risto Laitinen, Oulu, Finland)

I am stunned by this news. Ken has been a fantastic mentor to me for many years.

Best regards

Rab

(Prof R E Mulvey FRSE, Glasgow)

Sad news, a rare example of a gentleman amongst many who were, and are, not in the academic arena. Always self deprecatory and setting low value on his own and value. Quite the reverse of all those who did PhDs and post docs with him and those who worked with him. Very dry sense of humour.

Regards

Randal W Richards

(Former Durham Chemistry Head of Department)

Ken was a fine person and one who was very generous with his insight--a true educator.  It was Fred Hawthorne on a visit to Notre Dame back in the 70's who recommended me his small book on electron deficient compounds--a book that changed the way I thought about everything concerning clusters.  That and our many subsequent interactions were very important to the development of our work.  Well I won't be having another beer with him in the undercroft but I'll lift one in his memory tonight. 

Best regards, Tom

(Prof Thomas P. Fehlner, Notre Dame, USA)

Vale Kenneth Wade. We will not see his like again.

Sadly

Paul

(Prof Paul J. Low, Perth, Australia)

This is very sad news indeed. Please convey my condolences to his family, friends and coworkers in Durham.

Piotr

(Prof Piotr Kaszynski, Nashville, USA)

I was really sorry to learn of Ken's passing. Ken was simply an inspiration. As an undergraduate, I found his combination of humour and modesty made him a very special teacher who could captivate an audience of undergraduates who were normally more interested in womanising and drinking beer! As a graduate and PDRA, Ken was a superb mentor and there must be many both in the Dept and outside, including myself, who will miss his gentle support and encouragement immensely.

He has left his own obvious legacy on the general world of chemistry but was also a very strong supporter of chemistry at Durham. During my recent visits as external examiner, it was always a pleasure to be tracked down by Ken to discuss both science and politics over a coffee. I shall miss the wry smile, wit and good humour.

I'm sorry I am not with you at this point in time in person, but my thoughts are certainly with you.

Jeremy

(Prof Jeremy Rawson, Windsor, Canada)

We have been very sad hearing that Prof.Ken Wade passed away. We will keep this great and keen boron men always in our memories. His impressive contributions to synthetic boron chemistry and particularly his outhstanding contributions to developments of cluster systematics and electron counting rules shall stay up to him forewer, allways smoothing daily work in boron laboratories. Please, convey our deepest sympathy to his colleagues and family.

My best regards,

Bohumir

(Dr Bohumir Gruener, Prague, Czech Republic)

It was with the deep sadness that I received the news of the death of Professor Wade. All of us in the entire community of boron chemists in Russia and around the world knew Ken Wade for his outstanding contributions in the field of the theory as well as chemistry of polyhedral boron clusters. One would hardly find a paper on carboranes or metallacraboranes which would not mention either in the explicit or in the implicit way his seminal work on the polyhedral electron counting, and the term “Wade rule” has long become familiar to all specialists in the field. I was really lucky to have been among the audience when he had presenting his plenary lectures at boron meetings, in which he, with unrivalled clarity, was able to summarize the fundamental achievements as well as the most challenging problems of the theory of polyhedral boron and metal-containing clusters. He was of course also well known as a successful manager of scientific effort, and he excelled at organization of conferences and scholarly events. I’m sure many of us will long remember the vivid and friendly atmosphere of boron meeting in Durham brilliantly organized and guided by Ken.

Please, express our sympathy and sincere condolences to family members and

friends of Professor Wade.

Sincerely Yours,

Igor

(Prof Igor T. Chizhevsky, Moscow, Russia)

Thank you for passing on the sad news. Ken was a giant in inorganic chemistry in general, and in boron cluster chemistry in particular, worthy of the admiration he received.

He will be sorely missed, but his legacy, including his professional progeny, will endure for decades to come.

Best regards,

Steve Strauss

(Prof Steven H. Strauss, Colorado, USA)

This is a profound shock and a great loss. In my opinion Ken did more to advance the understanding of molecular clusters and to develop a unifying vision of the field, than anyone else, including Nobelists and other distinguished scientists. He was a giant, and irreplaceable. His contributions in the theory of bonding and structure in boron and boron-related clusters underlie the work of a couple of generations of chemists, including some younger ones who may not even be fully aware of Ken's foundational achievements. I was privileged to enjoy a cordial and friendly relationship with Ken and count it a great blessing to have known him.

All best regards,

Russ

(Prof Russell N. Grimes, Virginia, USA)

I loved discussions with this extraordinary good chemist that I will remember forever.

Bob Stibr

(Dr Bohumil Stibr, Prague, Czech Republic)

Very sad to know. Ken was my idol and leader for 40 years even though I met him only once, seven years ago. He was so very gentle and kind and the only meeting during the euroboron conference stays in mind for ever. We all will miss him badly. I do not know where to bounce an electron counting rule any more.

Please convey my heartfelt condolences to his family.

Jemmis

(Prof. E.D. Jemmis, Bangalore, India)

It is sad news of this day. Every one of our students knows Wade's rule. As for me, I will never forget IMEBORON in Durham, where I had an oral talk for the first time, and it was a big honor to prepare the paper for his jubilee in DT few years ago.

Igor

(Dr Igor B. Sivaev, Moscow, Russia)

I am afraid I will not be able to attend Ken’s funeral. Please pass my apologies and sincere condolences to his family.

Ken was a tremendous scholar, and represented the very best of British academia. He also always took time to help and encourage people, and I am very grateful to him for the assistance and advice he gave me throughout my career. He will be greatly missed.

With best wishes

Matt

(Prof Matthew Rosseinsky FRS, Liverpool)

It is really a sad piece of news...we all will remember Ken's sense of

humour...god bless him!

Best wishes,

Mirek.

(Dr Drahomír Hnyk, Prague, Czech Republic)

The death of Ken Wade is a very sad day for all who knew and loved him; we shall miss him.

Ken had a mischievious sense of humour and the oration for the award of the Chancellor's Medal was written by me and then edited by Ken (he essentially removed all the jokes made at the expense of the Administration and toned down the compliments to himself) so, to some extent at least, it had his approval. During it's composition Ken and I had a lot of laughter together, but all the really telling jokes (all based entirely on fact), ribbaldry and scorn have been excised (Ken was right to insist on that).

Keep smiling (even in this sad time).

Jim

(Prof Jim Feast FRS)

I should like to send my deep sympathy to the family of Professor Wade, who was closely involved with St Mary's College as a member of its Governing Body and committees.

Joan

(Joan M. Kenworthy, Principal, St. Mary's College 1977-1999)

I have only just heard of Ken's passing and, curiously, was talking about him to a colleague only last week.

I first got to know Ken when he interviewed my for the Inorganic Chair at Exeter as one of the two externals. It was an interesting experience and Ken crafted his questions carefully. I remember at one stage he 'accused' me of being 'an organic chemist' and my reply of "Rubbish" was one of the lighter moments of the process that led to my appointment.

As is the way of things, I then met Ken on several occasions afterwards and started to get to know him a little, occasionally seeking his advice on this or that. What struck me was his clear thinking, the wisdom of his comments and his ability to grasp an issue and deal with it. I enjoyed these interactions greatly and found him to be a very supportive individual.

Scientifically our paths did now cross much as we represented quite different branches of the subject, but of course I teach inorganic chemistry and this cannot be done without reference to 'Wade's Rules'. Quite properly then, his name will live on into scientific eternity, as indeed it should.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to have known him.

Best wishes

Duncan

(Prof. Duncan Bruce, York)

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