The College is saddened to announce the death of Emeritus Fellow of Churchill, Dr Ken Livesley, on 25 October, aged 94.
Born 1926 in Kuling, China to missionary parents, Ken was educated at Kingswood School, Bath before receiving a scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge, to read mechanical sciences (as engineering was then called). In 1949 he began working at the University of Manchester, first as an Assistant Lecturer in engineering mathematics, before becoming a staff member in their Computer Centre in the Electrical Engineering Department.
Ken was a pioneer of the use of digital computers to solve problems in engineering, and most particularly structural engineering. He worked with Alan Turing in Manchester before returning to Cambridge in 1955. Here he started his long career at the University of Cambridge as a Demonstrator, then Lecturer, in the Engineering Department. In 1959 he became a Founding Fellow of Churchill College and one of the first two Directors of Studies in Engineering with Dick Tizard. Later, he had spells as Tutor for Advanced Students and as the Chairman of Trustees for the College Chapel.
In his spare time Ken enjoyed hill walking, cabinet making, photography and non-academic writing, some of which is stored in the College Archives.
