Richard Kelly (OW 1960)

(12 May 1943 – 30 March 2024)

The Waynflete Office has been informed by his long-time friend Robert Hubble (OW 1957) of the death of Richard Kelly.

We reproduce here some words written by his wife Veronica and read at his funeral:

Richard was born in Caversham, Reading to Joyce and Thomas Kelly. He is survived by his older brother Michael. The family moved to Oxford when he was 9 years old as his father was a Post Office telephone engineer and was transferred to Oxford.

After just one term at the local school in Botley he passed a scholarship exam to Magdalen College School where he stayed until he was 16. He obviously had a very impressive history teacher as his history knowledge in some areas was quite remarkable. I was never sure whether he amused or bored dinner guests with his recounting of various battles over the ages and his ability to name all the Kinds and queens of England and their various sibling since the year dot.

It was while he was a Magdalen that he started to play hockey in which he excelled and played first team hockey and later played for the county. He also represented MCS in the fencing team.

He joined the Oxford Hawks Hockey Club after leaving school and continued playing for them until he was 50. Here he developed great friendships and several of those friends are here today.

He was also a keen motorcyclist as was his father and brother and he retained that interest to the present day although he hadn’t ridden a motorbike for several years. This is probably just as well as he seemed to be rather accident prone is his early days.

His first job was at the Midland Bank in Cornmarket where he met Veronica. After two years they parted company he left the bank and eventually ended up working in London for two years as a facilities manager for a large company and that is where he discovered his love of buildings.

He married Jaqueline in 1966 and their son David was born the following year. Their daughter Samantha was born in 1972.

They returned to Oxford and Richard started work for an estate agent. Three years later he opened his own agency. he spent the news few years involved in property and construction. In the early 1990s health and safety in the workplace became an important topic and he studied to become  qualified as a consultant. In 1996 he started his own Heath and Safety consultancy, one of the first, which proved to be very successful. He was indeed a workaholic but he loved his work and over the past 28 years advised many companies, large and small, on how to manage health and safety, mainly in the construction business. Since hearing of his passing so many of his clients have written expressing their praise for his expertise and enthusiasm for his work. They all said what a lovely man he was and how much he will be missed.

In 1992 Richard and Jaqueline separated and he met Veronica again. He married Veronica in 1994. Veronica left her job in the charity sector  and began working with Richard. Friends will know that he referred to her as the ‘administrator’. He also persuaded her that joining him to watch a Spurs match on TV was good relaxation!

Veronica’s two sons Oliver and Christopher became his step sons and between them have eight much-loved grandchildren.

As well as his passion for life he loved 60s and 70s pop music, particularly rock. His favourite band up until his final breath was the Rolling Stones and no occasion would be complete for him without at least one of their songs. Family were always amused and entertained at his very loud singing when on the computer in his office.

Although his health was failing due to lung disease he continued to work and two days before he passed he asked Veronica to bring into the hospital an invoice that needed correcting.

He will be greatly missed by family and friends for his love of life, his character, forthright opinions and humour.

The following words were written by Richard’s great friend and fellow OW Robert Hubble:

I first really came across Richard in 1956. I was four years older and a House Prefect and coming from room 2 of Callender House (pupils aged 13 to 15) was an almighty row. I felt it my duty to intervene. What i saw was not a riot but just eight or nine teenagers standing round desks, slamming lids and generally creating chaos. They were all smiling and talking. One tallish fair-haired lad was talking more then the others and definitely more loudly. Something never changed in all that time.

Three years later Richard joined the Hawks Hockey Club and for the next umpteen years we played right back and right half together with Ian, on the wing, making up the rights side of the team. Richard was always a positive member of the First XI, both on and off the field, quite often being the last to leave an away fixture. He was a great club member and Hawks Veterans’ Lunches will be a lot quieter and less entertaining without him.

Richard loved his hockey, but I am not sure he had the same rapport with cars. With them it was a love/hate relationship. After his less than charismatic Post Office van his cars became more and more powerful, his accidents became more expensive, but they did not seem to become less regular. One day he admitted he had a lot of insurance claims, of which half were when he was going forward, and the rest going backwards. It would not surprise me if there was a representative from the insurance company here today trying to find out if they are beneficiaries in his will!

My most personal experience of Richard’s driving was about 1965. He was parked in Longwall and we were going to a hockey club dinner at the Eastgate. The trip through Longwall, Holywell, New College Lane, Queens Lane, High Street and Merton Street include nine 90-degree bends. Richard had been doing some work on his car that day, and, as a result, the passenger seat had not been reconnected to the rest of the car. That was a very short, very exciting and very uncomfortable trip.

Richard never shirked his responsibilities, being on several different occasions, on the hockey club committee. For several years he was in Round Table, giving a lot of time to raising money for local charities, especially in hiss year as Chairman.

Richard always had a good knowledge of English literature and was one of the few people I met who could tell you what each country’s capital was, and could name the capital city of each of the United States. He also had a great knowledge of 60ss and 70s pop music. This, combined with his great sense of humour, made him very useful in general knowledge quizzes, both as a setter and competitor.

Richard was a unique friend to me. My first wife blamed him for leading me astray, and his first wife blamed him for leading me astray too. It will not be easy to find another willing and cheerful scapegoat and good, loyal friend, who was, very much, a Good Old Boy.