Roger Pearce (OW 1943)

(9 December 1925 – 18 March 2023)

The Waynflete Office has been informed by his daughter Kate of the death of Roger Pearce. We are grateful to Kate for these words about her father:

Roger Pearce has died at the venerable age of 97. Born in Oxford in 1925, he was a clever boy and, despite coming from a modest background, won a place at Magdalen College School and graduated as part of the Class of 1943. In 1944 he went to St Catherine’s College (then St Catherine’s Society) at Oxford University where he read chemistry.

On graduating, he worked in the aluminium industry and then the motor industry, specialising in metallurgy, which was to be his forte during the rest of his working life. In the early 1960s he took up an academic post at Cranfield University (then Cranfield College of Aeronautics) in Bedfordshire, by then the father of three young children with his first wife, Gwen. Tragically, she died in an accident and Roger married his second wife, Eileen, in 1966 and they went on to have a long and happy relationship until her death in 2003.

Roger’s expertise took him to many countries to lecture, set up laboratories and run conferences. He was, for many years, Secretary-General of the International Deep Drawing Research Group and published a book, Sheet Metal Forming, in 1991. In retirement, he started a successful consultancy business.

After many years of spending holidays on the Lizard in Cornwall, he and Eileen moved there in 1992 and he became a much loved member of the community in the village of St Keverne, chairing the Gardeners’ Society for many years and raising funds for the restoration of the village hall.

Roger was a lover of the arts, particularly classical music, opera and the theatre and a keen gardener. He was gregarious, entertaining company and enjoyed good food and wine.

He is survived by his three children, Sam, Kate and Lucy and two grandchildren, Rosa and Reuben.

Susie Baker Director of the Waynflete Office said: “It was a great pleasure to hear from Roger and from Bruce Elsmore OW how they had kept in touch since their time together at school, right up to Bruce’s death in 2019. One day in 1943, Bruce took his camera to school and in 2016 he donated the negatives to the school. They are a wonderful record of that time in school and the photo of Roger reading a book (below) is so charming.”