Obituary: Mr David Reeves C Eng, FIMechE

The Fluid Machinery Group (FMG) members could not let the passing of David Reeves go unnoticed.

David joined the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1953 and became a member of the Fluid Machinery Committee around 1970. He was a staunch member of the FMG committee for many decades, serving as its Chairman for three years.  He subsequently represented the FMG, as Immediate Past Chairman, attending many Council and Technical Strategy Board meetings on our behalf.  David retired from the FMG about 8 years ago.

David was a Pump Engineer of the highest calibre and worked in the industry from his apprenticeship right through to his retirement; he remained active into retirement working as a consultant and maintaining his involvement in the FMG. David was a great committee man; you could always rely on him to attend meetings if at all possible and you could be certain he would have read the minutes coming armed with corrections to the minutes where they strayed from the facts or suffered from an omission.

During his time with the FMG he organised many conferences and seminars to the great benefit of the IMechE and the industry in general. He enjoyed organising and assisting with technical events - he refereed many papers over the decades, always considering the detail with great care.  When there was disagreement on acceptance/ reject between the two referees (remembering all Conference papers have to be reviewed by two referees to meet IMechE standards) David was the “go to” referee for that third, impartial judgement.

When I first joined the Fluid Machinery Committee back in 1986 he was one of the first to welcome me and he took me under his wing.  David was always encouraging members to be involved and not to be spectators, always ready to share his knowledge he would often advise on how to get through the administrative processes of the IMechE to the benefit of all.

David believed in maintaining Institution standards and to this end he penned many a letter to Professional Engineer speaking out against what he saw as the lowering of membership qualifications, the introduction of Eng Tech and in his view other lesser qualifications.  David cared greatly for his Institution and always strove to improve the experience of membership of the FMG.

David died in June last year at the age of 85; he was on a running machine, at the gym he visited most days, when he suffered a heart attack - active to the end.

He is missed by those who worked with him; we have lost a truly great engineer. 

Ivor Rhodes, Past Chairman of FMG, for and on behalf of the Fluid Machinery Group members.