Obituary: Don Margerison
Published on
The University and the Department of Chemistry is saddened to learn of the death of Don Margerison.
Don Margerison was a Liverpool graduate, and after completing his PhD in 1955, he worked at the Nobel Division of ICI, testing high explosives. In 1956, he returned to Liverpool and was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Inorganic, Physical & Industrial (IPI) Chemistry.
Don was a physical chemist of the 'old school' and his work was characterised by meticulous attention to detail and rigorous statistical analysis. He was very particular about the correct use of SI units (possibly as a consequence of his work with high explosives), and he wrote a short booklet SI units: an explanation of the international system. Colleagues who made errors with units were corrected (in the nicest possible way) and presented with a copy of the booklet.
He also wrote texts on Introduction to Polymer Chemistry and Statistical Treatment of Experimental Data. Don was heavily involved in the Computer Assisted Learning project at Liverpool, developing software to support teaching of physical chemistry; although we now take educational software for granted this was highly innovative back in the 1980s.
Don took on the roles of departmental administrator and exams secretary during the 1980s until his retirement in 1992. He played a big part in the successful merger of the Departments of Organic and IPI Chemistry to form the current Department of Chemistry.
As exams secretary, long before the days of Excel (and of rigid grade-boundaries), he wrote a program for processing and statistical analysis of Chemistry exam marks. His 'net rank gain' tables were legendary, and no external examiner ever dared to question them.
Don had many interests outside chemistry. He was a keen mountaineer and climbed extensively in the Alps as well as in the British mountains. As a student he honed his mountaineering skills by climbing University buildings.
He was an active member of the Wirral Footpaths & Open Spaces Preservation Society and regularly went out with his secateurs to clear brambles from the footpaths. Don applied his scientific rigour to everything he did – visitors to his home will remember neat rows of perfectly cultivated vegetables and fruit trees (each with an individual record of productivity). A meal at Don & Kathy's home was always an enjoyable experience, and would be accompanied by wine (bought on the annual summer holiday in France), dispensed at a carefully calculated rate to ensure that guests would be sober enough to drive home safely and legally at the end of the evening.
Don shared his enjoyment of life with those around him, he was the best of colleagues, and will be remembered with affection by those who knew him.