The late Bevan Braithwaite OBE MA FREng FWeldI

TWI regrets to announce that its former chief executive Bevan Braithwaite died on Friday 25th April 2008 after a long illness. He retired in 2004 following a 43 year long professional and personal vocation to engineering.

Educated at Leighton Park School and Jesus College, Cambridge, he rose to become chief executive, in 1988. He was awarded the OBE in 1991.

The autumn of 1961 saw the 22 year old joining the British Welding Research Association (BWRA), as TWI was then known, as a scientific officer in the Fatigue Laboratory. It was a post for which his Cambridge engineering degree and class1 welder qualification equipped him ideally. The job provided a springboard to a career of extraordinary distinction.

By 1964 he was authoring seminal works on fatigue strength of structural steel and friction welding for railways. By 1966 he was appointed to the executive board and headed BWRA members services. He held the post of Chief Executive for 16 years, a period of continuous growth and profitability for TWI.

He was the inspiration and driving force for the concept and creation of Granta Technology Park near Cambridge in 1999 and of TWI's new main building on the Park.

He became President of the International Institute of Welding (IIW) in 1999 and received an honorary Fellowship from The Welding Institute and the IIW Edstrom Medal for many distinguished services to the profession. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999.

Shortly after his retirement in 2004 he pursued his lifelong passion for steam, becoming Chairman of Bressingham Steam Museum Trust, where among many projects he drove forward the restoration of the 'Royal Scot' locomotive which will be back in steam later this year.

Details of an event celebrating the life of Bevan Braithwaite are to be announced.