S-Z

Captain Simon Culshaw  

Captain Simon Culshaw graduated in Geography and Oceanography in 1972, at the age of 32. Captain Culshaw was at sea in the Merchant Navy for the best part of 20 years, most of his time before his studies was mainly in polar research vessels, before he went on to study at Swansea. After graduation, he became chief officer in the Royal research ship John Biscoe for one season before joining the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. He was also involved in warranty surveying and piloting offshore drilling rigs prior to moving into construction management in the North Sea. Captain Culshaw went back to Swansea in 1992 and gained a Master of Philosophy in satellite remote sensing. After this, he returned to the oil industry in Canada and the Arctic, where he ran environment projects e.g. weather forecasting for aircraft in the North, environmental impact statements in several locations in the Arctic.  

In 1984 he started CTS Marine consultants Ltd. The company dealt with the construction industry and then changed to the environment industry and beginning to deal with the limitation of marine boundaries. 

Maggie Telfer

Maggie Telfer died peacefully at home in Bristol aged 63. Her partner of 38 years Richard Jones and their children Caitlin (29) and Mena (23) were at her side.

Maggie studied BSc Econ at Swansea from 1977-1980 and first met Richard at a Christmas disco at Clyne halls of residence in 1977. After going their separate ways, Maggie and Richard renewed their relationship early in 1985 after Richard returned to Swansea in 1984 to work as a journalist on the South Wales Evening Post. Maggie was then managing the Swansea Accommodation for the Single Homeless night shelter.

Later in 1985, Maggie and Richard set up home together in Bristol when Maggie was appointed co-ordinator of Bristol Drugs Project which launched in 1986.

Maggie ran Bristol Drugs Project for the rest of her life and in 2007 was awarded an OBE for her work.

There will be a public memorial of Maggie’s life and work at St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol on March 10 at 2:30pm.

The Bristol Drugs Project tribute to Maggie is at https://www.bdp.org.uk/bristol-drug-project/sad-news-from-us/

John Orion Thomas has died at the age of 96. He was a Doctor of Physics and BBC Wales live reporter of the Apollo Moon Landings.

John Orion Thomas was born in 1926 in Sunny Bank, Grovesend, Wales to parents Maggie Evans and Thomas Evans Thomas. Aiming to escape the Welsh mining villages, he obtained a degree at Swansea University at the age of 17. This allowed him to gain a scholarship at Swansea University where he studied for his Masters in Physics.  Always fascinated in music, he won the Eisteddfod Gadeiriol Myfyrwyr Cymru in 1945, playing violin, and again in 1953, with his choir’s interpretation of ‘Mawr yw Jehofa’.

During that time, his National Service took him to London, where he assisted in the development of Radar for the detection of military planes.

He returned to Swansea to complete his PhD in 1953, before moving to the Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge, where he met his wife of nearly 70 years, Denise.  He was made a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College in 1959-63 where  tutored in Physics and continued his research into Radio and Remote Sensing.  Here he learned to fly Tiger Moth planes and received the Certificate of Proficiency by the Air Training Corps.

In 1963 the pair moved to Stanford University, California, as visiting lecturer, before joining NASA’s Ames Research Centre as Assistant to the Chief Space Sciences.  It was here that he became fascinated with space science, atmospheric physics and the structure of the Ionosphere; 80-1000km up, the layer of the earth’s atmosphere which contains a high concentration of ions and electrons – and is able to reflect radio waves. His research in this area aided in the design and operation of Radar and Telecommunications still in use today.

Returning to the UK, he lectured at Imperial College from 1965 to 1986, and became editor of the Journal of Remote Sensing, Chairman and later President of the Remote Sensing Society. 

In 1969 due to his Welsh heritage and experience at NASA, he provided live coverage of the moon landings to a Welsh speaking audience for BBC Wales.

It was around this time that he set up his own computer software company. Building on his expertise in atmospheric science and remote sensing, among other things, he helped the Ministry of Defense devise techniques to track the movements of submarines from space, by detecting the waves on the surface of the oceans (a technique which has since been adopted to aid conservation by tracking the migrations of various species of Whales around the world).

John Orion Thomas died following a short illness in a nursing home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire where he had spent his last 3 years with his wife Denise.  He is preceded by brothers Hugh, Peris, Tyrell and survived by his sister, Margaret Evans, wife Denise Thomas, children Adrian, Martin, Allison, Julian and Julia and their 6 Grandchildren.