William Liddle Brown (19292007)

Abstract

Bill Brown was born on 24th December 1929, in Edinburgh, was evacuated during the war, and then came back to his family in Edinburgh, where he obtained his undergraduate university education. Despite speaking French for most of his professional life, when speaking English, he never lost his slight Edinburgh accent. He studied chemistry at Edinburgh University from 1948 to 1952, obtaining a first class honours degree, then set out to gain a degree in geology, partly, we suspect, because of his love for the Scottish mountains. The university regulations did not allow graduates to hold two honours degrees, so when, after only two years, he obtained first class honours marks in geology, he was given his own one-man section in the lists for the graduation ceremony. The great Arthur Holmes was Regius Professor at the time, and Bill was thrilled by Holmes’ work on the age of the Earth and continental drift. Even 50 years ago most geology students complained that crystallography was too difficult, but Bill found it all perfectly obvious and spent much time playing bridge. It was Holmes who spotted his talent in matters crystallographic and recommended that he study for a doctorate (Dr. Sc. Nat.) at the ETH in Zurich, which he obtained in 1958, under the direction of Fritz Laves. This work, published in 1960, on the effect of heating on the cell parameters of plagioclase and the first full characterization of peristerites, set him on a lifetime study of the feldspar minerals. Dr. Robin Nicholson wrote in a letter “I cannot help feeling we lost a great field geologist after he met Laves”. Bill held various posts during his career: Assistant in Mineralogy–Crystallography at ETH (1957–1958), Research Associate in Mineralogy at Pennsylvania State University (1959–1960), Maitre assistant titulaire at ETH (1960–1962), Lecturer in geology …