Z. Z. J. Kosarski, MBE, CEng, FIMMM, FICME

Abstract

Z. Z. J. Kosarski, a major figure in the cast metals industry, died in Bournemouth on 2 November 2005. Mr Kosarski, widely known as Bish, was born and educated in Poland, qualifying in mechanical engineering and metallurgy at Warsaw University. After the German invasion in 1939, he escaped through Romania to France and subsequently again to England. He was one of a small group of talented Polish engineers assigned to the wartime foundry industry, specialising in the production of steel armour and high specification aircraft castings at the Penistone works of David Brown and Sons Ltd. In 1948, he joined Sheepridge Alloy Castings and in 1952 became Managing Director of the Midlands Division of the Sheepridge Engineering Group. During the Korean War (1950– 53) he was responsible, as General Manager, for planning and building a specialised centrifugal casting plant for the manufacture of heat resistant castings for Rolls-Royce and Bristol jet engines, diversifying later into a wide range of other heat and corrosion resistant cast products. These included spun tubes for the petrochemical industry, produced in the first plant licensed in England for that purpose by US Pipe and Foundry. He also developed a plant for the horizontal continuous casting of cast iron bars, originally produced wholly in ingot moulds. In 1960 he also became Director in overall charge of the Central Laboratories of the Sheepridge Group at the Chesterfield Works. In 1969, Mr Kosarski left Sheepridge to form a new private company, Starkey’s Technicast Ltd, where he was a major shareholder, Chairman and Managing Director. In 1975 the company moved under a government aid scheme to a green field site in Hull, where a continuous casting plant was designed and installed for the production of bars in a wide range of cast irons. The success of this operation led to the Queen’s Award for Exports in 1991 and to the Award for Small Businesses in the same year. In 1993 Mr Kosarski was awarded the MBE. He was active throughout his career in the learned societies and served as President of the Institute of British Foundrymen in 1983–84. He wrote authoritative papers on centrifugal and continuous casting and was a highly respectedmanager, widely known for his expertise, courtesy and shrewd judgement. His leisure interests included shooting, tennis, golf and bridge. Mr Kosarski is survived by his wife Edith and by his son Richard and daughter Michele, both of whom followed their father’s interests in the cast metals field. Dr Peter R. Beeley