Charles Henry Emeleus, DSc MSc BSc (Hons), 1952, (died 17 November 2017, aged 87)
Extract from appreciation on Durham University’s website.
Henry joined the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University in 1957, retired in 1994 and continued active research almost until his death.
Henry, from Lisburn in County Antrim, received both his BSc (1952) and MSc (1953) from Queen’s University, Belfast. He studied for his DPhil at Wadham College, University of Oxford between 1953 and 1957.
He joined the University of Durham as a Lecturer in 1957, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1969 and Reader in 1979. He was sub-dean for the Faculty of Science (1969-1973), served as Head of Department in Geological Science (1986-1987), and was a member of the Senior Common Room at University College, Durham from 1958 onwards.
After his retirement in 1994, Henry remained an exceptionally active researcher and his Emeritus Reader status was revised to Emeritus Professor in 2016. His post-retirement contributions were also honoured by Durham University in 2014 with the Award of its Chancellor’s Medal. In 2016 the Geological Society of London recognised Henry for his 60-years of contributing to “the advancement of the Science of Geology” by awarding him the Prestwich Medal.
Henry mentored many undergraduate and postgraduate students and is also remembered by all the students and colleagues who encountered him as a kind, decent and modest man who was willing to lend his encyclopaedic knowledge of geology and petrology to anyone. His generosity of spirit and encouraging attitude to everyone will be very affectionately remembered and deeply missed by all those who knew him.
Everyone in the Department of Earth Sciences would like to express our deepest condolences to Henry’s widow, Ruth, and to their children, Katherine, John and Lucy.
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