Obituary: Ron K. Pickerill (1947–2018)

Abstract

Trent, England, and was a true son of the district known as the Potteries, made internationally famous by the ceramics industry (Royal Doulton, Wedgwood), by the novels of Arnold Bennett and by the skills of its greatest footballing progeny, Sir Stanley Matthews. Ron was himself a considerable football (soccer) talent, cricketer (England Schoolboys) and accomplished rock-band drummer. In his late teens, he was torn between 'signing forms' with his beloved Stoke City F.C., signing a record deal with EMI (the 'Beatles' label) or going to university. It was his mother's wise head who argued convincingly that he should take the academic path. Ron's choice of university was Liverpool, where he excelled in the Department of Geology. He attained a first-class honors degree in geology in 1971 and was awarded the Department's P.G.H. Boswell Prize in sedimentology. Ron stayed at Liverpool for his doctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Patrick J. Brenchley. Ron's thesis, completed in the then quick time of three years, was entitled 'Geology of the south Berwyn Hills, North Wales, with particular reference to Upper Ordovician marine benthic communities' (Pickerill 1974). The Lower Palaeozoic of North Wales and the Berwyn Hills, in particular, were the first of three geographic regions in which Ron's scholarly application made its mark. Ron and Pat formed a strong student-supervisor team. Pat was a geologist with unusually broad interests in Lower Palaeozoic geology and who was the consummate field man (Donovan et al. 2011), features he shared with Ron. Pat's friends will remember him for his smile, his wise council and his deep insight, which counterbalanced Ron's sometimes more mercurial approach. There was a tale told in Liverpool of Ron and Pat appearing in 'The Stag's Head', which was round the corner from the Department of Geology (but, sadly, since demolished), just after 5.00 p.m., opening time. One found a table, pulled out an A4 pad of paper and started to write; the other bought two pints of bitter. As they supped the first taste of bitter, the writer passed the pad on to the bringer of sustenance, who carried on the writing. Backward and forward the pad of paper went, more (and more) pints were bought (and consumed), and by closing time Ron and Pat had the first handwritten draft of a joint research paper. Ron told another tale of those same times. The major Pickerill and Brenchley (1979) examination of the paleoecology of the Caradoc of the Berwyn Hills received a critical review, by a referee who did not recognize their abilities as systematists, noting that they were neither a Whittington nor a Cooper. It was Pat who calmed the pugnacious Ron down when he wanted to ask the editor who the referee was referring towas it Dick Whittington, the legendary Lord Mayor of London, and the boxer Henry Cooper?!