An Engine for Change - A Chronicle of the Engineering Council

56A CHRONICLE OF THE ENGINEERING COUNCILChanges at the TopIn May 1988 Sir Francis Tombs stepped down from the Chairmanship of the EngC havingpresided over a quantum leap in its liaison work with schools, the regions and industry. SirFrancis had also encouraged significant developments in setting standards of engineeringeducation and training. We should note here that Sir Francis’s tremendous contribution to theEngC, the profession and to British engineering achievement were formally honoured in theNew Year’s List for 1990 when he became The Rt Hon The Lord Tombs of Brailes.Shortly after Sir Francis Tombs’s retirement as Chairman of the EngC in 1988 its firstDirector General, Dr Kenneth Miller, also retired. Dr Miller had served the EngCconsummately well from its early days. He had assembled a strong management team andhad encouraged numerous initiatives with schools, universities, industry and the media. Hisenergy was tireless in promoting the way and purpose of the Engineering Council and hegained the respect of successive Chairmen, Council Members and staff. If at times he hadruffled the feathers of Institution Secretaries that was usually because he felt that they werenot prepared to work wholeheartedly within the federal structure implicit in the creation andremit of the EngC. Nevertheless Dr Miller was generally held in extremely high regard. Somefelt that his CBE awarded in the June 1998 Birthday Honours was less than he deserved.A number of founder members of Council also retired at the end of April 1988 - ProfessorBernard Crossland, Professor Alec Gambling, Robert Malpas, Sir Richard O’Brien, RoyRoberts, and John Waters. All had given sterling services for no personal gain and allcontinued to support the EngC and to act as ambassadors in its cause in a variety ofcapacities.© Engineering Council UK 2004