Univ Record 2018

KEON GEORGE MARTIN (Hove GS) died on 22 November 2017 aged 66. He read
English at Univ.
1971
JOHN COWIE ST ALBAN MALCOLM (Rugby and Westminster Hospital Medical
School) died in 2018 aged 77. He read Geology as a mature student at Univ, having
been a doctor in the RAF. On going down, he became a computer assistant with
Seismographic Services in 1974, and then worked for Getty Oil (Britain) Ltd. He later
became a Consultant Geophysicist.
1976
GRAHAM JOHN WALL (King Edward VI Camp Hill) died on 6 September 2017 aged
66. His widow Paula has kindly written this tribute:
Graham was a larger than life character who came up to Univ with an exhibition to
read Chemistry in 1976 and proceeded to make the most of his time at Oxford, playing
rugby and darts for the College, boxing for the university, writing comedy sketches,
acting in reviews and making lifelong friends. In October 1977 he also met me, at a
freshers’ disco on my first venture outside the protective wall of St Hugh’s. So began a
partnership of forty wonderful years.
We married in the summer after graduation and Graham began working for
Courtauld’s in Derby. But he was not cut out for research and soon made the move into
sales with IBM and then to a career in IT leasing finance. From a small private company
in Leeds he progressed through Kleinwort Benson and Dresdener Bank and a short stint
at Barclays, before taking the leap with long established colleagues to set up their own
enterprise, Quartz Finance. The challenge of making this venture succeed and the sense
of living on the edge in those early days fired him to a new personal and professional level.
Freed of the corporate shackles, he became the ideas man par excellence and took huge
pleasure in sharing the success of the company with his co-directors and in nurturing
new talent. He was well-known in the business world for his big sense of humour and
capacity for fun.
But family always came first and especially our two sons, who were his great pride
and joy. Graham was the ultimate provider and his irrepressible zest for life lit up every
day. Many, many people counted him their friend and to some he was “like a brother”.
He shared with all of us his enthusiasm for the outdoors and any kind of sport and
kept on joining in with gusto even after his
health failed. He never lost his optimism and
determination through 10 years of battling
myeloma and he managed, despite a regime
of chemotherapy, to make it look as though
nothing much was wrong. When the end
came very suddenly last summer, his message
to everyone was that he had lived a happy and
full life and was content.
Too soon to say goodbye.
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