In Memoriam: TAPPI Fellow and Gold Medal Winner, Brian W. Attwood (1928 -2022)
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Brian Attwood, long time TAPPI member, passed away on Friday, July 8, 2022, after several months of declining health. He is authored and co-authored on multiple TAPPI books and conference proceedings. Brian was a doyen of the UK paper industry for almost eight decades. He started work at the age of 14 as a junior in the St. Anne's Board Mill records office in 1942.
After conscription into the Royal Air Force (United Kingdom) as a radar technician he rejoined St Anne's in the newly formed research department. Work on the simulation of multi-cylinder drying led the company to build pilot plant, then research on new forming methods for multi-ply board led to development of the now famous lnverform process for which Brian's name would forever be synonymous. Brian stayed with St Anne's until 1980, ending as Director for Process and Technology; he then became a consultant and formed St. Anne's Paper & Paperboard Dev. Ltd.
He was active worldwide, and was a member of CPPA, EUCEPA, PI, RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry), PITA, and of course, TAPPI - for which he was part of the Board of Directors (1995-1998). He received numerous awards including: City and Guilds Insignia Award; Technical Section Jubilee Medal (1969): TAPPI Paper and Board Division Medal (1977); PITA Gold Medal (1987): TAPPI Fellowship (1987): the Paper lndustry Gold Medal (1994); TAPPl Gunnar Nicholson Gold MedaI (2000); and he was inducted into the Paper Industry Hall of Fame (2000). He held singularly or jointly over 30 patents, was a prolific writer and presenter, travelled widely and was unfailingly curious about everything and always courteous to all he met. A gregarious man by nature, he will be missed by his loving wife of 61 years, Janet, and by his wider family of Paper Industry colleagues.
