Erzsébet Kibble 1953 – 2025
Obituary provided by Erzsébet’s daughter, Clare.
Erzsébet Kibble, née Gulyás, was born in 1953 in Mezőberény, Hungary. Her early years were spent with her parents on a rural farm and studying at the local elementary school.
Her aptitude in physics and maths meant that in 1967, at 14 years old, she moved to Budapest to study at the Puskás Tivadar Távközlési Technikum (the Telecommunications Technical College).
During her time in college, she joined the gliding club of the Hungarian Post and Telecommunications Organisation, where she obtained her licence to fly gliders.
At the Technical College she also studied English. At 18 years old, she took an au pair job in London, fell in love with an Englishman and they married in Hungary the following year.
As Erzsébet did not complete her studies in Hungary, she set her heart on completing her studies in England, but her previous qualifications from Hungary were not recognised.
She had to start her examinations from scratch and passed ONC and HNC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering with distinction and started studying for her BSc degree in Applied Computing at the Polytechnic of Central London.
Her early career included working for L.M. Ericsson. She was responsible for the commissioning of the first ever computerised telephone exchange in the UK. As an Assistant Test Manager, her job meant travelling to Sweden to negotiate and agree the computer equipment to be purchased by the General Post Office.
She was responsible for the maintenance of the hardware for three on-line computers which were used in the A.R.M. Tel. Exchange for accounting and performance monitoring, and responsible for the on-line testing.
In 1978 she won the first ever award for the Girl Technician of the Year (now known as “Young Woman Engineer of the Year”) with the institute of Electrical and Electronics Technician Engineers. In 1981 she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Open University, awarded after studying telecommunication and computer-based information systems.
From the 1980s onwards Erzsébet continued to work with computers while finding time to raise a family with her husband. In the 1990s she worked with Aardvark Technical Services, which designed and produced a wide range of printed circuit boards.
She said that these years were like being able to be paid for her hobby and she enjoyed seeing what each day would bring to her test bench.
In 2001, she took early retirement and spent many happy years sailing across the Channel with her husband, learning languages (French and Japanese), living in France, visiting her son in Switzerland, playing the trumpet, growing delicious vegetables in her garden, and becoming a beloved Nagymama (grandmother) to her granddaughter.
Erzsébet passed away in 2025. She was a remarkable woman and is greatly missed by all her family.