John Cure BSc MSc FIET, 1931- 2021
Published: Wed 26 May 2021
It is with regret that we have to inform members of the Institution of the death, on 16 February 2021 of John Cure of Whitley Bay. He is survived by his wife Judith and son Robert.
In 1954, John became an IET member and was elected Fellow in 1992. John was well known in the Northumbria Local Network as both the past Chairman and as the long-standing Hon Sec, from which position he retired in 2001. He then set up the Retired Members’ Section that runs successfully to this day, a great tribute to him.
John was born in Coventry but due to the blitz the family moved to Leamington where he attended the college there and later worked on the shop floor at BTH; he also attended night school and applied to Nottingham University in 1951, studying for his BSc. He did his deferred national service at RAF Arborfield, Berkshire, where he was promoted to sergeant; on returning to civilian life, he moved to GEC at Trafford Park working on transformer winding design. Redundancy caused a move to Leeds Polytechnic as a Senior Lecturer where he also worked with local industries and gained his MSc.
1974 saw him move to the North East and join Mertz & McClelland where he worked on transmission systems worldwide and helped set up grid networks in many countries. He retired in 1993 and worked independently until 2006. During this time, he developed a professional standard power system fault analysis programme.
John was heavily involved in the voluntary sector, giving talks to schools and encouraging young people into Engineering careers; he was a member of the Northern Regional Engineering Council. He was a committed Christian and active in his local church.
As one of his colleagues remarked, “John’s combination of professional and practical knowledge made him the very epitome of an Engineer.”
He will be sadly missed.