Nigel Shepherd 1943 – 2024

Obituary provided by Nigel’s wife, Christine.

Nigel Gresham Shepherd, Chartered Engineer, MIET of Edinburgh and Whitby was born in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1943. He attended Altrincham Grammar School before studying Mechanical and Electrical Sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge.

In 1964 he returned to Manchester and gained a master’s degree in Solid State Electronics at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology before working for AEI Ltd as a Design Engineer on ground surveillance radar.

He was elected a Graduate member of the IEE in 1966 and in 1971 he moved to Edinburgh to work at Ferranti’s/GEC Marconi/BAE Systems. From then until his retirement in 2002, his work covered lasers, night vision and helmet mounted displays for various avionic applications, often working in collaboration with US companies and latterly being employed in various management roles as Chief Engineer, Engineering Manager and Development Programmes Manager. This culminated in leading the team which gained the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, for innovation in 2002.

Nigel gave papers on carbon dioxide lasers and served on a number of committees such as the IEE South East Scotland Sub Centre committee, the main Scotland committee and its publications committee. He became a corporate member of the IEE and a Chartered Engineer in 1974, the year of his marriage.

After retiring from paid employment, he became the Secretary and also a permanent Director of a small property management company in Whitby, North Yorkshire where he stayed for ten years. He joined the South East Scotland Retired Members Section committee (now SESAME), serving for many years as Vice Chairman with particular responsibility for liaising with the main Local Network committee of which he was also a member with Napier University where many of the Sections events where held.

He is survived by his wife and five children.