Professor Robert Howie: An Obituary
19 March 2012
The late Professor Robert Howie.
It was with sadness that the University of Derby learnt one of its 2009 Honoraries, Professor Robert Howie, had passed away.
Professor Howie, who was made an Honorary Doctor of Science at the University's 2009 Derby Awards Ceremonies, was an outstanding research scientist and author of some of the most widely known textbooks on mineralogy. He is also one of the few scientists to have a mineral named in his honour (the Fe-Mn Silicate Howieite).
Born in Olney, Buckinghamshire, he served with distinction in the RAF before being invalided out of the service and going on to study Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy at Trinity College, Cambridge.
After graduating in 1950, he undertook a three-year Doctorate studying the chemistry of unusual very dark granites in India, known as charnockites.
His rise through academic teaching took in Manchester University and King's College London, before his 1986 appointment as Lyell Professor of Geology at Royal Holloway College, London. During this time and up to his death Professor Howie wrote extensively on minerals and their chemistry.
His many academic achievements include:
- in 1976 the award of the Geological Society's prestigious Murchison Medal
- in 1999, becoming the first non-US resident to receive the Public Service Award of the Mineralogical Society of America
- Fellowship of King's College
- Honorary Life Fellowship of the Mineralogical Society
- Honorary Fellowship of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.
Professor Howie was a long-time Derbyshire resident.
He passed away in hospital on March 10, at the age of 88, following health complications connected to his long term polio condition. He leaves two sons and three grandchildren.
Professor Paul Bridges, Head of Research at the University of Derby, said: "We were very sad indeed to hear of the death of Professor Robert Howie.
"He had an extraordinary knowledge of minerals, which he disseminated through his collaborative books and his many papers. Every student of geology from the late 1960s and 1970s will have constantly referred to his essential book An Introduction to the Rock Forming Minerals; jointly written by Deer, Howie and Zussman.
"The University felt honoured when Professor Howie accepted the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in 2009."
