Genius who tuned in to the age of television
MY FATHER GEOFFREY
HE WAS, in many ways, the archetypal mad professor — guileless, ferociously intelligent and happiest with his nose in a textbook.
In his chosen field of electrical engineering, specifically television and telecommunications, he was peerless. His 1966 Television Receiver Theory became a standard textbook. Its follow-up, Colour Television Theory, sold more than 30,000 copies.
Born in Littlebourne, Kent, my father had wanted to be a Spitfire pilot but in 1942 became a founding member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corps and saw active service in The Gambia.
Dad and my mum Betty married in May 1947 and I came along a few years later. He saved my life within hours of birth when a combination of paternal instinct and his scientific brain led him to spot something the doctors hadn’t: my gullet was blocked and required surgery.
After the Army, Dad became head of science and maths at King Ethelbert and County Secondary School in Birchington, Kent. He later became principal lecturer in electrical and electronic engineering at Canterbury College of Technology.
Devoted to his pupils, he gave private tuition to those with potential but who struggled in class.
Dad retired due to ill health at just 56 but was as busy as ever. He became a devotee of Omar Khayyam, an 11th-century Persian scholar prized by mathematicians. In 2008, at 85, he published a book, The Big Bang, to debunk what he called ‘flawed’ theories about the origin of the universe.
His first novel, Littlebrook, which came out a year later, was based on his early life in Kent.
When Mum died in 2010 after 63 years of marriage, Dad moved to a flat, then to residential accommodation. He will be greatly missed.
GEoffREy Hutson, born March 23, 1923, died april 3, 2018, aged 95.