For those who knew him and are not aware, I am very sad to report that John Northey died this week. It was a tremendous shock to many of us. John was a good friend who I had known since 1976.
For those who did not know John, back in the 1970s he was deputy chief technical officer of the FPA. Thereafter, for many years, he was editor of Fire Surveyor, which, of course, became Fire Safety Engineering (and now info4fire.com on the web). He has served on the BSI committees concerned with fire alarm systems longer than I, and I first joined the committees in 1976. He has chaired the key committees, FSH/12 and FSH/12/1 since as far as I can recall the early 1980s to this day, and he has been extensively involved in representing the UK on international committees. I have informed BSI, and a senior manager will rightly attend his funeral. If any of his other many friends want to know the date of the funeral, please email me (cstodd@btconnect.com), as I never notice receipt of private messages on Firenet. It is thought that the funeral will possibly be next week or even the week after.
I will post a cross reference to this message on the fire alarm topic, as he is very well known throughout the fire alarm industry.
John was one of these people who would always try to help others, and tackled his work on British and International standards with dedication and enthusiasm that can never be equalled. He will always be fondly remembered by the vast number of colleagues and friends he had within our profession.
