First employee of LabLogic dies

26 June 2006

A message from John Clapham, LabLogic Chairman:

It is my sad duty to report the death of Paddy Burridge. Paddy died recently, unexpectedly, at the age of 61. After an energetic day's building work he went to bed at his Oxford home and never woke up. A gentle death, like his life.

I have worked with Paddy for 36 years - for ten years we both worked for Intertechnique and then when I formed LabLogic in 1980, Paddy was its first employee (in those early days I worked for free).

Paddy was a 'character'; seldom well turned out and with a curious concept of cuisine; he was technically sound, worked hard and was generous in the help he extended to anyone - customer, colleague or acquaintance.

I could fill a book with stories about him. Just one for now. In the 70's, Paddy went on a service call to a new customer from Manchester University.

Down the corridor there was an existing customer who Paddy had got to know. Paddy had talked to this customer about some DIY they were attempting without much in the way of tools.

Paddy thought he knew what was wrong with the new customer's counter so when he arrived he just had a little screwdriver in his top pocket.

In his hands he had the bolster chisel and lump hammer he was going to lend the other customer after he'd fixed the counter.

So I got a call from an alarmed professor - should she let this guy with a big beard and builder's tools loose on her liquid scintillation counter?

Paddy had retired except that we paid him a retainer for nucleonic advice. His last trip for us was to install a radio gas detector in France, over a year ago. So there will be no effect on our service capability. But we'll all miss him, me especially.