Part 2 (Obituaries) - King's College - University of Cambridge

174
OBITUARIES
consumers about meat were rewarding ones professionally, but drew him
away from Gwen and his family to the extent that he was persuaded to take
over a less peripatetic role in charge of the National Directorship of the Meat
and Allied Trades Federation, from which he finally retired in 1988.
A driving concern with anyone he could characterise as “on his team”
underlay John’s life, as well as a love for his family. He and Gwen moved closer
to their two sons in 1993 and took happy pains in researching their family
history together.To give this hobby an extra kick John bought a computer, and
despite his reservations, he mastered it, like anything he had ever put his mind
to. John died on 9 July 2006.
RICHARD ANTHONY OGDEN (1970) lived for the arts. Literature and
music provided his sustenance, though these potentially introspective
occupations did not make him a recluse. Richard was a gentle and generous
man who shared his human warmth and his thoughts with others.
Richard came to King’s from Manchester Grammar School. He studied English,
and his time at Cambridge was one in which he could dedicate himself to his
passions. As a young devotee of Wagner he had marathon sessions listening to
Der Ring des Nibelungen with his friends. Later in life his musical tastes came to
include even those like Mozart, of whom Richard had been suspicious in his
youth, andWagner was pushed to one side. Richard was intellectually open and
curious, and he was in a constant state of development. Even though he could
appreciate the most difficult works of art by Joyce or Schoenberg, he could also
talk with enthusiasm about science fiction or a P G Wodehouse book.
When Richard graduated, he spent some time in Bristol and then moved to
Plymouth where he found work at the Theatre Royal. Penzance was the place
where Richard finally settled down. At first, between 1978 and 1980, he
taught English at the Penzance Girls’ Grammar School. He later came into a
little money and was able to leave teaching and buy himself a cottage. Richard
still involved himself in the local theatre, but from that point on he became
more and more devoted to literature.