William Michael (Bill) Cox (14 Apr 1950 – 3 Dec 2019)
I first met Bill shortly after I joined the UMIST Corrosion and Protection Centre in 1983. I had been interested in corrosion sensors for detection of hydrogen, and had several discussions with him about the feasibility of the various available corrosion detection methods (mine was useless!). He always focussed on the argument that there was no point knowing whether corrosion was happening unless you also were prepared to intervene to manage the corrosion process. However, at the time industry was more interested in repair after failure rather than management of the processes leading to failure. Of course, being 10-15 years’ ahead of the game Bill was exactly right and over his career he became one of the leading figures in risk and asset management of plant where corrosion is generally the dominant failure process.
Born in Keithley in Yorkshire, Bill was a boy soprano and chorister, he played the piano and the guitar, he was a keen motorcyclist and owner of a vintage BMW K100RS, a very devoted family man, and a serial speeder in either of his two elderly Audis. He completed his undergraduate studies in metallurgy on a sandwich course at the University of Aston in Birmingham in 1975 during which time he met the ‘girl’ who was later to become his wife. On completion of the programme he went to work at the copper-nickel smelter in Selebi Phikwe in Botswana. He loved working with hot metal and the problem solving involved with developing the plant in harsh working conditions.
In 1978 he moved back to the UK to study for an MSc in Corrosion Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and in the same year married Anna. After completing his MSc he stayed on to undertake a PhD with John Dawson on “Acid Dewpoint Corrosion”, a problem that was beginning to become of significant commercial concern particularly in power generation and steam-raising plant. Graduating in 1981, he linked up with the Corrosion and Protection Centre Industrial Service (CAPCIS) to develop expertise in, and to market, the on-line electrochemically based corrosion monitoring methods that he had pioneered during his PhD. Working with John Dawson, Steve Turgoose, Graham Wood and Howard Stott from the academic side and, from CAPCIS and industry, with Dave Geary, Dave Eden, Jim Palmer, Bob Eden, Karel Hladky, Les Woolf, Dave Farrell, Paul Bottomley, Barry Meadowcroft, Kevin Lawson, Wai Him, Wai Yeung Mok, and many others. He rapidly developed a significant business based on electrochemical noise instrumentation and sensors that enabled tight process control to be introduced to minimise the conditions leading to corrosion damage. This business eventually become Capcis-March Ltd., for which Bill was managing and operations director – one of the first successful companies to be spun out of UMIST. After 16 years at Manchester he left to found Corrosion Management Ltd, promoting his expertise in the application of advanced corrosion monitoring with risk-based inspection and risk based maintenance technologies for the process industries, as well as general failure investigation and litigation work. His client base was worldwide with projects in Europe, North America and Pacific East Asia.
A strong supporter of ICorr (as Member of Council and of the Training and Certification Board for 20 years and President from 1996-98), IOM3 (as Member of Council from 1993-2003), BINDT (as member of the PCN Certification Board) and NACE (as both Member and Chair of its International Relations Strategy Operations Committee) and was a Fellow of all of these Institutions, the last being a singular Honour. As well as attending (and organising) many conferences, seminars and publishing more than 32 papers, Bill also found time to act as Technical Advisory Editor for Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials for over 10 years, significantly increasing the journal’s profile.
Well known for his eponymous number plate “B111 COX”, acquired after a nudge from Les Woolf, Bill directly launched and influenced the careers of many people now in senior positions in the corrosion industry. He was always generous with his time and was ever willing to provide advice and mentoring to anyone who asked. Creditably, he always did what he said he would do with energy and enthusiasm, he was straight talking and importantly also straight doing. He is a huge loss and we shall all miss him. The corrosion community has lost one of its great characters.
Bill is survived by his wife Anna and daughter Ella.
With thanks to former colleagues, friends and family who corrected the detail and supplied anecdotes too numerous to mention.
© Stuart Lyon, Corrosion@Manchester, Dept. of Materials, University of Manchester. Licenced under CC-BY-NC
