My very first memory of Richard was on the first day I started work at the MDA (Museum Documentation Association) then based at Duxford Airfield (Imperial War Museum).
Richard was running a training course that day for some early users of the GOS system (prior to MODES). I joined the course as needed an induction into the system. Tim Pettigrew, as I remember, was also a participant. That was in the early 1980s. We were using Amstrad computers.
For the next few years I worked, always under Richard’s guidance, on helping museums take their first steps into the computerised documentation of their collections. We then moved our offices into Cambridge, off Cherry Hinton Road. We had increasing numbers of users and during this time Richard was continuing the development of the programmes and moving to more up to date computers. I was by then running the training courses for users all over the country from Edinburgh to Cornwall and elsewhere and didn’t see much of Richard.
We set up a MODES USERS ASSOCIATION (MUA) and recruited from them a group of users called MODES Advisors. This group met twice a year and Richard always came to those meetings; one was always close to Christmas when we would meet and have a lovely meal together. We also started running annual MODES weekends each summer at residential venues recommended by the advisors; Richard always attended those. The first of these was, as I remember, in Derbyshire and it was there that we started having the Saturday afternoon walks or outings again with much sharing of experiences. Many very late nights too, spent discussing with Richard the intricacies and problems of MODES.
After I retired in 2000 and handed over to Richard Langley in Derby to continue MODES support and training, I saw less of Richard but we always communicate with Christmas letters.
A well-earned retirement for Richard – good luck.
Jennifer