On 8 June 2010, John Elvan Rees, FRPharmS, aged 68, of 23 Worminghall Road, Ickford, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP18 9JB.
Professor Rees registered in 1963 and was designated a fellow of the Society in 1986.
He received the British Pharmaceutical Conference science award in 1975 and was a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice.
Professor Rees was formerly senior lecturer in the department of pharmacy, Aston University and was head of the school of pharmacy and pharmacology and appointed chair in pharmacy practice at the University of Bath.
Tributes
PHILIP ROGERS and STEPHEN MOSS write: It was with very great sadness that we learnt of the recent death of our friend and former colleague John Rees.
John joined the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bath in 1981 as professor of pharmaceutics. Previously he had worked in the pharmaceutical industry and his experience in tablet formulation added to the powder technology group recently formed by John Staniforth. This group, with more recent input from Robert Price, is still foremost in the field and a tribute to Professor Rees’s scientific foresight.
In 1991 John became professor of pharmacy practice and head of the pharmacy practice group, becoming one of the UK’s first chairs in pharmacy practice.
John contributed to the development of pharmacy practice as an academic discipline in the UK, was chairman of the British Pharmaceutical Conference Practice Research Panel and a member of the editorial board of the then newly established International Journal of Pharmacy Practice.
Our pharmacy practice group’s continued success is also a fitting tribute to John’s original contribution to academic pharmacy. One of us (PR) was privileged to obtain the first PhD in pharmacy practice from Bath, under John’s supervision. During his time at Bath John also worked hard to support the work of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society at both branch and regional level, encouraging students to do likewise.
As members of staff in his group we would like John to be remembered not only for his academic qualities but for the consideration and care that he always took with the day-to-day management of his fellow academic staff and other members of the school. Lastly his skill as a musician should not go unmentioned.
Our warmest thoughts, and those of our departmental colleagues who fondly remember John, are with his family at this time.
TONY CARTWRIGHT, BRIAN MATTHEWS, GORDON APPELBE, JOHN TURNER and STEPHEN AXON write: It is with very great sadness that we write in remembrance of our friend John Rees.
We had all known John for many years in one or another of the many roles in pharmacy that he took through his working life. One of us (JT) was a fellow-student at the Square from 1960–63, where we were both in the small, select final year group doing pharmaceutical engineering under Colin David Train and then Colin Lewis.
Another (GA) knew John from his academic work as senior lecturer at Aston University and as head of school at the University of Bath.
Two of us (TC and BM) knew John through his excellent scientific advice on the chemistry, pharmacy and standards sub-committee of the Committee on Safety of Medicines at the Medicines Control Agency.
We were all brought together in 2008 by our common opposition to sections of the draft Pharmacy Order 2009. Together we formed an action group whose members petitioned the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on the issues of the restricted title “pharmacist” and the definition of the practice of pharmacy.
Having failed to convince the Council, we requisitioned a Special General Meeting of the members to consider the issues. John’s eloquent appeals to those present at the SGM on 19 April 2009 were testimony to his intense commitment to our profession.
All six of the motions proposed by the action group were passed with large majorities. But when Council reviewed their position at their meeting on 20 May 2009, they were unmoved and the Order proceeded on its parliamentary timetable.
Despite his cancer treatment, John still managed to write to ministers and officials at the Department of Health to try to persuade them that the Order could safely be amended without any risk to public health. Together with our supporters the action group undertook a campaign to try to convince MPs and members of the House of Lords — we succeeded in convincing the then Opposition MPs (including Andrew Lansley, now the Secretary of State for Health), but unfortunately did not attract enough support to amend or defeat the Order.
It is perhaps ironic that because the Order has not yet been implemented that John died as a “pharmacist” retaining the title he held throughout his working life.
Outside pharmacy John’s interests included scouting and music. He first played the trumpet and then switched to the trombone and participated in both orchestral and choral music.
His last public musical appearance was in an episode of the television series “Lewis” on 9 May 2010 (filmed in 2009), which involved the death of an orchestral conductor, where the viewer caught brief glimpses of John in the brass section of the orchestra.
Pharmacy has lost a persuasive advocate and a fine practitioner. We have lost a great friend. Our thoughts are with Kate his partner, and his son and daughter.
