Renishaw founder and Concorde engineer passes away

Gloucestershire-headquartered global engineering firm Renishaw has announced that its co-founder, Sir David McMurtry, has died aged 84.

Sir David originally started the company in April 1973 to develop a precision measurement device for use on the Concorde supersonic jet.

Today, the company employs 2,600 people in Gloucestershire, and a similar number in 36 countries around the world.

Renishaw’s high-precision measuring systems are used by companies that make aircraft and high-tech bikes, medical and dental equipment and countless other products.

A Renishaw spokesperson said, “It is with great sadness that the company has learned of the sudden death of its co-founder and non-executive director, Sir David McMurtry.”

Sir David co-founded the firm with John Deere with its first business premises in Wotton-under-Edge, where the firm is still headquartered today.

They now have four other sites in Gloucestershire, Charfield, Old Town (in Wotton), Stonehouse and Woodchester.

Until earlier this year, Sir David was executive chairman of the group. He stepped down in June but remained on the board, taking an active interest in the company’s innovation and technology.

Speaking on behalf of the Board, Interim Non-Executive Chairman, Sir David Grant said: “David was a uniquely talented engineer and his curiosity and drive helped to build a globally respected engineering company.

“His legacy will live on through the culture of innovation he helped create at Renishaw.”

Sir David founded Renishaw to commercialize 3D touch-triggered probes for coordinate measuring machines. He invented the probe the previous year to solve measurement problems encountered in the manufacturing of the Olympus engine that powered the Concorde supersonic aircraft.

A talented engineer, he was employed for 17 years at Rolls-Royce plc, Bristol, where he became the company’s youngest assistant head of engine design.

He was responsible for 47 patents at Rolls-Royce and his name appears on over 200 patents for Renishaw innovations.

As Renishaw grew around the world, Sir David was awarded numerous overseas honors and accolades, including from Japan and the US.

In 2008, the official journal of the US Society of Manufacturing Engineers honored him as a ‘Master of Manufacturing’, the first time that this recognition was given to a non-US citizen.

But while he was repeatedly honored in later life, he was a shy man who avoided publicity and was said to be happier in the company of young engineers at the company he had helped create.

Today Renishaw’s board paid tribute to him in a statement.

The company said: “Sir David will be greatly missed by many, including the generations of Renishaw engineers whom he inspired and guided. The manufacturing industry has lost a great innovator and many at Renishaw as a father figure and a Have lost a friend.”