Obituary – Past President Bill Edgar CBE FREng CEng Hon FIMechE

It is with great regret we announce the death of Past President Bill Edgar CBE who was elected President in 2004 and served as Interim CEO in 2008/09. Bill, who was also an Honorary Fellow, passed away on 31 December 2022 aged 84.

Bill Edgar was born in 1938 and had an illustrious engineering career from modest beginnings. He started work with Colvilles Steel Makers, as an office boy at their Hallside Steel Works near Glasgow. 

Colvilles supported him as he attended evening classes in engineering and then sponsored him through university, enabling him to study mechanical engineering at the Royal College of Science and Technology in Glasgow, the predecessor of Strathclyde University.

He later graduated from Birmingham University with an MSc in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics.

He enjoyed a wide-ranging career spanning the steel industry, working in military aviation and marine engineering. In 1990, he became Chief Executive of the National Engineering Laboratory. Bill’s remit was to prepare the establishment for privatization, which was successfully completed with the sale of NEL in 1995.

Following the sale of the NEL, he joined the John Wood Group as Group Director responsible for the Engineering and Production Facilities Division.  He retired from this position in 2004, just prior to becoming President of IMechE.

Bill was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003.

He was appointed CBE in the 2004 New Year Honours and elected an Honorary Fellow of IMechE in 2008.

Bill is survived by his wife Astrid who he married in 2022.