After ‘a shade over 45’ years at the University, School of Computing colleagues said goodbye to Bob Eager as he left Kent for the next chapter of his life.

Bob joined the University in 1970 to read Electronics (there was no computing degree in 1970). On graduation, he opted for a Master’s at Essex before being invited back to Kent as a postgraduate student while also starting to do ‘a bit of teaching’.

Bob was part-time system programmer before being appointed lecturer in 1978. He combined teaching responsibilities with managing the operating system for the University’s mainframes. For ten years, he was Master of Darwin College. He then moved back to Computing where he has been an admissions officer for the past 13 years.

Bob said: ‘I’ve worked with some great people over the years. It’s quite weird that I’ve taught so many existing and past staff, mainly but not exclusively in computing… I don’t suppose I ever expected to be here this long! Things have obviously changed a great deal. The number of students has increased by an order of magnitude, and the number of buildings about the same. The eight teletypes that we started with (under the stairs in the foyer, mostly) have now become many, many PCs round campus, not to mention all the other network clients.’

He added: ‘I want to make it quite clear that I am not retiring. I am going to be working for at least one higher education institution, I expect to be working for a small local start-up company and I am going to be representing the BCS in schools, inspiring pupils to consider computing careers. I will also still be involved with the BCS Kent Branch, and with the Kent BCS Student Chapter, as well as the BCS Computer Conservation Society. I would like to thank all my colleagues (in other Schools too) for being so great, and for being so supportive.’

More information, including a copy of Bob’s leaving speech is available on the School of Computing news webpages.