Dave Wallis passed away last week after having barely spent a year in retirement. While his family and friends will no doubt deeply regret his early passing, they can take comfort from the significant contribution he made whilst employed by the local university. Dave was instrumental in establishing computing at the university and was at the forefront of the management of university computing services right up until his retirement after some 33 years of service.
Dave was always concerned about standards and procedures and quite rightly so. These are essential to the proper running of any computing service. As an academic who was more interested in experimenting with computers and networks, I found myself apposing Dave's position regarding standards and procedures from time to time. However I can safely say that it was always a pleasure to be to deal with Dave when debating these issues. He was one of the politest, fairest and consistent men I had the pleasure to work with at the university.