Eddie McKenzie (17 Feb 1945 - 27 Nov 2020)

Hey Dad,

It’s 3 weeks today, since I found you, asleep on the floor in your study.

Even then, amidst the utter despair, the grief, there was a calmness, emanating from you..

You were simply asleep on the floor, glasses on your head. As if for one brief moment in time, you had leaned back, stood up, to consider the clue to the crossword you were doing.

And that was just to be it..

5 across REMAINS unanswered. Why? Because I don’t know the answer. And you are gone.. so who can I ask.

You see for the 50 years, since you married mum, you were ALWAYS there. To ask, to explain, to calm me..

It’s only money son! Don’t worry..

Your best advice though..genuinely given

If you are gonna rob a bank, do it ONCE and do it BIG..

No doubt based on the statistics of getting caught...

You had done SO SO well, since mum had her stroke in June.. caring for her relentlessly and keeping us all calm, simply by being there..

Relax, the 4 of us will now step up to take over.

I’d never ever contemplated a life without you.. the sudden manner of you leaving us means it hurts beyond the imagination.

However, 4 days before you died, we sat, perhaps guided by something and I thanked you for EVERYTHING you had done for me, since the day we met!

None more so than this last 3 YEARS, when you literally held me up, let me breath, kept me going and allowed me to continue..in life..

We shall carry mum now and you can rest in peace.

Your wisdom and intellect, your art work and humour, your Beatles music and your wonderful eccentricities, shall forever guide and sustain me..!

With love,

Rory X

I was very sorry to hear that Eddie had passed away. The two of us were colleagues for 40 years. Although our specialisms were different, we frequently worked together as part of the team effort. This was particularly true during the early 2000s when I was Head of Department in Maths and Eddie had the same role in Statistics and Modelling Science. The two departments were jointly responsible for our suite of undergraduate degrees. With hundreds of students involved, there was no shortage of business to attend to. Eddie and I had frequent meetings and if occasionally our perspectives on an issue differed, there was always mutual respect for the other person's point of view, and Eddie's unique sense of humour was never far away.

In the 70s and 80s, when academic life had fewer pressures, many colleagues would gather at 1 p.m in the Staff Common Room to eat their lunch and chew the fat about anything from football to politics. There was always at least one quartet playing bridge and Eddie and I were regular participants, alongside strong players such as David Weir, Peter Barratt and Bob Henery, all sadly no longer with us. These were happy days. Indeed I feel that those of the same generation as Eddie and me have, by and large, had the good times.

Eddie was a stalwart who gave loyal and devoted service to the University of Strathclyde. His was a good life, well lived. At this sad time, I extend my condolences and kindest thoughts to all the family.

Eddie was quite simply one of the nicest guys I have known. He was a committed and hugely professional statistical scientist with an unusually extended interest in the scientific and societal problems which his statistical skill helped to solve. He was endlessly interested in, and very good at, passing on his statistical insights to students at all levels, as well as to colleagues, both academic and professional. He was also, very quietly, an extremely concerned and diligent citizen -- serving selflessly and at some emotional cost in the youth justice system of his beloved city.

Although we were both at Strathclyde for pretty much the same length of time we only really met when two refugee biologists were relocated from Physics to the not universally popular new Department of Statistics and Modelling Science. Over the years that followed I came to know him as an utterly dependable colleague, a superbly effective and diligent teacher, and a highly effective administrator. In our later years in the Department we worked together on a range of research topics, during which time he explained to me with commendable patience a wean of stuff I needed to understand but didn't. By the end of this process I was proud to think of him as a friend as well as a valued colleague.

Eddie left the world a better place for his having lived in it. I'm proud and grateful to have known him, May he rest in peace in the sure and certain knowledge of a good life well lived.

Goodnight my darling brother.

'What a guy he was' indeed. One uses the term 'gentleman' to describe men at large, but here was a truly Gentle man. I never heard, nor ever expected to hear, Eddie say an unkind word about anyone or anything. When you talked with him you knew that he respected your opinion, even if what you were saying was totally wrong. He would just quietly and simply put things another way, leaving you thinking 'yes that's what I meant'. He was an honourable man showing his love for my sister Bernice and his family in the same quiet but underlying intensity, no man could ever ask for more. AMDG

I worked as a post-doc with Eddie on zooplankton time-series between 1994 and 1998 and he and I continued to collaborate on data analyses occasionally for years thereafter. I am a marine biologist (not a statistician or mathematician) and felt very much out of my depth when I arrived at Strathclyde Uni. I asked Eddie why he had employed me, me being so useless at sums, and he said that, 'we needed someone with hair in the department'! RIP Eddie.

Dear Bernie and family

I recall Eddie as a larger-than-life presence right from the moment I started as a postdoc at the Strathclyde University in the department of Statistics and Modelling Science (as was). He was always enormously supportive of junior colleagues especially, sharing widely his enormous erudition, sage advice, and hilarious anecdotes in equal measure! My deepest sympathies to you all for his loss, but I hope you can take a little comfort in knowing how well he will be remembered.

Eddie taught me Probability Theory in 1974 and tben we were colleagues in Strathclyde Mathematics and Statistics and Modelling Science (to cover all the bases!) from then until his retiral in 2010. A great colleague, always up for a serious discussion or a friendly chat, and a great sense of humour.
One memory from 1989: when I brought chocolates to the dept common room to celebrate my daughter Lauren's birth, he asked why i had namecd her after a sausage - it took me a few confused moments to respond with a laugh! RIP Eddie.

Dear Bernice and Family,
Grace and Peace!
It is with much sadness and very fond memories of Eddie that I write this note. Hearing the news of his death this morning was a shock, but in faith I know he is at peace. I am praying for you all as you deal with this loss and your grief. Will send a more personal note by mail. God bless and lots of love to you all,

Ann and the Fisher Clan