My brother David Liverman, who has died aged 66 of prostate cancer, was a British-Canadian geologist who became a tireless sports administrator in Newfoundland and Labrador, where he helped to regenerate interest in his favourite game, cricket.
Having moved to Canada in his early 20s, David found it difficult to access cricket results in the early years of the internet and was one of the pioneers who developed Cricinfo from its origins as an email list into a fully fledged website. Living in Newfoundland, he discovered that cricket had been a popular sport there under British rule, but that interest had since faded. He decided to help to reinvigorate the game by offering his services as a volunteer organiser, coach and umpire, as well as develping school programmes. Eventually he became president of Cricket Newfoundland and Labrador, from 2017 to 2019, and also played a national role in managing Cricket Canada’s website, joining its board of directors.
In 2019 David was named as Sport Newfoundland’s executive of the year, and in 2021 Cricket NL named their summer league trophy the Liverman Cup in his honour, also creating the David Liverman Fairplay award. When Hollywood came to Newfoundland to make the film The Grand Seduction (2013) – in which a remote Newfoundland community tries to attract a doctor obsessed with cricket – he became the movie’s cricket consultant, checking dialogue and teaching actors how to play.
David was born in Accra, Ghana, where our parents, John and Peggy, worked for the British Volta mission. He grew up in Redhill, Surrey, attending Reigate grammar school and the University of Edinburgh, where he studied geology. Moving to Canada, he completed an MSc and PhD in glacial geology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, with a break to work in the oil industry and then to backpack around the world.
In 1988 David was hired as a geologist by the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador in St John’s, where he eventually became director of the survey and then assistant deputy minister in the provincial department of natural resources, retiring in 2016.
An adjunct professor of geography at Memorial University, his geological interests included geoscience communication, the glacial and sea level history of Newfoundland, and geological hazards. He wrote a book, Killer Snow: Avalanches of Newfoundland and Labrador (2007), which attracted considerable popular interest.
Aside from his dedication to cricket, David also spent many hours as a volunteer involved with figure skating in Newfoundland, serving as a club president and as a provincial executive, and winning the Skate Canada Volunteer of Excellence award in 2007. He was very proud when his daughter, Beth, joined the staff of Skate Canada.
In addition David, who was a lifelong Arsenal supporter, spent many hours on the football field as a referee, and became a national level refereeing instructor for the Canadian Soccer Association.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra (nee Powell), whom he met in Edmonton when doing his postgraduate studies and married in 1986, by Beth, and by his two siblings, me and Michael.
