My grandpa John Friend, who has died aged 91, was a pioneer known in his field of operational research (OR) as “the father of the strategic choice approach” and the winner of the 2015 OR Society Beale Medal – an award that recognises a sustained contribution to OR over many years.
Born in Oxford to Mary (nee Ritson), a teacher, and Greville Friend, a zoologist, John was two years old when the family moved to Edinburgh, and he was later joined by two brothers, Peter and James.
John was named Dux of the School at Edinburgh Academy in 1949, then graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in mathematics in 1952. His work as a statistician in manufacturing and air transport soon took him to South Yorkshire, where at a wedding he met Mari Micklethwaite. They married in 1956 and had four children – Theresa, Joanna, Robin and David - between 1958 and 1968.
In 1964, John joined the Institute of Operational Research, where he led workshops on public sector planning. From this experience he developed the “strategic choice approach”, which has been used to help planners tackle difficult decisions in the face of uncertainty. He wrote and co-authored several books, including Planning Under Pressure (1987), an international bestseller.
During his career John worked as an independent consultant, developed internationally used software called STRAD (a portmanteau for “Strategic Adviser”), worked with governments across the world and became a visiting professor at four British universities – Bradford, Hull, Sheffield and Lincoln.
One day his work would involve enabling community groups in east London to get the health service they wanted; another, he would be involved in cabinet-level conversations in Venezuela. He was a whizz at a quiz and cared for the global environment and his socialist principles as well as for those around him.
John’s work took the family to various locations in the UK, including West Yorkshire, where he and Mari co-founded Bracken Hall Countryside Centre in 1980 – one of their proudest legacies. It remains a wildlife and environmental centre, on Shipley Glen, near Baildon.
They moved to Penistone, Barnsley in 2007, and Mari died there in 2016.
John is survived by his two brothers, four children, seven grandchildren, including me, three great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.
