This is very belated, but I have recently found out that your father has died on the 1st October I believe, and wanted to express my deepest sympathy. It is many years ago that I knew Robert (or Bob as he addressed himself, and as everyone here then knew of him); in fact it was the late 70’s maybe into early 80’s when I think he was a Project Engineer or Product Manager at Foseco (FS) Tamworth. I found Bob to be someone who would always have time to listen, talk about anything, and be approachable to talk about those everyday work issues that arise when I was just getting used to working life in Foseco, someone who would put me at ease ……. in fact it was people like Robert in those days that set the scene for me to be here as long as I have (44 years). More recently, in 2013 when my father died Robert sent some very kind words to me about my father, who he also knew (my father worked for Foseco until retirement in 1993). It was a great comfort to me to receive messages like this, and this reminded me what a thoughtful person Robert was. Philip

Before I joined Fosroc in 2012, I had already met Bob many times in the different cement conferences and in Imperial College. It was very enjoyable to listen to his presentations in the conferences which were full of cement knowledge with rich industrial experience. He was a pioneer chemist who introduced calcium sulphoaluminate (C$A) cement initially to Fosroc. With many successful applications, C$A cement has been widely used in the dry mortar industries nowadays. In late 1980s, he found a C$A cement supplier from China (Yuanda company, China Building Materials Academy i.e. CBMA). He visited CBMA quite a few times, and became well known there. Bob’s friends in CBMA were shocked when they heard the sad news of Bob having passed away, and asked me to send their condolences to his family. He always said “ni hau” (good morning in Chinese) to me when he saw me in morning. I miss those discussions with Bob on cement chemistry. Ping and I remember he and Marion visited our house with Tsing Dao bear to celebrate the Chinese new year – year of the horse, 2014. Bob will be sadly missed by all of us. He always lives in our hearts. From Renhe and Ping; CBMA: Chen Zhifeng, Bob Liu, Zhang Liang, Su Muzhen (Madam Su); Fosroc Malaysia: Alex Yin.

Whilst we worked together for many years Bob was a great colleague & became a very good friend. We had many achievements, some significant for us, faced many challenges & throughout we always had time for humorous moments, all of which made it special. Bob was also kind, considerate and was always a wise counsel on a wide number of topics. He was like an elder statesman and was respected by all. More recently we have enjoyed meeting up and catching up with regular chats. Along with everyone, Annette & I will miss him very much. Rob