Robert Fraser Mack
1944-2010
Early life in Leeds
Fraser was born in Leeds on 21st January 1944, the second of four children.
His sister Janine was two years older, and his brothers Simon and
Jonathan around 14 and 17 years younger respectively. Like his sister and
brothers, Fraser attended St John’s C of E Primary School in Roundhay in
Leeds. He then attended Leeds Central School in the city centre.
Fraser was a very able pupil, both academically and technically. He did sufficiently well that he was moved up a year at school – something that he later came to regret, not least because of disruption to friendships. In keeping with his abilities, he took A-level Metalwork alongside Physics and Maths.
Fraser’s practical abilities were much in evidence from an early age, and even when he was young he was an able and patient teacher. It was typical of Fraser’s instruction that when he taught the young Jonathan to tell the time, things somehow all clicked into place in a way that they hadn’t previously. Jonathan also recalls Fraser supervising him drilling holes in bits of wood – Jonathan being about 4 years old – in the work attic at the family home in Oakwood Avenue. Similarly, Simon remembers Fraser teaching him how to solder wires onto terminals, and how he passed on a massively heavy old bicycle with a fascinating diagram of how its hub-gears worked. Later on, Fraser allowed Simon – then about 14 years old – to have a short session driving his car.
Fraser was interested in electronics from an early age. He arranged a buzzer in the work attic at the top of the house, wired by a cable hanging out of the window and down two storeys to the kitchen. This enabled his mum to let him know when tea was ready. At a more sophisticated level, Fraser built a large radio-controlled model articulated lorry, an oscilloscope, and a “crystal set” radio. This radio fitted into a matchbox – and this in the days when such things were a rarity and a wonder – and it was a sign of things to come.
In his youth, Fraser joined the army cadets, where he was a good shot on the rifle range. Being in the cadets also required some obsessive ironing and boot polishing, something of which Fraser later said, “I must have been mad to do all that.” Another of Fraser’s interests – and one that was to last a lifetime – was bell-ringing, an activity well-suited to his talents. He regularly cycled off to Leeds Parish Church on a Sunday morning, and in due course he became the lead ringer.
Move to Liverpool and marriage to Doreen
In keeping with his interest in electronics, in 1961, at the age of 17, Fraser left home to study electrical engineering at the University of Liverpool. He did a “sandwich course” degree, and on graduating joined the Automatic Telephone Company that had sponsored him at university. “The Auto”, as it was known, became Plessey, then GPT, and eventually Marconi shortly before Fraser took early retirement around the turn of the millennium. Fraser worked in research on the newly emerging electronic telephone exchanges, developing the technology to send many calls down the same telephone line. When he first started, he looked so young that people would often underestimate his technical knowledge and ability. But as time went by, this changed, and Simon recalls Fraser’s mum being impressed when she saw a set of meeting minutes with “Mr Mack said…” written on them in various places.
In 1967, six years after arriving in Liverpool, Fraser met Doreen at a folkdancing event, and in 1970 they were married at All Saints Childwall, where Fraser had first gone because the church had a bell-tower. Two years later, Stephen was born, in 1972, and in 1975 Richard arrived.
Becoming a Christian and involvement at All Saints Childwall
When Fraser and Doreen applied to have Stephen baptised at All Saints Childwall, they were challenged to think seriously about what it really meant to be a Christian. Having attended baptism preparation classes, both Fraser and Doreen became Christians, but each pointed to this being a gradual process occurring over several years rather than a “seeing the light” moment on a particular day. In due course Fraser and Doreen helped out with the All Saints baptism preparation classes themselves, and they also led Christian basics courses. Fraser led a housegroup that met in the family home, and a group at Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) that met elsewhere in Liverpool. He also served as treasurer on the All Saints PCC, and as church warden for several years.
Fraser was a highly intelligent and thoughtful person. He enjoyed recreational mathematical games and puzzles, and also word games and cryptic crosswords. With his analytical mind, Fraser was naturally sceptical about many things – he wasn’t one to suffer fools gladly – and his Christian faith was something he thought about carefully. He was particularly influenced by the writings of C. S. Lewis, and he came to believe because he considered the claims of Jesus Christ to be true. As with other things, Fraser did not wear his heart on his sleeve so-to-speak, but he believed firmly in the existence of the God of the Bible. Fraser knew that he, like all the rest of us, did not live up to his own standards, let along God’s. And he came to believe and trust that Jesus Christ really was God in human form, and that through his death and resurrection he alone can offer the forgiveness that we all need. Fraser’s Christian faith was sufficiently strong that he sought to convince others of its truth.
Family life
Upon their marriage in 1970, Fraser and Doreen moved to 49 Paignton Road where they were to live for all their married life, and Fraser for somewhat longer. Early on, Fraser used his woodwork skills to great effect, building bespoke furniture for the family home. His electrical engineering skills were in evidence in the home as well at work: he rewired the house; he would fix the television set himself rather than call out the repairman; he built an electronic device for tuning pianos; and he did a lot of practical work at All Saints Childwall, including developing the church’s sound system, which was no mean feat.
Given the modest size of 49 Paignton Road, necessity was the mother of invention. As the boys grew up, Fraser provided the facility to convert the snooker table into a Subbuteo pitch or a table tennis table. Later on, a particular highlight of Fraser’s handiwork was the construction of an impressive retractable bed to provide more space in the boxroom, combined with cupboards above the stairs.
Fraser always had a lot of time for Doreen, and for Stephen and Richard as they grew up. His knowledge of maths, physics and electronics, combined with practical skill and an engineering brain, made him an exceptional father. He helped Stephen program the then state-of-the-art ZX Spectrum. And Richard in particular was delighted to grow up in a house with so many electronic devices and components. Many school discos benefited from Richard and Fraser’s combined efforts. Fraser’s capability and patience as a teacher were again much in evidence. He would explain to the boys the difference between volts and amps, or how the plumbing system worked, or how to ride a bike. He built a model front-wheel drive car to demonstrate the importance of reversing in when parallel parking. He demonstrated the physics of sound waves using tubes and a piano fork. And using a cardboard box combined with the gas cooker, he demonstrated how a build-up of gas could lead to an explosion (happily the kitchen remained intact).
More generally, Fraser appreciated the simple pleasures in life. The family holidayed all over England and Wales, usually with a week’s walking holiday each year, not least to give Doreen a break from cooking for the family. Fraser enjoyed the countryside, and had an uncannily good sense of direction which didn’t often let him down. The extended family met regularly in Leeds in the house in Oakwood Avenue where Fraser grew up.
Difficult times
Life was not always easy for Fraser though. Relatively early in his life, Fraser lost both his father and his older sister Janine. And in 1994, Doreen had an operation to remove a brain tumour. This gave Doreen another 7 years, but the latter part of this time was difficult for Fraser as he spent the first couple of years of his retirement caring for Doreen before she died. Those who knew him then will remember his stoicism and kindness, lookingafter Doreen through her long and debilitating illness.
Meeting Anne and the move to Bakewell
After several difficult years adjusting to life as a widower, and helping to care for Doreen’s elderly father in Liverpool, Fraser met Anne in 2005, on a walking holiday in the Isle of Arran. They did not immediately arrange to meet again, but Anne had evidently made an impression on Fraser. Several months later he wrote to Anne and they arranged to meet at the Science Museum in Manchester. The rest, as they say, is history. Fraser moved to Bakewell upon his marriage to Anne at Ashford-in-the-Water in 2006, and this gave him further opportunities to deploy his practical skills – at 8 Castle Mount Crescent, at the church in Ashford-inthe-Water, and in renewing younger brother Jonathan’s garage roof in Leeds. He was also able to use the culinary skills he had acquired as a widower. He returned to ringing bells regularly, as he had done on arriving in Liverpool aged 17. He was able to enjoy walking in the hills as a regular part of life rather than just at holiday time, and holidays with Anne took them to Canada, Sri Lanka and the Outer Hebrides among other places. And it was now the turn of Fraser’s grandchildren and step-grandchildren to benefit from his practical skills and engineering brain. Fraser was a much loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend. We would have loved to have had him with us longer, and we cherish his memory.
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