I first met Ted at an Ergonomics Society (as was) Conference in Swansea in 1985, when I was a humble Taylor & Francis staff editor, and Ted was … well, Ted. Without introduction – he could see my Conference Badge – Ted marches up and berates me, “You're from T&F. What are you doing about Ergonomics Abstracts?” And that latter sentence was a regular feature in most of our conversations over the ensuing decades.
Writing in Ergonomics in 1990 on the future role of ergonomics databases1, Ted describes his pride and joy, central to his collaboration with T&F.
“… collated by the Ergonomics Information Analysis Centre at Birmingham University in England … Ergonomics Abstracts [was founded in] 1969. The journal is currently published six times a year. [ … ] Since the beginning of 1986, the records have been entered into a computerized database so that currently about 17,000 records can be accessed directly. At the moment, 4,500 records are entered every year and each record is classified according to one or more of 625 subject terms and 224 applications terms. No on-line facilities currently exist although requested bibliographies and SDIs can be prepared.”
Ted's enthusiasm for the potential to expand and fundamentally change the way Ergonomics Abstracts was published is alluded to in that paragraph. Ted, aided and abetted by the ever patient Christine, was instrumental in persuading a sometimes cautious T&F that publishing had a digital, not a print, future. And Ted's persistence allowed us to explore the then new electronic media. Let me record here our appreciation for Ted and his contribution.
Ergonomics Abstracts was the pioneer digital journal for Taylor & Francis. Publishing on floppy disk (remember them, not even really floppy!), then CD ROM, and finally in 1997, online, by 2011, Ergonomics Abstracts included articles from over 400 leading journals plus book chapters and conference proceedings: over 135,000 online records covering more than 25 years of ergonomics research.
Throughout the 1980s, Ted also edited Contemporary Ergonomics, the Proceedings of the then Ergonomics Society Conferences, a major achievement of editing and organisation as copies were to be delivered, finished and bound, for delegates to collect at Registration. They were.
Ted also acted as a consultant on T&F's books programme, for me and latterly my colleague Tony Moore. Tony recalls, “Ted used to evaluate every single ergonomics book proposal I received. He didn't work through my questionnaires but would send me a one or two paragraph email telling me whether he thought the book was worth publishing or not, and (more importantly) why, and making suggestions here and there for improvement. He gave a very good and sound view on a wide range of books. I know he had a reputation for being crotchety and so on, but he was very reasonable as an evaluator: few things are truly brilliant or truly bad, and Ted didn't look at life like that (although he pretended to).”
Ted could be a crusty old b*gger at times, but he was wonderful company: in Vancouver at a suburban BBQ, where the host gasped, “Ken Parsons, John Wilson, and Ted Megaw, all in my garden!”; in San Diego at the ‘Top Gun’ Bar, which he wanted to hate, but couldn't; or at two o'clock on a bright Finnish morning in Tampere, the city that couldn't sleep; or at The Lamp Tavern, amused by my boggled eyes as he paid for rounds from a roll of £50 notes – “You're not a betting man then”, he quipped.
This is my favourite Ted story, which I've heard countless times since I first met him in 1985, at least twice from Ted. This is Tony's version: “Ted goes to Perry Barr Racetrack, and does well and celebrates even more, so the evening ends in a blur. Next morning, he opens his eyes and finds he's lying on the sofa of his living room and there staring and licking him in the face is a greyhound. Quite how he got from Perry Barr to Edgbaston and with a greyhound he cannot remember. Presumably they walked. Then he had to decide what to do with his new acquisition, so he found some kennels.” The rest is history.
Alere Flamam
Notes
1.E.D. Megaw (1990): The future role of ergonomics databases, Ergonomics, 33 (4), 469–476.