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Ray Oakley

September 8, 1945 - May 8, 2020

The administrator of this page is Rachael Rule

A place to remember Ray Oakley, father, grandfather, brother and son. We would love it if you would share memories of him here. Rachael & Robert - FUNERAL DETAILS - Service Date 02-Jun-20 at 3:00 Service Chapel - Banbury Website www.obitus.com Username banbury6790 Password 909158

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  • 2020-05-24 12:14:11 View / Comment (1)
    Ian Zant-Boer

    Ian Zant-Boer

    Ian Zant-Boer

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    I first met Ray over 20 years ago when, having been made redundant by GEC, he instructed me to form his first company Phoenix VLSI. I continued to act for him as his love of the entrepreneurial world grew and he became a successful businessman, and I would like to think that over that period he became more than a client. Not many clients get nicknames, or get to find out what they are, and the fact that he used to answer to “The Speedwagon” (obviously based on his initials) suggests that he would agree. Ray had one of the sharpest and most enquiring minds I have encountered, and conversations with him were always a joy, a challenge and bit of a magical mystery tour. Particularly when they began, as they so often did, with the words “I’ve been thinking”. And if he had been thinking of tax, and how to reduce or defer the payment thereof, well write off the next hour! He undoubtedly had the best layman’s knowledge of the British tax system, and frequently came up with workable schemes which the tax professionals hadn’t seen the possibility of. The thing I liked most about Ray was his eccentricity which covered his hair style, his paper filing system (Rob and Rachael good luck with sorting that out!), his approach to gardening and, above all, his love of rock music and air guitar! I will miss you Ray

  • 2020-05-17 19:24:01 View / Comment (1)
    Kevin Roke

    Kevin Roke

    Kevin Roke

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    I first met Ray while attending Northampton Technical College back in the day. He fired up my interest in electronics and introduced myself and late wife Heather to Jesus Christ Superstar. I remember evenings crammed in our mini van singing along at the tops of our voices as we went off for a pint or two at the Folly Inn. When Heather and I moved to Cornwall we would meet up when he visited his mother and father when they lived in Perranporth. We lost touch after I went abroad but I have been informed of his life from a mutual friend Peter. I am so sorry to hear of his death.

  • 2020-05-14 17:51:55 View / Comment (1)
    Michael Pepper

    Michael Pepper

    Michael Pepper

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    I joined Caswell in July 1969, in 1970/71 I started sharing an office with Ray and go to know him quite well. He was extremely talented and a great character, he enrolled to do an external Ph.D at Imperial College, where he got his Bachelor’s degree, and completed his experiments at Caswell fairly quickly. However as he envisaged an industrial career he was ambivalent about spending a few months writing a thesis and so carried about in his briefcase a half completed version, he carried it about for years and I wasn’t sure what happened to it in the end. He certainly couldn’t have improved on his very successful career by finishing it. He single-handedly developed the early MNOS non-volatile memory transistors, this happened more or less at the same time as Intel was created and developed their first product the FAMOS non-volatile memory which then took the available market. With hindsight Ray’s device could have been a commercial success in a different environment but funding was always an issue. Ray could have turned his hand to more basic research as together we started using the MNOS device to investigate electron localization when Sir Nevill Mott became a consultant in 1971, he thought that the device was a unique way of investigation and we started the first experiments on the topic. Although we were limited by the absence of equipment Ray figured out a way of getting results with great success. Ray became more interested in applications so his time for the more basic semiconductor work became very limited. In 1973 Nevill Mott suggested that I go to Cambridge for a “sabbatical” year to work with him, a sabbatical which turned into a stay of 37 years, nevertheless Ray and I continued to work together and I went to Caswell frequently and he visited Cambridge very often, visits which were accompanied by large lunches in excellent restaurants. We often met up at conferences in the USA which was always a pleasure. The joint arrangement which I had with Caswell and Cambridge finished in 1982 when I transferred allegiance to GEC and so didn’t see Ray after that. We had an email exchange and we intended to meet up but sadly it didn’t happen, which was more my fault than his despite my continually meaning to do so. At this age one shouldn’t delay meetings with old friends, tempus fugit. Ray was an exceptional person, he could have turned his hand to almost anything with success as with Phoenix. He built a car from kit form which roared about the lanes of Northamptonshire and was always busy renovating houses. My condolences to all his family

    • 2020-06-02 15:17:51 wrote:

    I was sorry to hear of Ray’s death. I last met him over thirty years ago in Brussels during the spring of 1991 while attending my last EU Project Meeting before leaving Plessey. There was also an EU Technical Exhibition underway and Ray was trying to gain interest and support among the attendees for Phoenix VLSI. I first met him when I started at Caswell in 1975, given the job of developing fully decoded MNOS gate arrays on Silicon on Sapphire: MNOS was his technology, SOS my contribution. It worked. At that time Ray was the MOS Team Leader and Ken Perkins the Bipolar. Ray’s management era was characterised by opportunities to work on different silicon IC technologies, establish chip design rules and work with designers, try out new ideas for fabrication techniques and to be involved in the wider microelectronics community through collaborative projects and conferences. I always enjoyed working with him whether it was developing technology or being involved with collaborative projects. I found him sociable, supportive, had a good sense of humour, was full of ideas and business schemes and possessed a formidable intellect. I worked with him during the first half of my career, around sixteen years, but he was the most interesting and intellectually stimulating boss I have ever had.

    2020-06-02 15:17:51 wrote: I was sorry to hear of Ray’s death. I last met him over thirty years ago in Brussels during the spring of 1991 while attending my last EU Project Meeting before leaving Plessey. There was also an EU Technical Exhibition underway and Ray was trying to gain interest and support among the attendees for Phoenix VLSI. I first met him when I started at Caswell in 1975, given the job of developing fully decoded MNOS gate arrays on Silicon on Sapphire: MNOS was his technology, SOS my contribution. It worked. At that time Ray was the MOS Team Leader and Ken Perkins the Bipolar. Ray’s management era was characterised by opportunities to work on different silicon IC technologies, establish chip design rules and work with designers, try out new ideas for fabrication techniques and to be involved in the wider microelectronics community through collaborative projects and conferences. I always enjoyed working with him whether it was developing technology or being involved with collaborative projects. I found him sociable, supportive, had a good sense of humour, was full of ideas and business schemes and possessed a formidable intellect. I worked with him during the first half of my career, around sixteen years, but he was the most interesting and intellectually stimulating boss I have ever had.

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