John Henry Freear FCIEH 1943-2023

I was very sad to hear of the recent death of John Freear. John had been a fixture of CIEH throughout my time here and I will miss him greatly.

He qualified as an EHO in 1965 and had racked up 42 years of employment in local authorities until his retirement in 2002. The last 13 of these years had been spent as Head of Environmental Health Services at South Kesteven District Council – a large rural authority in South Lincolnshire.

John spent well over a decade as a member of CIEH's Council (now known as the Board of Trustees) and was elected as its Chair for 2009. He took a very keen interest in mucking in to help with our qualification processes. Most of my work with him was in connection with our committees in this area, or as Treasurer of the Environmental Health Board.

This commitment also fed into his work with colleagues remembering his focus on training and development of trainees and students, including achieving the Investors in People award for the organisation. He was also President of the East Midlands Region and did a considerable amount of work regionally with conference organisation (his late wife Barbara did the buffet food and was also well known!).

I will miss John's attention to detail and kind nature. He'd often find at least one figure in the EHRB accounts that didn't quite add up, but always let me know about it with a jovial smile on his face. The writing pad I use every day is spare from the East Midlands conference in 2007 which he handed to me without ceremony in the office shortly afterwards.

With thanks to Christian Polzin MCIEH, Environmental Health Team Leader – Commercial, South Kesteven District Council.

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