[r-t] Stephen Ivin

[Philip Earis]

I'm very sorry to see the news that Stephen Ivin died yesterday.

Stephen was of course a prolific ringer, who contributed a huge amount
across many different ringing activities.

In the realm of ringing theory, Stephen produced some extremely
influential compositions.  His 3-part 5088 of Bristol Major, containing
all 144 CRUs, continues to rung extremely frequently:

Stephen J Ivin
23456    M  B  W  H
42356             1
35426          1  1
24536          2  2
25346    1  -  2  2
26543    2        1
23645    2        1
3 part.  144 cru's. 12

London major was perhaps his main focus though, and he conducted more
peals than anybody else in the method. He produced many compositions of
London from the mid 1950s onward, and very recently published a collection
of 48 of these along with some introductory commentary (see the notice at
www.ringingworld.co.uk/notices.html)

Stephen was a member of this email list, and posted in recent months about
Grandsire Triples, another method he had a keen interest in and produced
compositions for.

I have fond memories of him debating with me at length (and with a twinkle
in his eye) on the merits of London at the 12-bell final at Towcester a
couple of years back.  I was also a little surprised when he stormed up
the tower at St Thomas, Oxford (a fine ring he brought to fruition, and an
enduring legacy) just after I rang a peal on the morning of OUS dinner day
a few years ago, only to be told by him that we couldn't have rung a peal
as it finished too quickly. All good fun.

He will be sadly missed.  It would be nice if somebody more familiar with
his compositions could publish a more detailed appraisal here.