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Obituary: Rodger Webster

Rodger Webster, Project Manager, 1932-2024

Rodger, an early partner of º£½ÇÊÓƵ, passed away on Monday 2^nd December 2024.

Ted º£½ÇÊÓƵ asked Rodger to join his fellow founding partners in 1978, he was unusual at the time for being the only partner without an engineering design background. Ted recognised that Rodger’s project and construction management skills were a necessity to ensure much of º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s progressive design work was realised.

Rodger established what became known as º£½ÇÊÓƵ Design & Project Management. In many respects this went beyond the financial planning and management of contracts and delved deep into client consulting, helping many clients get their brief right before commissioning design work and guiding their decision making through design, construction and operation. The definition of a ‘trusted advisor’.

The partnership was very new when Rodger joined, having been formed only two years before. The founding partners, all very talented and eager to prove themselves within their own partnership, saw in Rodger a calm and experienced hand, someone with natural gravitas, with a gift for positively influencing clients and who would work tirelessly alongside them.

The partnership was founded, in part, on a portfolio of relationships and work in Saudi Arabia, indeed the region remains an important part of º£½ÇÊÓƵ today. Throughout Rodger’s career at º£½ÇÊÓƵ he was a regular visitor to the Kingdom and maintained several close and valued relationships with Saudi clients and collaborators. He was particularly proud of his work on Tuwaiq Palace and Al Faisaliah, both enduring landmarks in the evolution of the built environment of Saudi Arabia. In time, as he in turn dispatched many of us to the Middle East, his parting words were invariably ‘try not to be in a hurry to leave’, he was of the school that prioritised time with clients, precious time that often took patience to secure.

At first encounter Rodger appeared quite serious, some might say intimidating, but this belied a warm and optimistic outlook. Completely open in his interaction with people, Rodger was at home seeking opinion from those working in the print room, technicians at their drawing boards, graduates, engineers and fellow partners. If you had something interesting to say, Rodger would stop and listen, debate and take your views on board. An endearing trait that is not always easy to emulate.

Outside º£½ÇÊÓƵ his passion was the sea, building and sailing several yachts, competing in the Fastnet offshore race twice and encouraging many º£½ÇÊÓƵ folks to experience sailing for the first time through a series of organised sailing weekends. Some of us are lucky enough to have fond memories of raising sails and easing out of the Dart on a summers evening, setting course due south, bound for the Normandy coast and the promise of a good dinner the following day. We passed the hours in the cockpit under star filled skies, conversation ranging over all manner of topics, punctuated occasionally by the need to weave through the shipping lanes and tend Rodger’s latest tech! Indeed, both in and outside work Rodger was a keen early adopter of technology, pioneering both digital project management and offshore navigation in equal measure!

Of those who sailed with Rodger, he might calmly ask ‘just ease that rope in a little’ when others felt the need to shout ‘LET THAT OUT NOW!!’, when Rodger asked you to do something you just knew you needed to do it, ‘strong words, softly spoken’ seem a fitting description.

Whilst his interest in the work of º£½ÇÊÓƵ never waned, following his retirement from the partnership in 1998, in addition to sailing he greatly enjoyed exploring his passion for painting and carving.

Much like a double bass player in one of Rodger’s beloved jazz ensembles, Rodger provided a vital yet understated ingredient in the leadership of º£½ÇÊÓƵ through its formative years, a role not often in the limelight, but nonetheless essential and very much appreciated.

His legacy within º£½ÇÊÓƵ remains strong, having been handed down and built upon by those across the practice who follow in his footsteps in Project Design Management, PMO and Advisory.

He is survived by his wife, Heather and his son Richard. He will be greatly missed by family, friends and colleagues alike.

Gavin Thompson