FORMER water board director Barry Rydz died peacefully on September 6 aged 98.

He lived a long, important life, both professionally and personally and will be greatly missed by his many friends.

Mr Rydz, of Doctors Hill, Box, was born in 1922 in Salford, Lancashire. He had no recollection of his mother who died when he was three and only a distant and troubled relationship with his father.

His home throughout his youth was with his late Aunt Kate, his mother’s sister, whom he loved profoundly.

Barry’s education was Manchester-based. His childhood dream was to become a professor of history or philosophy but his impoverished, wartime circumstances compelled him to grab at an opportunity created by government offering bursaries to those willing to fill a shortfall of engineers in the army.

He joined the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1943, aged 21, and served until 1946. He then completed his engineering education at Manchester University in 1947 and promptly joined ICI. This marked the beginning of a distinguished career in civil engineering.

His 12 fulfilling years with ICI, focused on the management of water resources and on the modelling of water structures.

It included a one-year scholarship award under the post-war Marshall Aid Programme which enabled him to study with the US Bureau of Reclamation to advance the management of water resources in the western United States.

Then followed five years with Binnie and Partners, an eminent, London-based firm of consulting engineers; nine years with the newly-established Water Resources Board, where he was responsible for the planning and rationalization of water management organisations in England and Wales and where he earned the nickname Mr Water, and, finally, a short period as Director of Resource Planning with the Seven-Trent Water Authority.

He retired in his early 50s, somewhat frustrated and vociferous by what he firmly believed were retrograde developments in water management in England and Wales.

Post-retirement, he focused his attention and resources onto making the world a less inequitable place.

He founded and supported Friends of the Gambia; he made regular charitable donations to Amnesty International and was an active member of the Liberal (later Liberal Democrat) Party, attending social gatherings right up until last Christmas.

He loved classical, especially Baroque, music. The Messiah had a special place in his heart, one of the very few common interests with his father. Many of his closest long-term friends were music lovers including his brother David, the concert pianist Joan Burns and the operatic tenor Kenneth Woollam.Between May 1979 and April 1987 Barry served on Box Parish Council, and perhaps his single greatest achievement while doing this was seeing that the portal to Box Tunnel was cleaned up to mark the tunnel’s 150th anniversary and the viewing platform was erected.

He sought support from both Sir William McAlpine, the Railway Heritage Trust and British Rail, as well as a number of local sources including the County Council.

Mr Rydz was buried at Box Cemetery on September 17 in a small but touching service, with just 30 mourners present due to the COVID19 restrictions.