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Provided by Mr Robert D. Reith
Ian Reith was born in March 1931. He was educated at Crewkerne Grammar School, Somerset, and later studied structural engineering at the Brixton School of Building, London, following which he qualified as a Chartered Structural Engineer.
After National Service with the Royal Engineers in Hong Kong he returned to the UK to join the London office of consulting engineers Ove Arup & Partners. Later he went to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, to run Arup's office in Accra.
Whilst working for Arups we enrolled for a Concrete Technology course at Imperial College as a result of which he was awarded a DIC.
After a brief period with civil engineering contractor Costain in Coventry, where he oversaw the construction of a tower block using the innovative Jackblock technique, Ian joined his friend, Peter Campbell, to form Campbell Reith and Partners. The firm grew to become one of the foremost consulting civil and structural engineering practices in the UK now called Campbell Reith & Hill.
Ian retired from his firm in 1986 to become an expert in construction litigation. He died in December 2007.
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