Eric Fawcett - Personal Life

Personal Life

Fawcett was the second son to Harold and Florrie Fawcett, the younger brother of Roy. Eric and Roy attended Queen Elizabeths Grammar School, Blackburn. At various times the family lived in Mellor, in Longridge and on East Park Road and then finally at 2 Tarbert Crescent, Shadsworth, Blackburn. Blackburn was a textile town, and Fawcett's mother, Florrie, had worked in the Sunnyside Mill in Blackburn as a child. This experience led her to drive Eric in his studies. His hard work paid off, as he won a full scholarship to study physics at University of Cambridge. While studying at Cambridge, he met Cambridge native Patricia Egan, his wife-to-be. The two married on October 9, 1954. Together, they moved to Ottawa, where they lived for two years. In 1956 they returned to England, this time moving to Malvern, where their children Clare (1956), Andrew (1958) and Ruth (1961) were born. In September 1961, the family relocated to New Jersey, where they lived for ten years before moving north to Toronto, Canada in 1971, where Eric would spend the rest of his life.

A year after the birth of his first grandchild, Michael, in late 1991, Fawcett chose to retire, doing so in 1993. Fawcett's retirement was a busy one. Three more grandchildren were born, Marc and Peter in 1994, and Robert in 1997. Eric also spent much time practicing yoga and the piano, though generally not at the same time. In the academic world, Fawcett's greatest contribution during his retirement was his work for Science for Peace. A co-founder, he threw himself into the pursuit of world peace through science. Eric's retirement was cut short in September, 2000, as he succumbed to liver cancer.