Renishaw
Sir David McMurtry
Sir David McMurtry, co-founder and Non-executive Director of UK engineering company Renishaw, has died aged 84.
The company announced the news on Monday and described McMurtry as “a great visionary, an outstanding innovator who constantly challenged conventions, and a hugely empathetic man.”
In 1973, McMurtry co-founded Renishaw alongside John Deer to commercialise the 3D touch-trigger probe for co-ordinate measuring machines, which were invented to measure the instrumentation pipes on the Olympus engines that powered the Concorde supersonic aircraft. Renishaw, which marked its 50th anniversary last year, went on to become a leader in the development of co-ordinate measuring machines, shop floor metrology and process control, with McMurtry named on over 200 patents. He also led the company’s diversification efforts into industries such as neurosurgery and metal additive manufacturing. Prior to founding Renishaw, McMurtry spent 17 years at Rolls-Royce where he was responsible for 47 patents and became its youngest ever Assistant Chief of Engine Design.
Will Lee, Renishaw Chief Executive, said in a statement, “He will be greatly missed by so many, including the generations of Renishaw engineers who he inspired and mentored. The manufacturing industry has lost a true pioneer and many of us at Renishaw have lost a father figure and a friend.”
The statement went on to describe McMurtry as ‘a reserved man who avoided publicity, and who was more comfortable sharing his insights with young engineers than making public speeches.’ He received accolades from around the world for his engineering achievements, including in the US and Japan. In the UK, he was awarded a Knighthood “for services to Design and Innovation” and was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) in 1989. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Most recently, in 2019, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) awarded McMurtry the James Watt International Gold Medal for his contribution to mechanical engineering.
