A tribute to Sir Ian Dixon

Many members will have their own memories of Sir Ian Dixon, the institute's president from 1989-90, who died on 20 July after a long battle with cancer. My memories of him go back to the late 1960s, when we served together on the Eastern Region Council, which he went on to chair in 1974-75. He was then, and remained until his death, a passionate enthusiast for the institute's work. He was also a kind and generous man, and a good friend.

Early years
Ian Leonard Dixon was born in 1938, in Hertfordshire. Like many of his generation, he discovered an interest in building during a technical secondary education. He left school to study part time for a HNC and IOB membership. He won the London Master Builders Association silver medal for estimating in 1958, and he was the National Federation of Building Trades Employers "trainee of the year" in 1960.

He went on to receive prestigious awards, but he remained fiercely proud of his achievements as a part-time student at the South West Essex Technical College. Indeed, the fervour for applied learning he discovered then remained a driving force throughout his life.

Ian's management career began with CS Foster and Sons, then John Corby and Sons, where, at 27, he became the managing director. He joined John Willmott Holdings as general manager in 1967. In 1987, the company became Willmott Dixon, with Ian as its joint chairman and chief executive, and he remained chairman until his retirement in 1998. Willmott Dixon was by then one of the largest private companies in construction, with a turnover of £250m.

The CIOB was at the centre of Ian's professional life. His presidency will be remembered for the "Building Matters" campaign: Ian on a double-decker bus, preaching the importance of construction to politicians and journalists, conveying his enthusiasm to groups of schoolchildren. To the countless members he met during that year, Ian was an inspiring, grass-roots president. He went on to become chairman of the Construction Industry Council and of the Construction Industry Board.

Outside the construction world he was a county councillor in Bedfordshire and chairman of Bedfordshire Training and Enterprise Council, and of North Herts and Riverside health authorities. His passion for education led him to membership of the council of University College London and to chairmanship of the Court of Governors of the University of Luton.

Honours
Ian was awarded the CBE for political services in 1991, and he was knighted in 1996, for services to construction. He completed the Harvard Advanced Management Programme in 1978 and received an honorary doctorate from Anglia Polytechnic University. The RICS and the IStructE made him an honorary member.

Some months before Ian's death, the CIOB agreed, with the Worshipful Company of Constructors, that the scholarship awarded by the two organisations should be known as the Sir Ian Dixon Scholarship. Ian was thrilled by that decision and took personal charge of the design of the trophy.

Sir Ian Dixon will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by many within the CIOB and far beyond it. My sympathies go to Lady Dixon and to their children Steven, Mark and Amanda.