#Stefan Lubomirski De Vaux

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Fabian Acker - Obituary

[Fabian Acker, writer, 13 November 1931 - 6 February 2019]

Fabian Acker, legendary writer, chief engineer, bus driver and general excellent man died after a short illness in London Bridge Hospital on 6 February 2019, leaving behind the problem of how on earth to write an account of, and tribute to, his remarkable life in less than an encyclopaedia.

I first met Fabian Acker at an open script meeting for the BBC News Huddlines at the BBC’s grand building in Portland Place almost exactly at the Millennium. Fabian cracked an extremely funny joke which for religious reasons didn’t get into the show. We went for a coffee afterwards and his kind, thoughtful and hilarious friendship has been a thing of wonder, comfort and inspiration ever since. I think if one asked anyone who knew him, they’d say the same, with love, praise and happy recollection.

Fabian leaves behind behind three women who meant everything in his life, his wife Alison and his daughters Daniella, and Zue. He leaves also many friends, and his thousands of readers. In 1624 John Donne the Dean of St Paul’s wrote his remarkable and perceptive words on how the passing of one affects all. Like many of us, I’ve read them many times. They’ve never seemed more apt: 

No man is an island entire of itself; every man  is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe  is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as  well as any manner of thy friends or of thine  own were; any man’s death diminishes me,  because I am involved in mankind.  And therefore never send to know for whom  the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

Fabian was born in Salford, Manchester, UK and did civilian and military service as Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy. As a child he had already had experience of travelling by sea. In a brief memoir he wrote:

 “Then we went to America. Five of us: two cousins, my brother and my mother, on the SS Baltrover in a huge convoy. It was a rusty old cargo ship not intended for passengers so it was crowded. Twenty years later it sank in the Mediterranean, long after it should have been scrapped. I’m glad it wasn’t; that would have been undignified for that blowsy old lady. We had to wear our life-jackets night and day.

The Government was sending Jewish kids on empty cargo ships to the USA, which were en route to pick up war materiel for England. A Nazi invasion seemed likely and although adults, Jewish or not, were expected to stay and resist, getting vulnerable kids out of the way seemed a sensible move.

I was sent first to a family in Cleveland. The mother, Mrs S, was a nudist.”

Something that probably could only happen to Fabian.

A very brief account of his writing and editing work:

“Fabian Acker has guided generations of journalists and writers from the Birmingham Post to the Greater Manchester Police, and Amnesty International to the Marine Accident Investigation Board. He has written two distance learning courses for the National Council of Journalists where he was the Senior Tutor for five years. He has also written for the BBC, edited The Science Reporter for seven years and has written for The Sunday Times, where he won the travel writer of the year award. His journalism, for which he also won the Technical Journalist of the Year, has covered stories as diverse as modelling the Mississippi delta to exploration of the Arctic by sailing ship, the connection between autism and engineering, and the Sayano Shushenskaya powerplant disaster in Russia. He has written numerous short stories many of which have been awarded prizes; he has an MA in Creative Writing from London University.” 

[Oxford comma enthusiasts will note its deft use; he also had a way with an apostrophe].

His extensive review work includes three for Words Across Time: The Marine Encyclopaedic Dictionary http://wordacrosstime.tumblr.com/post/154686625864/marine-encyclopaedic-dictionary. A Tale of Love And Darkness, by Amos Oz  http://wordacrosstime.tumblr.com/post/164489283359/a-tale-of-love-and-darkness. And the definitive review of Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert  http://wordacrosstime.tumblr.com/post/152253318004/madame-bovary.

He was also an expert folk dancer.

Most of all, Fabian Acker was kind to all who knew him. Thoughtful, impeccably good-mannered and considerate, he was a gentleman, and a gentle man.

[photo: Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux]

John Park

Words Across Time

wordsacrosstime

20 February 2019