The Story behind the Story: Life-Changing Experiences on the Trail of a Giant

Reginald Sutcliffe was a true giant in the field of dynamical meteorology effectively building much of its modern edifice, particularly the portion that connects directly to weather systems and practical forecasting. Much of the energy he brought to this important work was borne of a frustration he felt upon being shipwrecked on the shores of meteorology as a Ph.D. mathematics graduate in 1927 – namely, that there was no established theory that described the development of cyclones and anticyclones.

In the past 4+ years I have been actively researching and writing a comprehensive biography of his life and times. Rather than offer a skeletal outline of the forthcoming work, I will discuss how elements of the process have been utterly transformative for me. Over the course of the work, I have “found” his two daughters, have been invited into their respective families and been shown numerous family treasures that have allowed me to craft a story that is about more than Sutcliffe the scientist. I have visited his grammar school where, by some miracle, extensive records of his presence there nearly 90 years ago have been carefully maintained as if waiting for someone to find them. I have visited the churchyard where he is buried beside his beloved wife, Evelyn – taken there by the parish priest who waited for me at the train station on a Sunday afternoon in Wales when I was more than two hours late and not able to contact him. By telling the story behind the story, of the many people with whom I have forged personal bonds on this journey, I will suggest that such relationships are fundamentally important to the process of recreating the vital presence of an impactful, human and intellectual life.