Gavin Fox remembers a good friend of Halifax CTC
Liz and I attended Eric's funeral at Huddersfield Crematorium and I have never seen so many people at a funeral. The place was packed to overflowing and people were crowding the entrance hall and had to watch the service through the open doors. I was only talking to him a few days before when he rang me to apologise for not being able to attend my slide show and he was already telling me of his plans for 2009.
I had known Eric for 20 years or so, after he introduced himself at the Halifax clubroom one night. He rang me sometime later when I had returned to Halifax from 20 years in Australia and caught me at a moment in my life when I needed a new challenge. "Would I be interested in riding the Karakoram Highway with him"? "I had never heard of the Karakoram Highway" I said, "Where is it"? "It’s in Pakistan and it’s said to be the most dangerous highway in the world" said Eric. So the trip was on. We spent 7 weeks together and looking back now I can see that Eric had a few excellent qualities that I would love to have myself. He was quite stoical and quietly determined to follow through meticulously all his ideas and plans, which he was never short of. All of these were usually connected to the well being of his fellow humans. Whether it was his neighbour or some very needy people in Africa, it was all the same to Eric. I admired him for his quiet persistence and his cool head when anything didn’t go to plan. He always found a solution. I met one or two of his ex-students from Halifax College and they all said how much they had enjoyed learning from him.
Later on we did a long ride down through Spain together to honour my uncle Ralph Fox in the town of Lopera where he was killed in the Spanish Civil War. Eric took a great interest in this cycle ride not just for the cycling but for its historical importance, as this war was fought for all the things that Eric stood for in his life. I think he saw in my uncle a lot of himself and my uncle, like thousands of others, paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. The fact that Eric was a great supporter of Amnesty International showed his passion for helping those in need. He was also passionate about the planet. We as cyclists have learned to appreciate what a beautiful and unique planet we are living on. Eric was no exception and joined the Green Party, standing as a candidate in the local elections. He didn’t win, but he always "put his money where his mouth was". He had a solar heating and hot water system installed in his house and was proud of his small contribution to the planet’s future health.
Eric discounted religion and was a committed Humanist. He had come to the conclusion that Religion was the source of most of the trouble in the world and that as a Humanist he could live life with a free mind and use all his energy to further the cause of the underprivileged in this world.
Eric was active in many more spheres and I only learned about some of them in my time at his funeral. Nearly all of them were causes to help his fellow human beings. He was always organising something and among the highlights of the summer were the trips on the European Bike Express where he meticulously planned local cycle rides, recorded, them, and passed them on to others for their benefit. He joined the University of the Third Age and got the "oldies" out on regular cycle rides. Some of them came to his funeral and spoke on how much they had enjoyed being introduced to "Cycling for Softies" so late in life and how much they had all benefited by it. They hoped it would continue now he had gone.
My overriding memory will always be standing outside the Crematorium as the hearse drew slowly up to the entrance. His cycling helmet was resting on the coffin and a brand new shiny cycle wheel stood sentinel behind the coffin, displayed prominently in the rear window. He had only purchased it a few days earlier and was chuffed that he had got it at a bargain price.
Eric wrote his autobiography the year before he died and I hope that many of you will read it. It certainly inspired me. He wasn’t born in Yorkshire, but he had lived with us long enough to learn some of our ways! We all send our sympathy to Mary and our hearts go out to Paul and Jane too.