Michael Redican, who died on 25 November 2022, was a Founding Fellow of the College in 1980 and served on the College Council from 1993-1999. He was active on the Continuing Education and Training, Finance and General Purposes Committees, as well as the British Standards sub-committee, and chaired a Vision in the Elderly Working Party from 1993-1994. He was involved in the work to develop a two-year pilot for compulsory CET that launched in January 1996. Although the later period of his service to the College was disrupted by ill-health, he was always appeared happy to take on a new role with enthusiasm.
A devout practising Roman Catholic, Mike had spent several of his early years at the Catholic seminary at Usher Moor in County Durham. He trained in ophthalmic optics at the Bradford Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and qualified as a fellow of the British Optical Association (FBOA) in 1964, passing his Advanced Contact Lens examination in 1965. He was also one of the first group of students to take the MSc course at what by then had become Bradford University in 1977. Always an enthusiastic contact lens practitioner, he gained his Diploma in Contact Lens Practice (DCLP) in 1983.
Mike practised optometry in the north east of England for about thirty five years. His main practice in Hebburn was very successful, not least for his interaction with patients. He was a master of putting people at their ease and was a jovial figure with a ‘Father Christmas’ beard - it is commonly agreed that everybody liked him. In the 1980s he ran a second practice in Jarrow. He was very active in his local optical organisations, the AOP and the LOC, and was Chairman of the North East Contact Lens Society. He was also a preregistration supervisor and had several students in his time. In 1999 Mike retired from practice and moved to just outside Berwick and later to Eyemouth.
He was appointed a Life Fellow of the College in 2004.