Richard Barrie Rickards (known as Barrie) was born in Leeds 12th June 1938, the son of Robert Rickards and Eva Sudborough. In 1960 he married Christine Townsley and they had one son.
Rickards was educated at Goole Grammar School and University of Hull. He was mostly concerned with sports and helped to win the Northern Schools Cross Country Championships. He also had trial for Wolverhampton Wanderers FC.
He studied Chemistry and graduated in Geology from the University of Hull with a BSc in 1960 and a PhD in 1963. He specialised in an extnct group of zooplankton known as graptolites.
After short-term academic posts in London (University College), Dublin (Trinity College) and Cambridge, he established himself in Cambridge in 1969 after the Woodwardian Professor, Oliver Bulman was impressed with his work.
He was a lecturer, reader and later Professor in Palaentology and Biostratigraphy. He also became a curator of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.
As an expert in graptolites, Rickards employed innovative techniques to study the ancient fossils he had collected and studied. Scanning Electron Microsopy demonstrated the fossils relationship with living animals.
Rickards published more than 270 academic papers, and won the Geological Society's Lyell Medal in 1997.
Rickards is also remembered as an angler and angling writer. Although a hobby, Rickards wrote a number of publications and published "Fishing for big Pike" in 1971 with Ray Webb, a university friend.
He was a founder member of the Pike Angling Club of Great Britain, a former president of the Pike Society and later president of both the Lure Angling Society and the Nataional Association of Specialist Anglers.
Rickards son died in 2000. Barry Rickards died November 5th 2009, aged 71. He is survived by his second wife Mandy and two step-daughters.
From the guide to the The Papers of Barrie Rickards, 1900, (Cambridge University: Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences)
