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Kenneth CALMAN Obituary
Professor Sir Kenneth, KCB, MD, FRSE
(Glasgow)
Peacefully, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glasgow, on July 21, 2025, aged 83. He will be forever missed by his wife Ann, his children Andrew, Lynn and Susan and his grandchildren Grace and Brodie.
The funeral service of Thanksgiving for his fulfilling life as a friend, doctor, academic, poet and public servant will be held at Boclair Community Church, Rannoch Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow, G61 2LD, on Friday, August 8, at 12 noon.
No flowers please. Donations to Parkinson's Research if desired.
Memories and Condolences
for Kenneth CALMAN
2 Entries
Colin
July 24, 2025
I had the great pleasure of working with him when I was principal private secretary to two Secretaries of State for Health. He was a breath of fresh air into the sometimes stuffy world of the Civil Service. The first day I met him when he joined as Chief Medical Officer, I knew from one small thing that we would get on. He was smartly and soberly dressed as was expected for top of the office. He came into our office to introduce himself to me. Great suit, neat collar and tie: as he got nearer the military looking tie revealed itself to be based on a composition of Mickey Mouse heads.
He was a brilliant CMO, a fine communicator and a truly enjoyable companion in private office. He was later a first class Speaker to our group of now retired Civil Servants and joined us in London despite what I later learnt was a very busy week for him in Glasgow solely to meet us all again. His Star Trek missives were legendary. Expertise, industry and fun are a really rare combination. He convinced the guard on our trip to visit Leeds to announce Scotland´s football score as it happened over the train tannoy. Although a top clinician and a real academic he once said to me- I think tongue in cheek- that a good doctor´s main skill was to keep the patient alive long enough for nature to heal them. So many other stories from him, that only someone like him, a real expert, confident in his own skin, could tell without sounding trite and shallow. He was neither: a thoughtful and considerate man steeped in the tradition of caring for and about others. He made you think, admire and laugh all at the same time. On the day I moved on from private office he said to me " the one good thing is that you can now call me Ken".
Ken, you are greatly missed.
Tessrose
July 24, 2025
A great loss
For Glaswegians Scholars
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