Mel Crowther, 1962-2023

DRNO's News Editor of seventeen years Mel Crowther passed away last week after a battle with cancer. Mel has been a wonderful colleague and the driving force in making this publication what it is today, as well as a well-loved figure in the industry, and I'm sorry I know her loss will come as a shock to a lot of you.

Mel began her career as a recruitment consultant in London, then worked in marketing and communications roles for ICI, Pindar and Prudential before joining ORC International in January 2000 as Head of Communications. Here she managed a team of six and made many friends with whom she has stayed in regular touch since.

Abby Wright-Parkes, who was part of her ORC team, remembers, 'Mel was a fantastically strategic marketer who led by example and was a great coach. She was also great fun and brought her dry humour and lust for life into work with her too'. Former ORC-er Ralph Risk says she was 'one of a kind... not just an exceptional boss but also a really kind, fun, and generous person to know - whenever you talked with her, you felt like you were getting the real Mel'.

I met her in around 2003 and quite early on started suggesting she come and work at MrWeb, but it wasn't until 2006 that I managed to persuade her - probably the best thing I ever did for the company, and certainly for Daily Research News. Mel moved up to Edinburgh at about that time to live with Walt, whom she married shortly after, so she has always worked remotely - most recently from Portugal where she settled after getting 'stuck' in the Algarve during Covid. 'Worse places to be stuck', as we said.

Remote working doesn't suit every job or every person, but Mel relished it and threw herself into the task with incredible energy and commitment from the word Go, providing a news service that in 2006 was going OK - but might still have petered out in my own hands unaided - with its heart and soul. She is undoubtedly the main reason why it is now the 'newspaper of record' for the global MR industry: and I believe that in gathering and selecting news four days a week over all this time, developing the sources, contacts and relationships we have today, and writing the majority of the copy for DRNO's last 30,000 articles, she's been one of the most influential people in the insights world. She was selected for the '250' three years ago, but I said I'd put her in the top one percent of that (we laughed about who the 'half' would be). To have someone delivering day-in, day-out with such a passion for beating what competition we have and such a combination of grown-up good sense and youthful enthusiasm has been, as literally as you like, a godsend. It will be lonely writing it without her.

Mel was much too young to leave us. The end came suddenly, just a few days after a biopsy which we had prayed would give us some hope that her chemo was working but instead did the opposite - but someone so full of life wouldn't have wanted to linger once that hope was gone, I think. As it happened she wrote most of the content of DRNO on her very last Thursday, 30th Nov - she insisted on working whenever she could.

She leaves behind a wonderful husband, Walt, who has made her life in two countries happy, and been with her every moment since her return to Edinburgh for treatment in September. Also a sister and two much-loved stepdaughters, one a researcher. In Portugal she leaves a cat, who represents the other great love of her life - she has never been without feline company for long. See below if you'd like to donate in her memory to one of her favourite charities, against animal cruelty.

Her social life has always bustled, assisted I hope by her 4-day week which has allowed a lot of long weekends and getaways, but she also seemed to fit in concerts, comedy clubs and many nights out with friends, in her London and Edinburgh days. She has a mass of friends ('pals' in her parlance) both within and outside the insights world who will be deeply saddened at her loss but have many happy memories. 'Mel was one in a million' according to Tariq Mirza, 'a true free spirit, fiercely independent, passionately loyal and ultimately a consummate professional who loved her job and her industry. As a dear friend of over twenty years, her cutting humour was something to behold when discussing the industry - some of the characters and their egos - she never shied away from brutal honesty, and questioned everything'.

Mel was a keen believer in women's rights in the workplace and elsewhere, and by doing so much to inspire other women in MR has done a lot to further that cause, while endorsing and reinforcing my own belief in reporting the news without fear, favour or prejudice. I owe it to her to continue with that and the other high standards we've tried to set ourselves, and will do my best.

Mel's legacy is both the contribution she made to the industry she loved, and to have made so many people happier. 'Mel was a wonderful friend and colleague who will be so sorely missed' says MrWeb's Ian Paterson. 'Someone you knew was always there for a chat when you needed it and someone who had a natural gift for putting a smile on your face whatever the situation. Always positive - and always full of fun and adventure, with an amazing outlook on life and everything in it!'

To all who knew her: we'd love to hear your own tributes to and memories of Mel, so please email with them - maybe editor@mrweb.com would be appropriate as the one she's made her own. We won't publish anything without coming back to you individually and checking it's OK, so send whatever you like, we'll read them all.

We're heartbroken, but we'll remember a life lived to the full. Rest In Peace MC !

NT


You can make a donation to Animal Free Research in Mel's memory here, via JustGiving:
www.justgiving.com/page/nick-thomas-1702512261337 .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.