Jeremy Fry

Jeremy Joseph Fry (19 May 1924 – 18 July 2005) was a British inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, adventurer and arts patron.

Born into the Fry family in Bristol, the son of Cecil Roderick Fry who as the last chairman of the J. S. Fry & Sons chocolate concern arranged for the sale of the company to rival Cadbury's, enraging the family. Jeremy was educated at Gordonstoun, and joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot. After the war, Jeremy took up motorsport driving a 500cc Parsenn but quit after his cousin Joe was killed at Blandford.

He became a product designer with Frenchay Products Ltd between 1954 and 1957. He founded Rotork Engineering Company in 1957 after identifying the potential of valve actuators. As Chairman he oversaw Rotork's rise to becoming the market leader in equipment for use in oil and gas pipelines, refineries, power stations and waste water plants, and a member of the FTSE 250 Index.

Noted as an inventor and engineer, his designs included a car, the Sea Truck (a flat boat ferry capable of carrying one car at high speed), and a four-wheel-drive wheelchair. Additionally he was responsible for starting James Dyson out on his own inventing career by mentoring him in 1970 at Rotork.

His friend Tony Richardson, film and theatre director, described Fry (and their many travels together) in his autobiography Long Distance Runner (London, 1993; pp187–90).

He was noted for his keen interest in the Arts and will be remembered as the saviour of the Theatre Royal, Bath. He bought the theatre in 1979 and as its Chairman oversaw its extensive renovation. In addition to being Chairman of the Northern Ballet Theatre he was the chairman of the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol.

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