Life Stories
Christopher John Mitchell Rankin
Christopher John Mitchell Rankin (1961 BA Geography) died on 9 October 2024 aged 81.
Christopher Rankin was born and educated in Scotland before going up to Keble in 1961 to read Geography.
After graduating, he joined Turner and Newall, initially working at Ferodo in Derbyshire. In 1968 he did a one year Master of Commerce degree at the Graduate Centre for Management Studies at Birmingham University sponsored by Turner and Newall. His lifetime career was with Turner and Newall until early retirement in 1990. In the mid-seventies he went to Africa and spent 14 years in Zambia and Nigeria, finishing as CEO of TAP, Zambia. His final work posting was with Coopers Payen in Slough.
In 1990 he and Deirdre, his wife, retired to Southwest France, near Bordeaux and spent many happy years renovating and living in an old French Maison de maître. Having been diagnosed with a heart condition, they decided to move into an apartment on the outskirts of Bordeaux in 2020. Here, they spent four happy years until his death on 29 October 2024, two days before his 82nd birthday.
He leaves behind a wife, three children and seven grandchildren, to all of whom he was truly devoted.
Kindly provided by his wife Deirdre Rankin