News Items and ICT Information

The Journal of The ICT
This is an updated obituary for Norman Fergusson

Vol 16 No 3
July 2023

Norman Fergusson

Norman Fergusson

It is sad to report that Norman passed away unexpectedly in mid June. He was an active member of the ICT for many years.

After leaving school Norman trained as an apprentice toolmaker. After a short time in Canada he started at Prestwick in 1974 and progressed to managing the Drilling Department. In 1987 he moved to Bodmin, Cornwall as the Production Manager for Cirbo. He later transferred into a technical sales role supporting UK customers. After 6 years he moved to Cheshire to set up the regrind and technical centre while continuing his support role in technical sales. 

Following the closure of Cirbo 2004/2005, Norman continued to work for the Kennametal Group which owned Cirbo and represented sister company Kemmer Prazision for some time. Since then he  has spent some time working for Ventec and more recently providing technical support to the UK customers of MPK Kemmer GmbH PCB tools.


Norman was a well connected person in the PCB industry and made many lasting friendships from dropping in on customers to attending golf days. Golf was his chosen sport. He was an incredibly sociable person and thrived in the company of others.

This is a super photo below of one of Norman's memorable moments. Nobody wanted to win the Duffer's prize at our annual PCB golf day. Somehow Norman contrived to take 9 off the tee on one hole, so it was fitting that he was awarded this honour. As you can see he took it in good spirit.

There is a lot of camaraderie in the PCB industry and often colleagues, suppliers and competitors become good friends. There will be many of us who will have a smile in his memory and a sadness at his passing. He was always so cheerful and such a nice guy to have around and spend time with. He will be greatly missed by all of us who knew him.

Link to 2009 PCB Golf Day review

Link to Full Journal

Richard Wood-Roe - July 2023