He married Elaine Eastwood (now Elaine Seddon, Professor of Physics at
Manchester), whom he met at Liverpool University in 1978 and who was attending
his tutorials; the marriage was dissolved in 1990.
As Elaine recalls, “Ken was a giant of a presence. A star. He filled whatever
space in which he found himself. Precocious, articulate, hard-working, inspirational, a great conversationalist, and both loyal and supportive to those he loved.
A natural leader, he had extraordinary clarity of thought (both in- and
out-of-the-box) and strong courage of his convictions. He also had a strong sense of
humour and of the absurd. Life was never mundane or dull. He valued people for
what they were and not their status. His friends, chemistry and his group were his
life, his family.”
Ken and Elaine wrote a comprehensive book on ruthenium. The reason for
choosing this specific element was because it has a large number of oxidation states,
and Ken thought he could learn to write books by writing one for which a lot of
information would need to be gathered and summarised.
Dedication to Prof. Kenneth “Ken” Richard Seddon
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