Kay, Jason, Aaron and families, the wider Hayden family, Peggy —



I first encountered Ron in summer 1981 when he moved to live in Stanford Rivers
with his family. Coincidentally they moved in to the house that was the residence of my predecessor, the late Dr. Anita Beck.

Ron and Kay registered with our medical practice comprising my late senior partner, Dr. Ifthikar Qazi, and myself. The boys, Aaron and Jason were I believe 12 and 10 years old respectively and went to school in Ongar- there used to be a school in Ongar in those days.

They were probably like any other family who registered with the
Practice and so they were until 1985 when things in the Practice changed. Dr,Q and I needed to acquire a surgery of our own, We planned to purchase a detached house and convert it into a functioning surgery building — as it is indeed now, although in a much more attenuated form. To achieve this we needed the services
of an architect. We did not know any such person but vaguely remembered that we had a patient by the name of Ron Hayden who worked as an architect in Billericay. We tentatively approached him — and what an architect and much more he turned
out to be.

We met and talked and talked and talked. A few events stand out in my mind. We had to meet with the Buildings and Estates Manager of the NHS locally to plan the layout of the final building. As anyone who knows the NHS would agree, one
does not meet with one person- there is invariably and army of people. The mass of people descended on Ongar in about 8 cars carrying 12-14 people for our first meeting.
The first meeting may well have been a planning meeting for the Tower of Babel- everyone talked at the same time and no one knew what about. The same thing happened at the second meeting.
Finally Ron had a quiet word with the Manager - if indeed Ron could have a quiet word, and suggested that meet with only him. Finally we met with the Manager and his deputy. There was much expectation at this meeting that we could now make some progress.
However the greater part of the three hour meeting was spent on discussing access to the building. The man from the ministry wanted a wide front door to permit free access for people into and out of the building. Ron wanted a wide side door.
This discussion went to and fro for all of the meeting without agreement.
Finally the man from the ministry relented and agreed to the wide side door. I never understood what did it — whether it was the power of Ron’s persuasion in extolling the virtues of the side door, or the vigor with which he stated his case and repeated
himself ad nauseum or whether it was in sheer frustration that he agreed.

At the opening of the Surgery, the chief executive of the health authority at the
time, Mr. David Dipple commented on the efficient flow system, with patients entering through the front door and exiting via the side door.
He also commended Ron for the creation of the side door as it permitted access to all the clinical rooms, which were on the ground floor, by not only buggies and wheelchairs, but also to an ambulance stretcher.

Some colleagues would remind us that, by this time Ron understood the doctors well enough to know that he needed a wide side door so that patients who were coming to see the doctors would be spared the sight of misery writ large on the
faces of patients who had just seen the doctors they were shown out by the conveniently sited side door.

The building was deemed extremely fit for purpose at that time.

On one occasion, out of curiosity, I visited the site one evening only to hear Ron breathing fire and berating someone on site. It transpired that he was taking to task an operative from a pest Eradication firm who was there to chemically inject the beams. Ron was not having even the smallest deviation from the specifications that he had so laboriously set out. I did not think it prudent to say hello to Ron at the time
and slithered out of the site, exiting from that side door.

Probably the most interesting episode was when my son and I visited the site one day- my son was about 6 years at the time and it was the day when the concrete
foundation was laid for the extension at the rear of the building. For reasons best
known to himself, he decided to walk the wet concrete and left his foot print
on the concrete. This was a source of much amusement to Ron who would recall it many times over in the succeeding years. Of this event, my wife and I have sometimes thought that had it not been for my son, Ron, being the perfectionist he was, would have verbally amputated the foot that caused the print on the concrete that day.

And that was not all. A few years later the Practice partnership split and we called upon Ron again to bisect the building. And bisect he did. We wonder what was going through Ron’s mind through all these happenings. Here was an architect who conceived of and brought to fruition an effective building, took it a peel and then proceeded to stick bits on — all in the space of 5 years, egged on by warring doctors.

Ron had a great affection for my son. When he heard that he was visiting Paris
when he was 8 years old he drew a beautiful picture of the Eiffel tower, with a line drawing of my son with his arms outstretched admiring the tower. That picture is framed and enjoys pride of place at home. We enjoy looking at it and draw attention to it of visitors to our home. In time we shall pass it to our son who we know treasures it as much or even more than we do. Among the gifts that we have been privileged to receive from the Hayden’s this picture stands out and remains
an abiding memento of our family’s link with the Hayden’s generally and Ron in particular.

Thank you Ron for touching our lives; thank you for being there; Goodbye my friend.