À la mémoire de : Michael « Mike » Godwin

Michael “Mike” Godwin, a man whose world “consisted of lift engineering and little else,” according to his son, Jason Godwin of CEDES, passed away on November 5 at age 95 while on a trip away from his home in Cagnes-Sur-Mer on the French Riviera, where he lived for the last 40 years, to visit his son William Godwin in Leeds, U.K. Godwin, along with the late Dr. Gina Barney, was gracious enough to lead ELEVATOR WORLD on a tour of notable vertical-transportation (VT) installations in the U.K. in the early 1980s. Godwin had many noteworthy pioneering VT industry contributions to his name, including inventing, conceiving or introducing the first curved elevator; the first “practical” Rope-less Gearless Linear Motor and associated Vertrak lift design; first graphic elevator remote-monitoring system; first hall-call cancellation feature; and first computer-based group traffic control algorithm; Remote Monitoring and “Lifts In Service Indicator” (LISI) now used on every elevator installation worldwide; first computer simulator for lifts; first Dot Matrix LED Position Indicators; co-invented Lift Call Allocation - COCA. In the 1970s, he authored, designed and specified a lift standard for the London Borough of Southwark that became the standard for all Housing Authority lifts throughout the U.K. His work had ties to the U.S., too, Jason Godwin said, recalling that his father insisted on Armor and GAL equipment for his ground-breaking 1981 Bush House (BBC World Service HQ) modernization and played a large role in GAL establishing itself in the U.K. having spent time with GAL founders Walter and Herb Glaser at their Bronx, NY office and factory. Godwin is survived by his two remaining sons, Jason Godwin and William Godwin, (the eldest son, Adrian Godwin, having passed away in 2019) together with three grandchildren, Farrah Louise Godwin, Laura Godwin and Michael Charles Godwin, plus four great-grandchildren.