Michael Vadon died during April after a long illness, at the age of 75. His death ended more than 50 years of commitment to the Newman Association, during which he served as President, Independent Examiner, and loyal Circle member in Ealing.
Michael Vadon attending the LNL in 2014
Michael Vadon died during April after a long illness, at the age of 75. His death ended more than 50 years of commitment to the Newman Association.
He was born in London in 1940 of immigrant Hungarian parents. In the early 1960s, after studying engineering at King's College, London, he joined the fast-growing London Circle of the Newman Association. At the time the Circle was buzzing with intellectual and social activity, the latter being focused especially on its youth wing called CLANG (the Catholic Lay Apostolate for New Graduates), based at that time in the Crypt of St Patrick's, Soho Square, and in nearby Carlisle Street, the then new headquarters of the Newman Association, after a move from Portman Square. The Newman was something of a dating agency at that period and in 1967 Michael married Kay Hunter, another LNC member. She survives him, with their two children and six grandchildren, in what became a very close family.
The 1960s was the exciting decade of the Second Vatican Council, with all its hopes and disappointments, and the Association's membership peaked at nearly 3,000. Michael, having been chairman of the London Circle, rapidly moved up the Newman hierarchy and held the Presidency from 1973 to 1975. At this time the Newman had begun to decline in membership following Humanae Vitae, published in 1968, but it still had 48 circles and over 2,000 members (compared with today's 750). More radical members had focused their attention on the Catholic Renewal Movement founded in 1969.
Among the issues at that time was the opening of membership to non-graduates. It was also proposed that the Newman should become ecumenical but that never happened. Financial problems began to increase in the difficult economic conditions of the 1970s when inflation peaked at 25 per cent. Council was finding it hard to afford publication of the Newman journal on a quarterly basis and this ceased in 1975 (it was relaunched in the 1980s). Also, it was necessary to negotiate with the Dutch charity which had anonymously funded the Newman's tenancy at 15 Carlisle Street.
Mike began his working career as an engineer at London Transport, then moved to Hoover where he requalified as a management accountant. After a spell at British Leyland in Lancashire he returned to London to a senior position in British Telecom's mobile telephones division, before setting up his own small mobile telecoms business called BRC Consultancy in 1991. He became an international consultant in mobile phone franchising and licensing, travelling as far as China.
During the peak of his business career he drifted away from the Newman but in the 1990s he joined a new Circle in Ealing. He remained on its committee in various roles for about twenty years until ill-health forced him to retire as secretary last summer. Meanwhile in 2007 he accepted the role of Independent Examiner of the annual accounts of the Newman Association, a responsibility he fulfilled up to the financial statement for 2014-15.
Michael was small in stature but big in personality and remarkable for the breadth of his friendships. Besides the Newman he was active in the Catholic Union where he was Secretary of the PPAC (Parliamentary and Public Affairs Committee) from 2008 until September 2014, while he also joined the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Truth Society in 2008. Another affiliation was the Teams of Our Lady, the Catholic organisation for married couples.
He was avid for activity and knowledge in all sorts of fields including the Catholic Church, wine-tasting, the cooking of Hungarian peasant stews, travel to almost anywhere – from the upper reaches of the Amazon to Las Vegas, not to mention the rather uncomfortable Newman Pilgrimage to Egypt in 2007. At one time he was Treasurer of the Questors, a leading amateur theatrical company in West London. He enjoyed reading with a new book group which he founded in 2009 and after retirement from his firm he also became a governor of a local Catholic school. Towards the end he was looking forward, still an engineer at heart, to using a new workshop to be installed in a house which he and Kay were preparing to move into later this year.
Barry Riley