Stephen FULLER Obituary

FULLER Stephen
78 of Walmer died in October 2023 after unexpected illness.
He was born in Northbourne to a farming family, and worked in marketing.
He helped identify, for Rowntree of York, a market gap for a mint to be eaten with
coffee after a meal.
After Eight Mints stormed into the market. Owned by Nestlé since 1988, over
one billion were produced last year.

Stephen then took a degree in town planning at Trent Polytechnic, and worked for
Milton Keynes Development Corporation
which had been established by
the government to develop the new city of 250,000 people in North Bucks.

Stephen played a major part in the delivery
of the EnergyWorld show village in 1986.
He was CEO of the Corporation's new
National Energy Foundation, where his
first Chair was Mary (later Lady) Archer.

After closure of the new towns programme, Stephen was consultant to the
Swedish International Development Authority
which was investing in Zimbabwe.
He moved to Walmer, and maintained a commitment to Zimbabwe people
into his retirement.

Stephen's community endeavours included, with the Lydden Valley Research Group,
the production of The Geology, Archaeology and History of the Lydden Valley and
Sandwich Bay, 2006; and with the support
of an Environment Study Group
he produced the authoritative report
The Environment of Walmer, 2014,
and later Earth, Sea and Sky: the changing environment of Sandwich, Ash,
Woodnesborough and Worth,2017.
He authored with the same group
The Sandwich Delf, 2018 about the stream
which provided Sandwich with drinking water
for hundreds of years but which had
become uncared for. Stephen also wrote a
History of the Wantsum Channel – the
sea which separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland - which he was preparing
for publication when he fell ill.

Stephen brought into being
The School Gardens Trust, now going through
Charity Commission processes.
This will provide funding for some primary schools in the most deprived areas of Zimbabwe to create fruit and vegetable gardens to help ensure at least one good meal each school day
for the children.

Stephen's ashes are to be interred in
his father's grave in the churchyard of
St Augustine's, Northbourne, on 25 April 2024. Details from
E B Cavell, Funeral Directors, Deal,
01304 373275.