My father, Andrew Coates, who has died aged 86, had a professional life in three acts: as a technical illustrator in the aviation sector, as a technical adviser to lighthouse keepers and as a teacher.
Andrew had been born completely deaf, and so each of those work paths had their challenges. But perhaps his greatest achievements were outside the workplace. In his 20s he became one of the first deaf people in Britain to fly a glider, and he spent countless happy hours on the airfield and in the sky, making 1,500 flights over the next six decades. He also wrote a book, Jane’s World Sailplanes and Motor Gliders, which became a standard reference work in the field.
Andrew was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, to Geoffrey, a shipping clerk, and Anne (nee Newlands), a nursery school worker. At five he was sent to a boarding school where staff refused to use sign language and hit him frequently, but thankfully his secondary education at Tewin Water school for the deaf, in Tewin, Hertfordshire, was a much happier experience.
As a teenager he began an apprenticeship in 1955 with the De Havilland aircraft company, and in the pre-computer age excelled at producing by hand 3D drawings showing the workings of aeroplanes. He continued as a technical illustrator for the company until 1972, when he took on a similar role for RAF Strike Command in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, for a year, and then for two years at Hawker Siddeley Aviation in north London. While working in all those jobs he had an unofficial sideline creating cartoons, posters and maps that were often printed in aviation magazines.
The switch into the world of lighthouses came in 1975, when Andrew joined Trinity House, the authority managing lighthouses, as a technical expert producing maintenance manuals and instruction guides for lighthouse keepers. In that role he would travel to lighthouses all around England, staying in each one for a few days to create instruction manuals for the keepers before moving on to the next, often by helicopter.
In his 40s he changed track again to become a teacher of sign language in London, first at the City Lit adult education college in Holborn (1981-88) and then at Wealdstone College in Harrow (1988-89) before working freelance at various colleges from 1989 to 1991. The last phase of his career was seen out at the Frank Barnes school for deaf children in Swiss Cottage, teaching sign language to staff and pupils. He worked there until retiring in 2004.
After stopping flying in old age, Andrew tried golf, but lasted just 15 minutes before texting his wife, Christine (nee Russell), to say: “Come and get me now, it’s boring.” He had met Chris when she attended a sign language class he was teaching, and they married in 1985. An attentive husband, though never a great romantic, on a subsequent work trip, after he observed colleagues buying chocolates and perfumes for their spouses, he decided to choose and wrap a gift for Chris, too: a tin opener.
He is survived by Chris and their children, Laura and me, and grandchildren, Eva, Jordan and Max.
