Merlinco Blog

In Memoriam – Keith Hughes

I am deeply sorry to announce that Keith Hughes, a founding director of Merlinco, has died peacefully at the age of seventy-six, following a short battle with cancer.

His career began in 1965 at MAS Research, where he began to focus on computerised survey analysis. After working at ICL, CRC and Libra he became a consultant in 1973 and co-authored the prototype version of MERLIN. In the 1980s he helped found the Tab Shop and Market Research Software and continued developing MERLIN until quite recently when others took over the task. In 2010, Keith was made an Honorary Member of the Association of Survey Computing in recognition of his work developing the Triple-S standard, and earlier this year was made an Honorary Fellow of the Market Research Society for the same reason.

I have already received numerous comments from clients and colleagues to tell me how much Keith was loved and appreciated, especially for his eccentricities! Working with him was never dull – he had strong opinions but was never upset if you disagreed with him as he enjoyed a good discussion.

I first met Keith in 1976 but did not see much of him until 1990 when I became a MERLIN client. When that happened, he delivered a training session to my department and spoke non-stop with great enthusiasm and volume, and I recall taking a headache tablet at the end of the day! In 1991 he phoned me to say he was starting a new company (Merlinco) and asked me to join him, especially to deliver client training as he did not think that was his strength! The very same week another friend (whom I will call Fred) mentioned the possibility of collaborating with him, so I called someone who knew both Keith and Fred to ask for advice, which I will never forget… “If you want to make money, go with Fred. If you want to be happy, go with Keith!”. Based on that advice, I joined Merlinco where I spent many happy years working with Keith (and we made some money as well)!

John Tebboth,
Director
July 2024