Michael Crowley-Milling

Michael Crowley-Milling in the control room of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron.

Michael Crowley-Milling (7 May 1917 – 2012), known as Michael Crowley Crowley-Milling from 1947, CMG, and then a member of the CERN directorate in 1980. He was awarded the Glazebrook Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and was honoured by the Royal Society, for his achievements, by being asked to give their Clifford Paterson Lecture in 1982. He is perhaps best known as the person who helped to invent the world's first computer touchscreens. He was the older brother of Sir Denis Crowley-Milling. This innovation let the equipment designers themselves to write the programs needed for the control of their equipment without the need for specialized application programmers. The touch screen designed in Crowley-Milling's group became later the main operator interface which was another major innovation at the time. In 1977, soon after the SPS was commissioned, Crowley-Milling was promoted to SPS Division Leader, the Glazebrook Medal of the IEE, and gave the Clifford Paterson Lecture of 1982, “ The world’s largest accelerator: the electron-positron collider, LEP” at the Royal Society.

Private life

Crowley-Milling was married to Gladys, “Gee”, (daughter of W.G.Dickson), who predeceased him. They had no children together. Gladys had a daughter, Carol, from a previous marriage, to David Adamson of Adamsons Jam Blairgowrie.

His brother Denis, who started with the same school background, was a war hero (he was Douglas Bader’s #2 in the Battle of Britain) and rose through the ranks of the RAF to become an Air Chief Marshal. Michael always lived in the shadow of this brother, and would have been surprised to be told that his achievements in applied science were considered by many to have been at least as great.

His great hobby was the refurbishment of a 1931 Alfa Romeo car used in the Monza Rally, which he had received as a 21st birthday present from his father. He sold this car for two million pounds late in his retirement.

On his death in 2012 he left a considerable sum as a bequest to the Royal Society for scholarships to young engineers.