My father, Renton Righelato, who has died aged 79, was a microbiologist and conservationist who worked to protect threatened environments around the world.
Born in Mitcham, London, to shopkeepers, Lilian (nee Beard) and Enzo Righelato, Renton attended a local grammar school, and went on to study microbiology at Bristol University. He excelled in his field and, in the mid 1970s, became head of research and development at Tate & Lyle, where he worked on food preservation and freshness.
Renton met Nancy Scott when they were both 17, and they married in 1965. His job took them to the Lake District, where their children – my brother, Jason, and I – were born, and then to Reading. Renton and Nancy divorced in 1978, and he married Pat Cotton in the same year.
A passionate conservationist, after taking early retirement in the early 1990s Renton devoted his time to environmental causes, serving as a trustee of the World Land Trust for more than a decade, helping to safeguard and restore tracts of some of the world’s most threatened habitats, particularly in Ecuador. He fought to change attitudes to deforestation, lobbying in magazines, scientific journals and newspapers for recognition of the long-term benefits of maintaining existing forests and regenerating forests on arable land.
Renton also championed his local wildlife, and was instrumental in the founding of the Lea Farm nature reserve in the Loddon valley. A lifelong ornithologist, he served as honorary secretary, chair and president of the Berkshire Ornithological Club. He also worked with Berkshire Bird Atlas Group on the publication of The Birds of Berkshire, and took great pleasure in working with Jason on developing a digital bird atlas app. Earlier this year he published Berkshire’s Birdscapes, a review of the changes to the county’s bird fauna over the last 75 years.
Renton’s brother Keith has fond memories of exploring the wilds of Mitcham Common with him in the early 1950s, arguing over the identification of a moorhen, or possibly a coot. A couple of years later, Renton’s birdwatching took him to St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly, and his heart remained there for the rest of his life. He first visited the island as a 15-year-old, with a local bird ringing group, to establish a bird observatory, and would return every year, sometimes two or three times a year.
Renton is survived by Pat; by Keith and their sister, Marian; and by Jason and me, two stepdaughters, Sarah and Rachel, and six grandchildren.
