The secretary of the East Sussex Soaring Association regrets to inform model fliers in Sussex of the death of Terry Parris who died at his home in Eastbourne on 23 June 2013. He had been ill for some time but had been appearing on the slope until quite recently.<br />
Terry was a founder member of the East Sussex Soaring Association in 1976, along with John Adams, Cam Tate and Adrian Lawson-Wood. The club was set up with the objective of developing interest in slope flying and also to create a local body that could have as one of its objectives the protection of local downland flying sites. Terry held just about every position in the club over many years including being the editor of the club magazine, Soarpoint, and must have spent many hours working on a typewriter to produce editions that ran to several pages.<br />
Current members also report that Terry was instrumental in teaching them slope flying.<br />
Terry worked for many years at Caffyns, a car dealership and garage and also worked at Anglo Dutch Meats in Eastbourne. Also, one of his Wednesday slope colleagues reported that Terry had also worked as a milk delivery roundsman and as a bus conductor.<br />
His other interest was in bird watching and he was regular member of the Eastbourne group of the RSPB. In recent years he had been more likely to be on the slope with a pair of binoculars that a model and we understand that it was bird watching that originally lead Terry to slope flying.<br />
Finally I can let old friends know that the club is proposing to name one of its trophies in memory of Terry.<br />
RW<br />
28 July 2013
