Goronwy Owen obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/03/goronwy-owen-obituary

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My friend Goronwy Owen, who has died aged 94, was a successful and popular pharmacist who plied his trade in Liverpool for more than 30 years, running a handful of chemist shops in the city until his retirement in 1987.

Although he loved Liverpool, Goronwy did not hail from the city. He was born in Trefeglwys, Montgomeryshire, to Margaret (nee Davies) and William, a Presbyterian minister, and grew up in the village of Weston Rhyn in Shropshire. After Ruabon grammar school he was apprenticed as a pharmacist in Llangollen and Oswestry before completing a degree in pharmacy at the University of Liverpool in 1943.

Called up for military service during the second world war, he was sent to a hospital in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he treated soldiers with horrific injuries. He returned to Liverpool in 1946 to work for the medical supplies manufacturer Evans Medical, where he remained for seven years. Playing tennis at the city’s Young Wales Club, he met a bubbly local nurse, Marian Edwards, and they married in 1949.

In 1954 Goronwy went into partnership with another pharmacist, Bill Addison, who had heard of Goronwy’s good work at Evans Medical. They set up a pharmacy together in the city’s Scotland Road, where one of their regular customers was the mother of the singer Cilla Black. Together the business partners bought four more shops in Liverpool – in Vauxhall, Bootle, Anfield and the Dingle. Goronwy worked long hours caring for his customers and staff, many of whom stayed loyal to him right up to his retirement.

Wales and his family roots in Anglesey were important to him, but he also liked to venture further afield, and he visited 87 countries across the decades. As a Welsh Presbyterian elder for 63 years he served in two Welsh chapels in Liverpool – in Garston and Allerton – and was active in the church for a total of 75 years. A born leader and excellent speaker, he also chaired numerous church committees. Goronwy was a generous supporter of many charities, and for more than 40 years was a member of the Rotary Club of Toxteth, which he served as president.

He is survived by his three sons, Robert, Hywel and Aled, and by five grandchildren, Robert, Jonathan, Yasmin, Thomas and Megan.