A profile of Ove Arup, the founder of Arup, which is now an international engineering consulting firm.
Doodles and doggerel
on paper, in rhyme
Crumbs of wisdom
or waste of time?
Dottiness creeps in
whatever I do – Or is it just that nature
is dotty too?
– Ove Arup, ‘Doodles and Doggerel’, p.3
Ove Nyquist Arup was a man with a tendency to misplace his briefcase containing important documents. He had the cheek to ask the King of Denmark what his name was. He wrote in his reflections that ‘Absentmindedness is that which distinguishes man from other animals.’ He carried a pair of chopsticks in his jacket pocket – evident in many a photo – which he used, according to Jones, ‘to poach enticing dishes from his neighbour’s plate’. And he is described as the “masterbuilder of the twentieth century”.