A FORMER head of planning for the old Clwyd County Council – who has been described as a well respected gentleman – has died aged 90.

Rupert Anthony Lewis Havard retired from the authority in 1992, having joined as an assistant planning officer 31 years earlier.

He leaves a wife, six children and stepchildren, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Beryl, his wife of 30 years said: “We enjoyed a very happy 30 years together and enjoyed each others company.

“Rupert was born in Stoke Newington, London and brought up in Wembley, before being called up into the Royal Navy as a national serviceman just after the end of the Second World War.”

He served in a survey ship and the naval air station in Malta.

“After leaving the RN, he studied estate management at the University of London, subsequently obtaining a post in the planning department of Glasgow City Council, where he worked on the Clyde tunnel and the city’s ring road.”

“He was always keen on music and in his youth had sung in St Pauls’ Cathedral’s Special Choir, taking particular pleasure singing under the dome of the cathedral.

“He later sang in a choir in Glasgow cathedral.”

He met his first wife, Kate, in Glasgow and they had two daughters, Jane and Lesley.

His next appointment was with the local authority in Enfield in London before moving to West Ham, working in the respective authorities’ planning departments.

He was appointed as an assistant planning officer at Denbighshire County Council in 1961, where he worked on policy formulation and structure plans.

He continued in post with Clwyd County Council after it was formed, following local government reorganisation in the early 1970s, and stayed with the authority for the rest of his career

His first wife died in 1978 and he married Beryl 10 years later.

She said: “Opera was a great passion of ours and we visited concert halls and opera houses throughout the UK and abroad, including La Scala in Milan, the New York Met and Covent Garden.

He particularly liked Mozart and Schubert.

“Rupert was a keen photographer and for many years produced his own calendar with photographs of plants from our garden, which we gave to family members.

A former colleague said: “He was well respected in the authority and known as a gentleman.”

He was a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Institute of Quarrying.

Mr Havard will also be remembered as a keen Rotarian.