Salvino Busuttil writes:

A pioneer in environmental issues, Alfred Grech was in the forefront in the creation of the Malta Environment Council, which he and I set up in the late 1960s. In him I found an excellent deputy chairman, full of enthusiasm for environmental progress at a time when few in Malta (and elsewhere) had any inkling on what the "environment" was all about.

When I and others established the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (which earlier this year celebrated its 40th anniversary in Manchester, UK,) Dr Grech immediately supported our idea to have that council organise its first conference here. Due to his efforts, it was a signal success.

He subsequently arranged for a Malta delegation (which I had the privilege of heading) to attend the first UN Conference on the Environment (Stockholm,1972).

Our collaboration subsequently spread to ageing matters. Once again, this time in the late 1980s, he was right behind me in the process which led to the creation in Malta of the UN International Institute on Ageing (INIA) of which he became the first and excellent director.

At all times, it was a joy to work with him. Selfless and endearing, he had a charm which often solved knotty situations, his ever-present pipe often giving him the time to mull over an impasse and then coming out with an elegant solution. Malta owes him immense gratitude.