Heinz Wolff dead - Great Egg Race host and scientist suffers heart failure
HEINZ Wolff has died at the age of 89.
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The popular German-born scientist, who hosted the BBC show The Great Egg Race, died yesterday, his family has confirmed.
His family said he had died as a result of heart failure.
His son Laurence said today: “His sense of humour, his curiosity, his enthusiasm - that was our father.
“That was his natural sense of fun. But he knew it was also a way of engaging with people. He entertained as well as educated.
"He made no excuses for that but it was also something absolutely within his character, to have fun.
Mr Wolff was an inventor, professor, TV host and European Space Agency advisor during his long career in science.
His friend and former colleague Professor Ian Sutherland said: "Heinz was a most inventive and inspirational leader.
"There was nothing he loved more than having a team of people around him devising completely new ways of doing things.”
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Mr Wolff had fled to the UK from Berlin on the day World War 2 broke out in September 1939.
He attended school in Oxford and university in London before moving into television - first on Panorama and then as the host of his own show The Great Egg Race, which ran from 1977 to 1986.
He was renowned for his scientific work on haematology and space, as well as his charity efforts and love of practical jokes.
He is survived by two children and four grandchildren. His wife Joan died in 2014.
