Michael “Mike” Godwin, whose life revolved around lift engineering, passed away at age 95 on November 5 2025 while visiting his son William in Leeds. He had spent the last 40 years living in CagnesSur-Mer on the French Riviera.

Mike's career was filled with innovation and pioneering achievements in the vertical transportation (VT) industry. He began his career in 1968, setting up Lift Design Partnership in 1974 with long time colleague Dr Gina Barney, which merged with international engineering firm Lerch Bates in 1987.

His contributions included the first curved elevator, the first practical Rope-less Gearless Linear Motor with its Vertrak lift design, and the first computer-based group traffic control algorithm. He also introduced the graphic elevator remote-monitoring system, hall-call cancellation feature, computer simulator for lifts, Dot Matrix LED Position Indicators, and coinvented Lift Call Allocation – COCA. His creation of Remote Monitoring and the "Lifts In Service Indicator" (LISI) became a standard feature on elevators around the world.