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| One Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef |
We decided to put together this blog to give those who know Dad (or us) both a bit of background to the man and a chance to add their memories and anecdotes. This blogsite is our way of paying tribute to someone who made us who we are, changed our world and the wider world by his actions and deeds. He was a special man.
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| Farm days |
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| Order of Australia |
What we hope to capture are our memories of our father and create a place where Dad's friends, colleagues and family can add their memories and stories.
Dad challenged himself constantly. He was a perfectionist, but never a procrastinator. So what he challenged himself with, he accomplished, and to the highest standard possible. He loved to break moulds, try new things, and think outside the box. This acknowledgment on his last professional scientific paper he wrote before retiring in 1992 with mum (to their nut orchard in Northern NSW - yet another new challenge!) expresses the enthusiasm with which dad accepted such challenges.
“I wish to express my thanks to Dr. Zeev Rotem and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation for funding my involvement in the Workshop in Elat. I particularly wish to express my gratitude to Professor Zvy Dubinsky for being brave enough to ask me to talk on this subject to such a specifically focussed group. I enjoyed the challenge very much.”(The paper was published in the journal Symbiosis and was entitled “The Coral Reef: an Owner-Built, High-Density, Fully-Serviced, Self-Sufficient Housing Estate in the Desert — Or is It?”)
Dad enjoyed challenging others, too, and was a gifted facilitator, educator and leader. Consequently, even after retirement, he was asked (and agreed) to be on many Committees, Advisory boards and Review Panels (see his 2014 CV). This included a continuation of his official appointment as the Establishment Director of the highly successful Cooperative Research Centre for the Ecologically Sustainable Development of the Great Barrier Reef (Reef CRC).
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| Always a teacher |
Dad was passionate about education, as anyone who knows him from his U3A classes would know! He loved teaching on any subject. While science was his favourite, he also liked teaching computer skills and music.This wasn't just passion in his retirement though. We had a family joke about Dad's "lectures" which he assigned ridiculously long numbers numbers and began with "Well <insert name>, as follows....." He particularly liked the challenge of teaching science concepts in an accessible but relevant way, and challenged other scientists to do the same. Below is an excerpt from a presentation Dad gave on Sapelo Island in 1980 (the full transcript can be found here).
"If we are going to educate anyone, surely it is in the common interest to do so at a level which we can be confident is as up-to-date as possible compatible with reliability. Science is dynamic. It is not true or false. It presents best current opinion. So must be our attempts to transmit general technical knowledge to the public."Dad's passion for education continued to the very end, with his last U3A science lecture only two weeks before he died.
Dad was very proud of his professional accomplishments and hoped that his work (see Publications) remained relevant and valued. So it was immensely satisfying for him to attend the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns in 2012 (paid for in part by mum’s art sales). He spent most of his time at the sessions on ocean acidification and calcification issues. And to quote Dad:
”From a purely egotistical point of view it was fun to hear how my early work has become almost the standard baseline reference for many researchers...(Apparently many at the sessions)..had assumed I was dead. It was quite fun being resurrected and in fact recognised for so much of my early work.”The relevance of Dad's work was apparent too when we recently tallied up the number of times dad's work had been cited in scientific literature by other scientists. As of 2016, Dad has had over 1700 citations of his work, equally spread between book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. And more than 16% of these citations were in the last four years of his life. Considering all these citations were from work published before Dad retired almost 2 decades before, that's pretty amazing!
We don't know if Dad ever actually looked at his citations stats. But, the letter we received from Dr. James (Jim) Falter* after Dad died summed up beautifully the legacy dad would have hoped for his work:
“...I can imagine that the professional legacy that Don left behind is no substitute for his presence amongst us; particularly to his friends and family who valued him far more as a person than scientist. However, we would be remiss not to highlight how valuable his work has been to the study of coral reefs in the decades that followed his main efforts. I have cited his 1985 symposium paper on reef flat metabolism more than any other paper in the literature that I know of, and the legacy of his work will continue to live on through the years and decades to come.* ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, University of Western Australia
I am deeply sorry for your loss as is the rest of the community of coral reef scientists. I’m sure that Don’s memory will not fade, both for the people who knew the man and the people who knew his work.”
And his long time colleague Steve Smith wrote a lovely obituary for him in the ICRS pulblication Reef Encounters, (sadly alongside an obituary for another of Dad's friends and colleagues Paul Jokiel).
For those who knew Dad, we hope you will contribute memories, stories or tidbits of information to help us weave together a story. We have started to write a story from our perspective, but would love to add contributions from others:
1935-1945 - Early Years, Sydney and Townsville
1945-1958 - School and Early career
1958-1962 - Early married life in Sydney
1962-1976 - Family life in Sydney
1965-1976 - Research on the Great Barrier Reef
1976-1978 - Hawaii, Dad's PhD
1978-1982 - Sapelo Island, Georgia
We have written our stories about Dad up to Sapelo and will continue to add to the later chapters as time allows
The pages below this have some photos but little text as yet.....we would love contributions:
1982-1992 Townsville Again - AIMS and GBRMPA
1992-2004 Retirement - The Nut Farm, U3A
2004-2016 Retirement Again - Magnetic Island
2015-2016 - A Final Farewell
Thanks for your patience. We hope to have this blog site a bit more complete soon.
If you would like to contribute or send us a message, there is a link to the email at the top of each page or you can comment in the box at the bottom of the relevant page.
Messages and Tributes from Sydney and GBR research days
Messages and Tributes from the Hawaii and Georgia, USA
