24 July 2006 University marks soil science doyen's 90th birthday

 

 

Hosted by members of the old department he headed for 27 years, Soil Science, the afternoon tea party, complete with cake, drew three fellow emeritus professors (Ian Coop, Reinhart Langer, and Kevin O'Connor) plus a host of other personalities from the Walker era. One such contemporary, former Reader in Soil Science, Arthur Adams, also turns 90 this year and would have attended too but for a cold. Emeritus Professor Ian Coop celebrated his 90th in 2004.

 

The current head of the Soil and Physical Sciences Group, Dr John Adams, said he regarded Professor Walker as one of the great communicators in New Zealand science. He said the quality of his scientific work had stood the test of time and even though “Prof” has been retired for over 25 years one could still read his scientific papers today and find them highly relevant and compelling.

 

Dr Adams said that Professor Walker’s great legacy had been to establish a “strong, cohesive and happy department”. These qualities have carried on to this day.

 

Dr Adams recalled departmental Christmas parties at the Walkers’ home, hosted by Edna Walker … “always with a whole salmon Prof had caught on the Rakaia or somewhere else.”

 

In reply Professor Walker said that soil science had been his life.

 

“If you can say that your job has been your hobby then you can say that you have had a good life.

 

“My job has been my hobby,” he said.

 

“Now at my age you look back reflectively.”

 

On the subject of communication he said that as a young man he discovered that he loved talking … “and I did a lot of it”.

 

“When I was young I would go round listening to the great preachers of the day and I noted that they always had humour in their addresses. So I put humour in my talks and it worked!”

 

Professor Walker then entertained the gathering with a humorous oration in his finest seemingly ex tempore style, on what should best be done with bodies after death.

 

A traditional birthday cake and candles capped off the occasion and delighted Prof who said that his family had asked him if there was to be a cake at home on his birthday. He had told them, “No, we’re having an enormous pork pie!” (A famous delicacy in Prof’s birthplace, Leicestershire.)

 

Heaps of fresh vegetables from his famous garden would surely have been on the menu too!

 

Professor Thomas William Walker was born in Shepshed, Leicestershire, England, in 1916 and after a notable academic and scientific career in the UK came to New Zealand in 1952 to the position of Professor of Soil Science at the then Canterbury Agricultural College.