ARTICLE : 2007 OBITUARIES

 Jeanette Skinner, 14 July 1963 – 19 October 2007

Jeannette and Owen have been members of BotSoc since 2002.   That’s what the records say, although to my memory they seem to have been around longer.   They have also attended several annual bryology workshops.

Owen has always been the serious botanist.   Jeanette took an interest in, and obviously loved, native flowers.   She showed a certain independence, and we recognise that Jeanette liked to extend herself.

On longer botany trips, the main group would drive to a site to make the usual slow start, looking at plants and compiling lists.   Jeanette would take off, sometimes on foot, sometimes by bike.   We might see her during the day, often miles from base.   Come evening, Jeanette would be back having covered many times the distance we had, and having explored areas we could not hope to reach.

BotSoc trips and bryology workshops gave Jeanette and Owen the opportunity to develop their individual interests, doing what each loved and enjoyed during the day, then coming together, and with others, in the evenings.

Jeanette’s energy and stamina were remarkable, especially on what appeared to be a limited diet.   On our trips, Jeanette did her own cooking, always careful not to get in the way of the designated cooks.   She would rise early, and I don’t think I ever got to the kitchen before Jeanette.   For the evening meal, she would either have finished her one-pot cooking before the rest of us got started, or cook later.

Once she sat down Jeanette, showed her interest in botany.   She would join in the discussion, and thumb through the reference books, looking over what we and she had found during the day.

There is one other memory I think we should share – it illustrates Jeanette’s tidiness of mind and thoughtfulness for others.   In a post card to BotSoc a little less than a month before she died, Jeanette wrote:
    Just a note to say that I must resign from the Botanical Society because of ill health and imminent death.

She went on to mention the trips we had been on and closed with :
    I’ll miss the forthcoming ones but then again I’ll be there in spirit.

She signed it,
    Life External [sic]
    Jeanette

I don’t know if that was a slip of the pen – maybe she meant External, or perhaps Jeanette really meant to write life eternal.

We will miss Jeanette’s energy, stamina, and interest in things botanical.   Our sympathy goes out to Owen and Jeanette’s family.

Rodney Lewington

 Gordon Leary, 1 November 1940 – 8 December 2007

Gordon, a scientist by profession, had many other interests – films, music, birds, the flora, the outdoors.   He was an active member of BotSoc for many years, and with Sheelagh and their children, has been on field trips and camps since the late 1960s.   Some of these trips stick in our memory.

In that era, BotSoc was a family affair, with children from the Druce and Leary families joined by those from the Gray, Jackson, Simpson, Bruce, Inch and other families.   Neill and Barbara Simpson recall – “Our first encounter with Sheelagh and Gordon was in March 1970 on the Kaipororo / Mangatainoka trip.   We were surprised to find that another couple had also brought their baby.   Simon was about seven months old.   Our families grew to three of similar ages, and all went BotSoccing.   We think of Gordon and Sheelagh almost as one.   They formed a family group.   He watched over the family, encouraging adventure and allowing the children to extend themselves in safety.   He showed them things that might interest them.   We remember his wit, his wise counselling, patience and good humour, sometimes in difficult circumstances.   While most of us concentrated on plants, he also enjoyed other activities, e.g. bird watching”.

There were gaps in their participation in BotSoc when Sheelagh and Gordon were overseas, first for years in Canada; more recently in Sweden.   In recent years we have enjoyed having them back in NZ.   Gordon has been a trip leader.   He demonstrated his eye for a route at Easter 2003.   Expected tracks in the Aorangi Range had disappeared; mist descended; and night was falling.   We were considering seeking shelter for the night, but we did not need any – he found a route down to the valley and “home”.

Robyn Smith recalls last year’s visit to Stewart Island.   “Gordon demonstrated his navigational abilities, finding the route back to Mason Bay Hut.   Out all day among dunes, wetlands and forest remnants, and tired and parched, he led us to a beautiful dune lake, with shag nests and ducks, where we watched shags coming to roost - a magical experience!   He often led the way and I felt he was impatient with our pace.   He would forge ahead, then wait while we caught up.   While waiting, he would explore the immediate area and find things that we might have missed”.

Robyn suspects that Gordon would strike up an opposing point of view to make you think about what you were saying.   She remembers having a heated debate on karaka and its place in Wellington, only to find that they agreed with each other!

Over the decades Gordon and Sheelagh explored much of NZ with BotSoc – Northwest Nelson, Ruahine Range, Mt Somers, Stewart Island, Northland, Lake Tennyson, etc.   They also enjoyed tramping and exploring on their own and with friends.   In October, on Lord Howe Island, we weeded each morning and went on eco-tours each afternoon.   Gordon took a full part in this, including climbing Mt Gower 875 m.

Gordon wasn’t at our most recent BotSoc meeting, but not because of ill-health.   That day he and Sheelagh were climbing Mt Hector, high in the Tararuas, as their tribute to James Hector, the father of science in NZ.   Hector died 100 years ago.   Gordon and Sheelagh were among those who helped convince Hutt City Council to lease the Hector estate adjacent to Percy Scenic Reserve.

Gordon and Sheelagh have been commissars for some of our longer BotSoc camps.   It requires skill to ensure that the makings for the menus are in the right place at the right time, when there are over thirty people in three parties around Oban, or meandering to or from Mason Bay.   We never ran out of anything.

Then there is their new house and surrounding bush.   Gordon and Sheelagh are justifiably proud of their “wild garden”.   They both understand the problems and practical aspects of regenerating native bush.

Gordon was not just a good amateur naturalist, but also a good manager, and his opinion was sought and respected.   He has been a valued committee member in recent years.   His interest in science and young people showed when he and I judged the entries for BotSoc’s Award at the NIWA Science Fair in August.

As individuals, we will miss Gordon’s company, his knowledge and enthusiasm, his jokes and repartee.   As a Society, and particularly on the Committee, we will miss his clear thinking and wise counsel.   It is Sheelagh who will miss him far more.   In the past we so often thought and spoke of “Sheelagh and Gordon” in one breath.   We will not forget him, but it is now Sheelagh we need to nurture.   Our thoughts and our sympathy go to Sheelagh and the family.

Rodney Lewington

 Nancy M Adams, CBE, QSO, 1926 – 2007

Jacqueline Nancy Mary Adams was born on 19 May 1926 in Levin, New Zealand, only child of Kenneth and Jessie (nee Whitaker).   She grew up in Brooklyn Wellington, attending primary school as a boarder at the Quaker School in Wanganui, then at Brooklyn Primary School, followed by Wellington Girls’ College.

She began her botanical professional life in 1943 at age 16 when she joined Botany Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).   She was recommended to a position of technician in the Department and in her interview impressed the director with her knowledge of the native trees in the garden outside; when asked about the plants, she was able to name them all correctly.

Nancy initially worked with Dr Lucy Moore, who was at that time researching the economic uses of seaweeds and particularly looking for New Zealand sources of the polysaccharide, agar.   Nancy became adept at recognising seaweeds, a part of the New Zealand flora that had received very little attention until that time.   She pressed many herbarium specimens from Lucy’s explorations of the east coast of the North Island, as well as material she collected around the Cook Strait shores of Wellington (sites which were accessible by bus during the war years when fuel was at a premium).   Seaweeds were being collected by various amateur botanists at that time and sent to Botany Division.   Material from the Bay of Islands came from Victor Lindauer, headmaster and teacher at Russell, from the Chatham Islands collected by Robert Gilpin, school teacher at Te One, and from Stewart Island collected Mrs Willa.   Nancy handled this material and was responsible for the labelling and registration.   In later years she spoke of the sheer volume of this work, and the problems of working at a time when even basic supplies such as paper were at a premium.   But she also recognised the benefits of handling specimens and learning by doing - exposure to a wide range of material was in Nancy’s view the best way to learn about the flora.

Whilst working full time, Nancy studied both Botany and Zoology at Victoria University of Wellington, although she was unable to complete her degree.   Nancy had an extended period of ill-health in her early 20s, paralysed with polio, and her prolonged convalescence involved re-learning how to walk.   In later years she was uncomplaining and stoic when her mobility was greatly restricted.

Work on algae was only one of a number of duties that Nancy had at Botany Division where research and documentation of the flora were moving on a number of fronts.   Nancy’s artistic skill and illustrative abilities were recognised: her first illustrations (of seaweeds) were published in a Post-Primary School Bulletin in 1948, and she co-authored her first scientific paper in 1949, on fruit of Pittosporum dallii.   In 1950 she became the Botanical Artist to Botany Division, a position she held until 1959.   Exhibitions of her paintings were displayed at the Auckland Institute and Museum, Architectural Centre Gallery in Wellington, and the Hawke’s Bay Museum.   During the 1950s she worked on a wide variety of taxa and projects, from poisonous plants (Henry Connor: The poisonous plants in New Zealand -1951), to the moss flora (G.O.K. Sainsbury: Handbook of the New Zealand mosses -1955), from the first volume of the angiosperm flora (H.H. Allan: Flora of New Zealand Vol. 1 - 1961), to a book on coastal plants (Moore & Adams: Plants of the New Zealand coast - 1963).

During the years Nancy worked at DSIR, Botany Division moved from its offices in Wellington to buildings in Christchurch.   In 1959 Nancy returned to Wellington to join the Dominion Museum (later the National Museum of New Zealand, now Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) as Artist, a role that saw her involved in a wide range of activities, responsible for preparing exhibitions, illustrating and registering collections including colonial furniture, costumes, and natural history specimens.

Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand, first published in 1963.

During the 1960s Nancy worked on a wide range of botanical illustrations, almost all in her own time.   In 1963 the first edition of “Trees and Shrubs”, published with Lindsay Poole, was published.   It was reprinted in its first year and went on to be reprinted many more times as well as being fully revised twice (1979, 1990).   This book is still available, testament to the quality of Nancy’s illustrations.   For many of us it has been the standard text we turn to when checking an identification or a name.   Nancy’s line drawings are uncluttered, conveying key characters but also capturing the subtlety of form, texture and habit which enable instant recognition.   Nancy was involved in illustration of 12 guides to National Parks (published from 1959 to 1971), and worked on guide books to trees, wildflowers and alpine plants.   Nancy collaborated with Professor Alan Mark of Otago University to produce Mark & Adams “New Zealand alpine plants”.   This magnificent book was first published in 1973, revised and reprinted in 1979, and in 1986 and then revised and reprinted again in 1995.   It includes ca.   450 illustrations, painted from fresh material and captured for the first time the great variety and beauty of the alpine flora.

In 1969 Nancy moved within the Museum to take up a position as Assistant Curator of Botany and returned to working with algae.   From the mid-1970s she enjoyed working within a collegial team at the Museum alongside Patrick Brownsey (Curator of Botany).   When she began in the herbarium there was a staggering volume of unregistered material, packets which had remained unwrapped for long periods, including valuable historical material that had remained unrecognised.   She began the task of bringing the herbarium into order and also began research on early collectors, and botanists, including John Buchanan, an explorer, artist, and the first botanist to be appointed to the Colonial Museum.   Nancy’s final publication (in 2002) was the culmination of years of research on this important early New Zealand botanist.

During the 1970s the advent of SCUBA opened new opportunities and many new discoveries were made.   Nancy received newly accessible subtidal specimens from a number of collectors, both scientists on the staff of the museum and from keen amateurs.   Nancy was involved in teaching field courses on the Wairarapa coast for the Continuing Education department of Victoria University of Wellington.   Students of those courses, fired with enthusiasm for macroalgae continued to supply Nancy with specimens.

In 1972 Nancy began what was to become a series of regional flora lists with the publication of The marine algae of Wellington.   There have been 11 of these regional lists published, ten of which Nancy authored or co-authored.   Nancy recognised the need to assemble what was known about the species found in particular areas of New Zealand.   The preparation of these lists also heightened her awareness of distribution and biogeography of the flora and served as a valuable precursor to her major work published in 1994.   Seaweeds of New Zealand - an illustrated guide was the first detailed and colour-illustrated treatment of the whole macroalgal flora since 1855.   It provides descriptions and illustrations for three quarters of an estimated 800 species that occur around a diverse coastline, extending from the subtropical Kermadecs in the north to the subantarctic islands in the Southern Ocean, including 116 colour plates.   Nancy hoped this book would help people working in the field and engender more interest in the algae.   It has more than met Nancy’s aspirations.   It is both instructive and a pleasure to use.   The beauty and clarity of Nancy’s artwork, coupled with her observational skill, extraordinarily accurate colour palette and the ability to bring life to the species illustrated, is a remarkable legacy.

Nancy was an exacting and careful worker who set very high standards for herself and was very modest.   She had a razor-sharp mind and extraordinary breadth of knowledge of the flora.   Nancy could be very blunt and did not suffer fools gladly.   She was also extremely generous with her knowledge and time, very perceptive and a supportive colleague, as well as being a kind-hearted friend.

Unfortunately, there were relatively few exhibitions of Nancy’s paintings, in part probably a resulting of her retiring personality.   She often needed encouragement to put her work forward for exhibition, and sadly there were relatively few occasions when the public had a chance to see the breadth of her talent.   A major exhibition of her work toured from 2003 until late 2006, visiting many centres throughout New Zealand, providing people with an opportunity to see the breadth of her work.   In the many reviews of this exhibition that appeared in newspapers around the country, the same themes appeared - the exquisite colour, botanical accuracy, and the delicacy and subtlety of her paintings.

Nancy’s was a long-standing member of Wellington Botanical Society and was President for a term in 1968- 69.   Her contributions across botany were recognised in a number of awards and prizes: she was awarded the Loder Cup in 1964 by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and in 1985 she was invited to present the Banks Lecture when she spoke on “Botanical Illustration in New Zealand - the Kew connection”.   In 1989 she was awarded the Queen’s Service Order, in 1990 a Commemorative Medal for services to Botany, and in 1996 made a Companion of the British Empire.   Nancy has been recognised both in species epithets (Polysiphonia adamsiae Womersley; Lessonia adamsiae C.H.Hay, Porphyra adamsiae W.A.Nelson, and in two genera (Nancythalia A.J.K.Millar & W.A.Nelson; Adamsiella L.E.Phillips & W.A.Nelson).

A few weeks before her death in March 2007, negotiations were completed for the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, to acquire her entire archive of paintings and drawings.   This represents a hugely valuable resource for future botanists, but it also ensures that Nancy’s work takes its rightful place alongside New Zealand’s most talented artists who are represented in our national museum.

Wendy Nelson

 Grace Radcliffe, 31 October 1917 – 30 March 2007

Grace died at the end of March following a stroke.

She joined BotSoc in 1971 when we had both attended a Workers’ Education Association (WEA) Native Plant Course tutored by another BotSoc member, Graeme Smith.   Graeme was then a school teacher in Wellington.

Grace, and her husband Bill, had an intense interest in and knowledge of New Zealand natural history.   This they shared with the WEA Botany Field Group – in Grace’s case for over thirty years.   Members of BotSoc also benefited, as Grace was a regular at evening meetings and on day trips.  

In 2004 Grace reluctantly admitted that the years had crept up on her and resigned from the Society, generously enclosing a donation to the Jubilee Award Fund with her letter of resignation.

Darea Sherratt