Richard John Norris, BA MA DPhil (Oxon) FGS FRSNZ (1945–2016)

Emeritus Professor Richard J Norris died on 29 June 2016 in Wellington. Richard was born on 26 July 1945, and spent his early life in the village of Newbold, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. Attending Chesterfield Grammar School, he won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford where he read Geology, achieving BA with First Class Honours in 1966, winning the Huxley Prize at Balliol College and the Burdett-Coutts Prize for Geology. An MA and DPhil followed in 1970, also in the Oxford department, studying structural and metamorphic rocks in the Tauern Window, Austria, supervised by Professor Ron Oxburgh. Offered a lectureship at Otago, he was persuaded that New Zealand really was ‘God’s own’ by Malcolm Laird, a New Zealander completing a DPhil in the same department. He and his wife Hilary (married 1969) arrived in Dunedin at the start of the 1970 academic year.

Richard was a structural geologist, interested in the evolution of tectonic belts and was soon involved in a variety of research projects in our orogenic terranes. Major research projects during the course of Richard’s career included the sedimentary basins of Western Southland (with Bob Carter), the Abbotsford Landslide (with Douglas Coombs), ore genesis in the Otago Schist (with Dave Craw), together with recent tectonics of both East and Central Otago (with Chuck Landis, Pete Koons and James Jackson [Cambridge]). This latter research led to service and advice on seismotectonic evaluation and earthquake hazards in the South Island to Otago, Southland and South Canterbury Regional Councils, Civil Defence, Dunedin Lifelines and the Earthquake and War Damage Commission.

Figure 1. Richard on the Haast Bridge. Photograph: Kim Senger.

In the late 1970s, Richard and colleague Alan Cooper instituted an annual student field trip to the Alpine Fault, the major geological structure of New Zealand. A research programme followed that was to last beyond their respective retirements. Many research students cut their teeth on Alpine Fault-supervised projects with results published nationally and internationally.

Promotion to Senior Lecturer occurred in 1977, to Associate Professor in 1989, and Professor in 1999. His first stint as Head of Department was 1997–1999, and the second from 2004 to 2007, with retirement in 2013. Sabbatical leaves were spent at Oxford (1976), Cambridge (1984), Leeds and Western Washington (1992), and Liverpool and Cambridge (2003, 2005) universities.

Richard’s research output included 93 refereed publications and many non-refereed reports. Two of his most widely cited publications, Norris et al. (1990) and Norris & Cooper (2000) (see Selected bibliography), involved groundbreaking research on the Alpine Fault and the tectonic development of the Pacific–Australian plate boundary orogen.

There were numerous conference presentations, including several invited addresses. In recognition of these research contributions he was the selected as the Hochstetter Lecturer for the Geological Society of New Zealand in 1991, and was awarded the Hutton Medal (1996) and later elected Fellow (1998) by the Royal Society of New Zealand. He acted as Associate and Chief Scientific Editor of the Journal of Structural Geology from 1993 to 2002 and was an Associate Editor of Geological Magazine from 2000. He has reviewed scientific papers for many national and international journals and was nominated as ‘Exceptional Scientific Reviewer’ by the Geological Society of America in 2006. He has given guest lectures to many local clubs and societies and contributed to more formal University of the Third Age continuing education programmes at Otago.

Richard was a highly respected member of the Geology Department for more than 40 years. As Head of Department, he always participated in staff discussion in an entirely democratic and rational manner, making a major contribution to the collegial environment. He was also a member of various Science Division and University Boards, Committees and Panels.

Richard was a keen cricketer in his younger days, playing club cricket in Dunedin, where he was a very useful medium-paced bowler. After retirement, Richard and Hilary moved north, buying a house at Waikanae Beach and a flat in Wellington. However, Richard kept up to date with Otago news with an online subscription to the Otago Daily Times, which he read from cover to cover. Unfortunately, a succession of illnesses robbed Richard of the prolonged and productive retirement that he and Hilary deserved.