Death of Dorothy Hill.

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One of Australia's most famous paleontologists, Dorothy Hill, died in
Brisbane last month after a protracted period of ill heath. Professor Hill
was educated in Queensland, obtained her Ph.D. at Cambridge in the 1930s,
and then returned to the University of Queensland via the Royal Australian
Navy in 1946. Her palaeontology was a vital component of the postwar growth
of geological exploration in Australia and the collaborative international
effort that is symbolised by the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. She
is best known for her work on Palaeozoic corals but she also made important
contributions to the study of the Archaeocyatha, the regional geology of
Queensland, and the nature of coral skeletons. The following summary of
Professor Hill's career was published in the volume devoted to a meeting
organized by the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists on the
occasion of her 75th birthday (Memoirs of the Association of Australasian
Palaeontologists 1).

Dorothy Hill, C.B.E., Ph.D., D.Sc., Ll.D., F.R.S., F.A.A., F.G.S.

Dorothy Hill admits that she took up palaeontology because it was a
suitable profession for a woman in Australia in the twenties, because there
was work to be done, and because the study of fossils did not require
expensive equipment. She would have preferred to read Medicine but chose
Science instead, and she graduated with First Class Honours in Geology and
a University Gold Medal in the autumn of 1928.
        Those of us who were trained by Dorothy Hill are grateful for that
early decision. She taught us several things: to collect and work with the
fossils; to illustrate their morphology with high quality photographs; to
know all of the literature; to write succinctly and dispassionately; and to
use our knowledge for the benefit of others. She also taught us to think -
more by example than by direction - and she made clear to each of us our
responsibilities to the discipline, to the profession, and to the
community.
        Australian palaeontology owes much to a few outstanding
individuals. Dorothy Hill was the first of these to be born in Australia,
and she, more than any other, was responsible for decolonising the
discipline. By advising her students to take their higher degrees in
Australian universities, and by transmitting to them the skills she herself
had learned in her seven years at Cambridge, she successfully transferred
the knowledge and confidence of the best European universities to
[Australia].
        She supported this endeavour in various ways: by working to
strengthen state and national scientific bodies (ANZAAS, Royal Society of
Queensland, Great Barrier Reef Committee, Geological Society of Australia,
Australian Academy of Science); by building one of the finest earth science
libraries in Australia at the university of Queensland; by taking an active
role in the regional mapping and resource development of the state of
Queensland; by accepting high administrative posts in the University of
Queensland; and by doing and publishing her first-class research on
Palaeozoic corals and Cambrian Archaeocyatha. It was this research work
which ultimately provided the credentials for her students, for it
demonstrated to the world the excellence of her school.
        Although Dorothy Hill [had] been publishing consistently and
frequently for more than half a century, it is not the number of her
articles nor their admirable diversity which we should seek to emulate, but
rather it is their quality and importance which are outstanding. For
example, she is the sole author of three and a half of the most
authoritative volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology - an
unparalleled record. The last two of these volumes, which deal with the
Rugosa and Tabulata, were published in 1981; these are no mere compilation
of old photographs and the descriptions of others, but are the refined
essence of five decades of experience.
        Dorothy Hill has been rightly honoured for her many achievements.
This volume, and the Jubilee Meeting on the occasion of her 75th birthday
that preceded it, [were] intended to say 'Thank-you' from the Association
of Australasian Palaeontologists. For although this organization and its
publications may have evolved without her leadership and assistance, it was
her idea to found such an organisation (Denmead, 1972), and it was her hard
work with the Queensland Palaeontographical Society which achieved it
(Runnegar, 1975). With characteristic tact and grace, she allowed her idea
to grow in other minds, and the Association has gained great strength as a
result. It is an appropriate legacy for the honorée of the only named Chair
in Palaeontology & Stratigraphy in Australia, and it is as much one of her
children as are her former students who attempt (with some difficulty) to
carry on her tradition here and overseas.
        Those of you who [were] fortunate enough to know Dorothy Hill will
recognise her instantly from her own words, written as an introduction to
the Bibliography and Index of Australian Palaeozoic Corals (Hill, 1978):
'Between 1878 and 1920, Etheridge laid the firm foundations upon which we
other workers on Australian corals have built. My own contribution spans
the period 1930 to 1978; it seems symmetrical to me, at the end of this
coral part of my life, to pass on a bibliographic tool to those who will
continue the rewarding work on these absorbingly interesting
coelenterates.' Dorothy, we thank and salute you!

Denmead, A.K. 1972. Dorothy Hill. Earth-Science Reviews 8, 351-363.
Hill, D. 1978. Bibliography and index of Australian Palaeozoic corals.
Papers, Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Queensland
8(4), 1-38.
Runnegar, B. 1975. The message of Alcheringa. Alcheringa 1, 1-2.

Bruce Runnegar
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA
+1 310 206 1738 (voice/voicemail)
+1 310 825 0097 (fax)