Re: Death of Dorothy Hill.

[Calymene@xxxxxxxxxxx]

HERE, HERE!!  A great piece of tribute, Bruce.   Dave Giuseffi


Bruce Runnegar wrote:
> 
> 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)