Obituaries Australia

H.R. Gray (Hugh Richard)

MA, DipFor(Oxon) , MSc(Melb)

Born 1895. Banking Experience Oxford, then War Service 1914-1918 War.

Diploma Course Oxford. 1920.

Inspector of Forests Sudan to 1923 and O.I.C. Sandalwood operations W.A. later Divisional Officer in Sandalwood and Mallet areas.

Appointed Australian Forestry School 1927.

Transferred to Forestry and Timber Bureau 1946.

The death of Mr Hugh Richard Gray on November 25, 1979, in Oxford was announced in the Canberra Times. He is survived by his wife Judy, a son, a daughter and five grandchildren.

‘Hec’, as he was known to students of the Australian Forestry School up until 1946, retired on 14 November, 1957 and spent most of his retirement at Oxford, where he was born and educated. In the last few years of his life ‘Dick’, as he preferred to be known, lost his sight.

He was one of the original lecturers at the Australian Forestry School and was promoted to officer-in-charge of the Division of Imports, Exports, Statistics and Programming, Forestry and Timber Bureau on 11 July 1946. In that position he initiated the early work on the preparation of timber statistics which is still carried out by the Forestry Branch, of the Department of Primary Industry, today.

Hec was probably best remembered by his students for his Taper Line Theory and his early work on the Volume Line. They would also remember that he was a keen golfer, an interest which he maintained up until the time his failing sight prevented him from continuing.

Other memories of Hec concern his stories of his experiences on the Nile and as a forester in Western Australia. As a graduate of Oxford he took great pleasure in accusing graduates from other Universities including Cambridge, of having come from one of the newer Universities.

During his working life Dick was a prolific writer of articles and papers for journals and meetings. He was one of the contributors to Vol.1 No.1 of Australian Forestry.