Otago School of Mines & Metallurgy

1950s Graduates Newsletter-

Newsletter- May 2001
Introduction
This is Issue #1 of a newsletter which is intended to help maintain contact between the graduates of the Otago School
of Mines from the 1950s and perhaps the 40s and 60s. This group dominated the September 2000 gathering to
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honour our Grand Old Man of Surveying, Jack Mackie on his 90 birthday. It is intended to distribute the newsletter in
time for recipients to acknowledge the award of an Honorary Doctorate of Law to our old mate Ahmad Azizuddin on the
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26 of May. Hopefully, it will be possible to produce a new issue on a quarterly, half- or yearly basis, depending on the
support you, the readers, provide.

To limit the logistical problems, the initial distribution will be by email, but members are encouraged to forward copies
to other members by post or email. The format will be kept simple to accommodate the various platforms and versions
of programs used by recipients. The main body of text will be in MSWord_6 format and “Arial” True-Type font. An “rtf”
or “txt” version will be available for those unable to read MSWord_6. Photographs will be compressed into a self-
extracting file which can be opened in a PC computer. Mac (& other ?) platform users will have to contact me for a
separate mailing of the photos in “jpg” format.

All the people on John Hitchon’s “Normandy 2002” mailing list were asked for contributions to the newsletter. About six
replies were received, including some from non-emailers ! Their “potted histories” will appear below.

“Doctor Ahmad”

The University of Otago has decided to honour Tan Sri Dato’ Hj Ahmad Azizuddin bin Hj Zainal Abidin
with an honorary Doctorate of Laws. You can tell from the titles that he is a V.I.P. ! “tan sri” is the
Malaysian federal equivalent of a knighthood in our system, and “dato’ ” is a similar honour bestowed
by Perak State. Jack Mackie has kindly provided some background to this decision:

Ahmad's contribution to Malaysia has been considerable in Government,

politics (Speaker of the Perak State Parliament, (Perak being more
populous than NZ), and business. He has also been a great supporter of
OU in Malaysia and provider of hospitality and guidance for OU personnel
on visits there, and in promoting OU in Malaysia. He is a JP and I think the
award of an Hon.Doc. in Law fits very nicely. He is a man of great influence
in Malaysia, which helps a lot. He more or less grew up in his youth with
the present Sultan of Perak who used to be Malaysia's Chief Justice and
who was King (Agong) for a 5-year term. His title of Tan Sri is a very
ancient one, not often bestowed; it's roughly equivalent to a knighthood in
the British system. That, in itself, is a measure of his contribution to his
country.
There will be an august gathering of friends, family, fellow graduates & officials of Otago University, at Kuching on the
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26 of May for the ceremony which will presumably be associated with the annual New Zealand University graduation
ceremony there. If you want to send Ahmad a card this is his address:

Tan Sri Dato' Hj Ahmad Azizuddin

50, Jalan Lapangan Terbang
31350 Ipoh Malaysia
Fax: 60 5 3133906
Email: klong_15@tm.net.my

Potted Histories of Graduates

Azizuddin, Ahmad

!Upon graduation from the University of Otago, Tan Sri Ahmad Azizuddin joined the government service as an
Inspector of Mines. In this office he served most of Peninsular Malaysia and was promoted to Senior Inspector of
Mines in 1963. This was a position which he held for nine years and during this time, supervised the east zone as well
as the northern zone of Peninsular Malaysia.
!During this time too he was actively involved in voluntary work. He was on the Board of Governors for his old alma
mater (Anderson School) and other schools in the state of Perak. Of note among his volunteer work was his avid
dedication to the Boy Scout movement where he underwent leadership training at the New Zealand Scout Training
Camp at LEVIN. He headed the State Scout Executive Council for some years and was best remembered for his
contribution in the construction of the Perak Scout Headquarters in Ipoh.
!Tan Sri Ahmad left the government service in 1971 and joined the private sector. During that time, the government’s
New Economic Policy called for more participation from the private sector in building the country’s fledging economy.
Under this policy, he became involved in various businesses. One of his biggest areas was the construction industry
where he helped develop the now public listed company IJM Corporation Berhad. He is now still Chairman of that
company.
!He also joined an existing trading outfit which specialises in car parts trading. This later became the agency for
Daihatsu. MBM Resources is now a public listed company of which he is also Chairman. Through this company he
became one of the pioneer directors for the Malaysian second national car company, PERODUA.
!Tan Sri Ahmad was active and headed at one time or another the chamber of Mines and other local indigenous
chambers. For his business services to the country, he was conferred the Kesatria Mangku Negara, a federal award
equivalent of a British OBE and also the Justice of Peace (JP) by the state of Perak. He was also active in the Tin
Council, a government advisory committee during the heyday of the tin industry,
!His experiences in these fields, led to a government appointment in the MARA Council. The MARA Council is a
government institution which promotes Bumiputera (indigenous people) participation in business. In this capacity he
was given the opportunity to be involved in a number of directorship for various companies in finance, plantations,
transport etc.
!Inevitably, this led to politics where he was first appointed as Senator in the Federal Parliament. He stood for election
for the Perak Legislative Assembly and became Speaker. Then, he was a State MP for the constituency of Belanja for
two terms between 1982-1986.
!For his services in politics he was knighted a Dato’ by His Highness the Sultan of Perak bearing the title Dato
Paduka Makhota Perak (D.P.M.P.)
!Still very much a mining man, he ventured into gold in Papua New Guinea and Chile (without much success) and
was also involved in oil exploration in Gisbourne, New Zealand with an Otago colleague. This was unfortunately short-
lived because of limited funds. He now has other oil ventures in Pakistan and Calgary.
!Tan Sri Ahmad is also environmentally conscious. One of his major contributions to the state of Perak was to
rehabilitate his ex-mining land into a magnificent 27-hole golf course and leisure center. This golf course which is
called Clearwater Sanctuary is a testimony to sustainable development.
!The climax of this man’s career and achievements was in 1996 when he was knighted by the King with the title of
Tan Sri bearing the titles Panglima Setia Makhota for a lifetime of public and political services.
!Now semi-retired he enjoys golf, leisurely trips with his friends and spoiling his grandchildren. Despite the fact he
should be relaxing, he is still active in business and was nominated by His Highness the Sultan of Perak as a member
of the Perak State Religious and Malay Custom Council where he is still an active member.
!Tan Sri Ahmad lives in Ipoh with his wife, Asmah of 44 years. He has five children and eight grandchildren.
Blaikie, Joe

!Retired from ICI (now ORICA) in 1986 after 31 years in the explosives trade. A very interesting and mainly enjoyable
career with a lot of travel in Australia, NZ, PNG and other Pacific Islands, plus a few study trips to the Old World.
!Spent quite a lot of my time since then on voluntary community work (teaching English etc.), radio, carpentry and
the like.
!Commenced committee work with The AusIMM about 1964, was on Council with Dave Tennant and Jock
Braithwaite in the period 1982-87, and have been Hon. Ed. of AusIMM PROCEEDINGS for about 12 years.
!Sue and I have three sons - Hugh in Melbourne with two babies, Sam in Darwin with three children and Tim about to
return from 12 years in London. He has no children.
! email address: ahblaikie@aol.com

Doig, Kevin

!Graduated and married Renee in May 1955. Worked for Mines Dept. and then Ministry of Works until mid-1962.
Then moved to the private sector, first with a small civil construction company and then into a consulting practice
where I came to focus on water resources- hydroelectricity, water supply, and wastewater treatment and disposal.
!From 1978 onwards I spent some of my time advising the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs on development planning in
Samoa and in Thailand,
! In1989 resigned from the practice and went full-time into development aid work, all water related. Spent the next 8
years in stints varying from 2 weeks to 2 years in a number of countries such as Samoa, Fiji, Marshall Islands,
Indonesia, Thailand, Jordan and Lesotho, with side trips into South Africa and Germany. Renee was able to
accompany me at most times and kept me out of the clutches of the more willing young ladies- dont know what I would
have done without her as some of the offers were very tempting !! She also had to act the part of being the wife of a
French engineer who I was asked to impersonate for about a month in Indonesia when he got side-tracked onto
another project - spent most of my time working in a back office and avoiding contact with senior local officials.
!Finally got fed up with having to deal with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats so gave up paid’ employment in March
1997 to concentrate on more homely pursuits punctuated by the occasional tourist trip in NZ, Oz, and further afield,
altogether more fitting to us senior citizens.

Floyd, Bob

!I completed the BE(Mining) course at the Otago School of Mines in November 1955 and got a job as a trainee
mining engineer with Mount Isa Mines Ltd in early 1956. I climbed the ladder (sic) at Mt Isa with jobs as shift boss,
foreman, section engineer, superintendent, and finally assistant mine manager. We had is good years at Mt Isa and
two of our daughters were born there.
!In 1971 I took the position of Manager of Operations for the Poseidon Ltd, Windarra Nickel project in Western
Australia. This project was brought Into production at 1 million tonnes of ore per year on schedule and within its $65m
budget in September 1974. The project was finally taken over by western mining corporation.
!I resigned in 1975 to return to New Zealand and bought a seaside store at Mangonui. Storekeeping only lasted a
couple of years and! Ended up commercial fishing for three years.
!In August 1981 returned to mining as general manager of the Nauru Phosphate Corporation on the island of Nauru in
the Central Pacific. I was responsible to the Board of Directors for the production and shipping of 1.5 –2.0 mtpa of
phosphate rock to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. A highlight of our time on tile island was a visit by Queen
Elizabeth and Prince Phillip on board the yacht “Britannia”. The corporation shared responsibility for hosting the visit
with the government of Nauru.
!Unfortunately our time on Nauru only lasted two years and we ended up in Rarotonga. While on Nauru we made
friends with Sir Tom Davis, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands and we went to visit him when we left
Nauru in 1983. Unfortunately Tom lost the election as we arrived but I finished up as general manager of the Cook
Islands Tourist Authority for a year.
!In 1984 we went back to Mt Isa and I completed a consulting assignment on ‘Safety in the Mine” - a review of
performance over the previous 13 years,
!In 1986 I was mine manager of the Harbour Lights gold mine at Leonora in WA for 6 months and then with East
West Minerals as mine manager in Queensland and New Brunswick in Canada for two years.
!In 1989 we returned to New Zealand and have been living in retirement at Katikati for the past 8 years. Our three
youngest children live with our eight grand children in New Zealand. Our son Bruce has a fish processing and
marketing business and I help him with the financial side of the business.
Hitchon, John

!I left Dunedin in November 1955 to complete my industrial experience at New Broken Hill. While there I received
notice that I had been awarded a General Motors Holden scholarship at the School of Metallurgy at the University of
NSW. There I wrote a thesis from 1956 to 1958 on the melting and casting of Titanium. Late 1958, I saw on the notice
board that, because of the foundation of the Common Market in 1958, Germany and France were offering post
graduate scholarships. So I applied. Early 1959, I was convoked to the German Embassy in Sydney. After an oral, I
was informed that my knowledge of German was insufficient. I was eventually convoked in April 1959 to the French
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Embassy and they only asked me whether I could arrive in France for the 1 of July. I said yes and left as soon as I
could on a P & O liner (the Strathclyde). Unfortunately the Strathclyde broke down in the Indian Ocean after leaving
Bombay and had to be towed to Aden, where we waited for 2 weeks for the ship to be repaired. Finally I arrived if
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France on the 19 July 1959.
!The scholarship was three months learning French and 6 months working experience. The seven other Australians
had already arrived and they were doing an intensive French course at Besancon or Grenoble. When I arrived it was
too late, so I was sent to the Ecole Normale Superieure de St Cloud, which is in S.W. Paris; This school was for
professors teaching French overseas and no one wanted to look after someone who could not speak a word of French.
I was told I could spend my time visiting Paris. This is what I did up to the end of September. I had a room at Ecole
Normale. After a month I thought it would be better to live in the centre of Paris. I eventually found a flat in the
Montmartre area.
!For my working experience from October 1959 to April 1960, I was sent to IRSID (Institut de Recherches de la
Siderurgie), Iron and Steel Research Institute of France, at St Germain en laye which is 20 Km west of Paris. There
were 450 people working at IRSID and I joined the Physical Chemistry division. My boss thought it best that I keep my
flat in Paris in order to learn French at night school at the Alliance Francaise in Paris, which is in the Montparnasse
area. He was publishing a lot in English and after a certain time he started to appreciate my correction of his English,
he said I was able to interpret the right meaning. This was the start of oxygen steel making in Europe and he eventually
incorporated me in the team running an experimental 2 Ton oxygen converter. This was a 2 million Francs investment
at the time, nevertheless it was more or less a bomb.
!In March 1960, my boss asked me what I was going to do since my French Government Scholarship finishes at the
end of the month. I replied that I would probably return to Australia via the States. He told me that if I was prepared to
stay for 2 years, he would employ me as he would a French engineer. Since I was just starting to speak and write
French and I had an interesting job, I said yes. I did not ask him any questions. To my surprise I was informed that I
was responsible for the converter, my salary doubled and I had a bachelor flat in St Germain en laye. This caused
quite an upheaval at IRSID since everyone said we have employed an engineer who speaks no French. After a while
this died down and since the converter was running well, everyone was happy.
!After high school Odile lived abroad to perfect her language skills in English and Spanish. When she came back to
France, she worked as a trilingual secretary. I met Odile in Spring 1961 in Paris. We were married in January 1963 We
moved to St Etienne, an industrial town, 50 Km S.W. of Lyon, in the southern part of France. Our three children were
born in 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1969.
!One of Odile’s uncles has lived in Sydney for many years so Odile’s nephews and nieces all married in Australia or
New Zealand. This helped to break the ice when we met in Paris, since we had a common “relation” as one may say

Hunt, Bill

!On leaving the School of Mines I went directly to Upper Canada Mines limited where a graduate named Alan O'Hara
secured me a worthy position - digging ditches on level 24. Upper Canada was at a small village called Dobie just
outside Kirkland Lake which is many miles north of Toronto. It can be -65C in the peak of winter.
!I eventually became a member of the engineering team at the mine but after 3 years decided there must be
something better and in 1960 became a computer programmer for an American organisation under contract to the US
Air Force. Learnt all about planes and Dew Lines and the Bay of Pigs and other very interesting (to Americans) things.
Didn't like the education system so came home at the end of 1963.
!Since then in the computer business of one sort or another in Australia and New Zealand including 14 years with
Price Warehouse. More recently on my own and doing some Project Management work for a firm COGITA with whom
I have been in Malaysia a number of times. Just about time to give it up entirely.
!Also owned a small restaurant in Mt Maunganui for 18 months or so. Number 2 son is a chef.
!3 children now in their 40s and 11 grandchildren 14 - 2.
!Don't have a lot of hobbies though played bridge for many years and even got as far as the NZ
champs a couple of times.
Kininmonth, Bob

!Following university Bob spent three months in Broken Hill, where his eldest son was born, and six months in coal
mining in Newcastle NSW. He then worked for two years in Great Britain on a Post Graduate Travelling Scholarship
before retuning to New Zealand to work at Huntly.
!In 1959 he joined ICI as an Explosives Field Engineer. After eight years in that position he joined the NSW
Department of Mines as a Special Duties Inspector. He took early retirement from the position of Senior Inspector of
Coal Mines and joined the Joint Coal Board as a liaison officer in Coal Mines Insurance.
!He and Margaret are now living in retirement in Wollongong. Two of their four sons work in the mining industry. Bob
is still active in the local branch of the AUS.I.M.M. and his other interests include golf, book collecting, mining heritage
and lead lighting.

Neilson, John

!Graduated in absentia in 1957 after completing the course in 1955. Joined Royal Dutch Shell which was among
the earliest companies to recruit young engineers during their final year of studies. One year of post-graduate training
in Holland (which was great) followed by two years in western Venezuela as an exploitation engineer. The most
notable thing we did was to produce all the X-100 Shell motor oil in the world ! Some of the wells produced over 3,000
cu.m. per day from granitic basement rock !
!Staying home after leave, I joined CSIRO Coal Research as a stopgap, then Blue Metal Industries, a major quarrying
company in western Sydney. Later I joined Gardner-Denver (Aust) Pty Ltd, working mainly in NSW on & off for 16
years, including five years managing the New Zealand company.
!On my return to Australia the company was ruined by a couple of smart alecs from U.S.A. so I left and tried out
various forms of self-employment for a few years, until I landed a job teaching mining in TAFE (our equivalent to
Polytechnic), where I worked happily for ten years until retirement in 1992.
!Joan & I parted company in the early 1980s and our three children and eight grandchildren all live in NSW. Carol & I
were married in 1987. We retired to Singleton, NSW in 1993 but got sick of the coal dust and the drought, so moved to
Wauchope on the Mid-North Coast in 1997. Lots of rain, grass to cut, peace-and-quiet and a good social life.
Paradise!

In Brief
Mick Buckenham is living in retirement in Auckland
Kevin Doig is living in retirement in Hamilton &/or Raglan
Rex Guinivere lives in semi-retirement in Perrysburg, Ohio, Still has active mining interests in the U.S.A. and Peru.
Ted Hart is living in retirement in Adelaide after a long career with the Zinc Corporation in Broken Hill.
Lloyd Jones is living in retirement in Wellington
George Lyon is living in retirement in Brisbane
Bob Pierson is living in Sydney after retiring from the Water Resources Commission.
Rahim is living in retirement in Kuala Lumpur
Ian Reid is still building aluminium smelters, in South Africa. Remarried last year/
Bryce Russell lives in Sydney and has been a consultant for many years (no contact)
Bill Sparrow is living in retirement in Auckland
Tan Kim Bee is living in retirement in Kuala Lumpur
David & Tennent is living in retirement in Brisbane, and so does Haydon who carries on David’s good work.
Charlie (Robb actually) Webster is living in retirement in Brisbane

Funny Sayings

Remember these ?
“Can’t stay . . have to shoot through” Bob Peirson
“Nissed as a pewt” Eddy Price ?
“Mouth like a gorilla’s armpit (or buzzard’s crotch”) Alan McIntosh
“Here’s to Cardinal Huff for the first time . . .” Alec Cunningham
“ . . . .blah, blah blah JOKE . . . oh, I was supposed to tell you a joke there . .” Doug Buchanan
“ . . . . .women’s work! (tedious calculations) Ahmad Azizuddin

Contributions to this section will be welcome (if you can remember !).
Vale

Thanks to the contributions of various old boys we can report that the following of our mates are no longer with us:

Doug Ainge, 1987

Abdullah bin Mohammed Yusof
Doug Alexander
Doug Buchanan
Bruce Coleman
Alec Cunningham
Cyril Graham
Peter Hutton
Alan McIntosh
Hugh Muir
Olly Paterson
Jack Roberts
John Rogers
Sid Jarvis
Jim [ J.F A } Taylor
Bill Watson
Gordon John Williams, 1984.
Antoni (Jontek) Wodzick, 1999.

There may be others, but we decided to err on the side of caution !

Anecdotes

!At a field camp at Taieri. We were all sitting in the Landrover ready to get off on an exercise one morning, but were
one short -- late up out of the sack, of course. I cannot remember who it was, but he eventually turned up at the
double. He left the Tirohanga Hall with one boot on and the other in his hand. As he shot through the cookhouse he
held out the bootless hand and one of the girls put a fried egg on it. He then left the cookhouse and leapt into the back
of the Landrover, the door was slammed and off we went. There were about five pipe-smokers in the vehicle, and the
reek of their pipes, the vestigial remains of early-morning farts and smell of the fried egg nearly made one or two
blokes lose their breakfasts! Names that come to mind for the late-comer are Ivan Jackson and Peter Riley. Maybe
someone else can enlighten me? (JBM).

!Rumour has it that a certain Professor of Mining, who shall be nameless, used to make outrageous suggestions to
the young ladies of Dunedin , not in his own name mind you, in that of your esteemed editor. (JN).
Conclusion
Well that’s about it for this inaugural issue. Please let me know what additional material you would like to see in future
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editions, and send me some . I’m sure we all hope Dr Ahmad’s big day on 26 May is a huge success, as this
recognition is well deserved. I understand that a substantial contingent from Godzone will be there.

If you need contact details for any member of the group, please email me at jneilson@one.net.au . If you don’t want
your contact information sent to others, please let me know.
John Neilson
15 River Ridge
Wauchope,NSW,2446, Australia Phone/Fax: 61 2 6586 1529
Phone, Mobile: 61 403 350 826
Email: jneilson@one.net.au
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