Remembering Bob Carter A GSNZ Tribute

Many memorable moments were shared with Bob. One particular dinner hosted by
Bill Lindqvist (his brother-in-law) in San Francisco during an AGU conference comes
to mind. Bob had also invited over for dinner Sir Nicholas Shackleton, the
grandfather of deep-marine oxygen isotope stratigraphy. Bob and his archaeologist
brother, Patrick, had been friends with Nick in Cambridge. It was a slightly surreal
experience, as Steve Abbott, Bob, Sir Nick and I made the trip across the Golden
Gate Bridge to the Lindqvist’s place in a stretched limo. As a naive and slightly
intimidated early career scientist I asked Shackleton why he thought our Whanganui
work was so important. He responded, “Dear boy, because it proves that I was right!”
He was referring to the fact we had documented the physical evidence of water
depth and shoreline changes corresponding to the numerous glacial-interglacial
cycles of global sea-level implied by his oxygen isotope records.
Fig. 21. Bob in
jet boat
traversing the
Whanganui
River Plio-
Pleistocene
section. Photo
source: Steve
Abbott.
During the Townsville days, and following my move back to New Zealand to join
GNS Science, Bob and I co-authored 16 papers on Whanganui Basin stratigraphy
and sea-level change. Never one to accept the status quo, Bob would continually
challenge orthodox views, and our days and evenings doing fieldwork were filled with
good-humoured debate, and many discussions that soon wandered a long way from
the original point at issue. Those who knew Bob well, knew he loved playing the
devil’s advocate, and he taught me one of the most important qualities of a scientist;
never stop questioning and don’t be lulled into following the status quo. Bob’s many
and varied scientific contributions always advanced the field and the thinking, and
although not everyone agreed with his views, he challenged us all to dig a bit
deeper.
He had a strong sense of history and often talked fondly, and with sense of
reverence, about the contributions of the great New Zealand geologists and
paleontologists (e.g. Fleming, Suggate, Wellman, Finlay, Marwick and Hector) that
had gone before. I have no doubt that the contribution that Professor Robert Merlin
Carter has made to New Zealand geoscience will be remembered with a similar
feeling of significance and appreciation.
46 Issue 19A Supplement