Loewe, too, paid a heavy penalty. He lost all his toes to frostbite during an overland crossing and a fellow meteorologist, Dr Johannes Georgi, had to cut them, off with shears while they wintered in an ice cave.

But Dr Loewe remained Undaunted. In 1932 he was back in Greenland as adviser to the makers of the film "S.O.S. Ice Berg"—and 30 years later, at the age of 67, wintered with the French expedition in Adelie Land in the Antarctic!

In the 30 years between, he moved from Germany to England to Australia, here to settle (if that is the word for a man who travelled relentlessly from his home) and build up this country's first university meteorological department. He was forced to leave Germany in 1934 when Hitler began his persecution of Jews. Dr Loewe was dismissed from his post, jailed briefly, then released and allowed to travel to England, where he studied at Cambridge at the Scott Polar Research Institute. It was during his time there that he was invited by Dr (later Sir Raymond) Priestley to come to Australia to be the first lecturer in meteorology at Melbourne University. It was an offer quickly accepted and in March 1937, the Loewes arrived in Melbourne.

He was then 42, and in the. next 23 years he taught virtually every senior meteorologist now with the Bureau. When he "retired" in 1960, it was to a life of further research, travel, and lecturing, with almost annual visits to the Institute of Polar Studies at Columbus, Ohio, a tour of duty in Karachi with UNESCO, and constant world trips to see family, friends and fellow meteorologists. He enjoyed travelling and despite a heart attack in 1962 while in Pago Pago (American Samoa) he kept up a constant pace of work and lecturing, finally giving up his wanderings three years ago. Even so, he fitted in a three-month trip last year to see his relatives in England and East Germany, and then earlier this year he was tremendously involved in the IAMAP and IAPSO special assemblies in Melbourne.

When the end came on March 21, it was perhaps fitting to recall a further passage from Dr Loewe's "retirement" address in November 1960:—

"I can say as the night draws nearer:
'For seeing intended
Employed for my sight
The heights are my dwelling
The world my delight.' "
(Faust II, Act V, Scene 4)

Vale Dr Fritz Loewe.

Bureau of Meteorology