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Weather News

Introduction

History

Personal Notes

Retirements
Mr. B. W. Newman
Retirement of Walter Dwyer
Gerry O'Mahony—Thirty Years On
The Retoubtable George Mackey, Retd.
Retirement of ADR [Neil McRae]
A Long and Fruitful Innings [John Lillywhite]
Pat Ryan Retires
Harry Ashton Retires
'Fly Boy' Retires [Bill Brann]
Our Actor Steve [Lloyd]
Our Man in the Region Retires [Keith Hannay]
ADM Retires [Allen Bath]
Regional Director Queensland Retires [Arch Shields]
ANMRC Head Retires [Reg Clarke]
Vic Bahr's Last Bow
Long Serving Officers Retire [Jack Maher and Kev Lomas]
Allan Brunt Retires, 38 Years in 'the Met'
Henry Phillpot Retires
A Stout With a Dash! [Reg Stout]
Around the Regions [Keith Stibbs]
Bill Smith Bows Out—47 Year Record
Smooth Traffic Ahead for Keith Henderson
Happy Retirement, and Happy Birthday too! [Ralph de la Lande]
Air Dispersion Specialist Calls it a Day [Bill Moriarty]
Bob Crowder Retires
Grass Looks Greener for Tony [Powell]
Farewell France [Lajoie]
Forty Four Years in Meteorology—John Burn Remembers
Des Gaffney bows out
After Only 41 Years . . . Shaw, Enough! [Peter Shaw]
Brian Bradshaw departs, 45 Years On . . .
Bill Ware Ends on a High Note
Peter Barclay Retires
Mal Kennedy Retires
'The Ice Man Goeth . . .' DDS Neil Streten Calls it a Day
Dan of the 14,016 Days [Dan Lee]
A Launceston Boy Gone Wrong: Peter Noar Bows Out
It's Official—Climate Change Confirmed [Bill Kininmonth]
Victorian Forecasting Legend Bids Us Farewell [Ian Russell]
Gentleman Doug Gauntlett Retires
Queensland Regional Director Calls it a Day [Rex Falls]
Assistant Director (Services) Retires and Tributes Flow In [Bruce Neal]
NSW Regional Director Retires [Pat Sullivan]

Obituaries

Observers and Volunteers

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Gentleman Doug Gauntlett Retires

No. 324 April 2000

Former Assistant Director (Services) Peter Noar reminisces about the career of soon-to-retire Deputy Director (Research) Doug Gauntlett.

I first met Doug Gauntlett when he was posted to Hobart in 1962, not long after he finished his meteorologist training course. He hasn't changed much in almost 40 years; still a quiet, polite and friendly person, self-contained but with a solid core of idealism and compassion.

Even then he projected style and a sense of achievement, exemplified by a white sports car and a place in the state hockey team.

We were on the forecasting roster together for a couple of years, but Doug disappeared during a holiday visit to the Western Australian Regional office; the Regional Director, George Mackay, effectively kidnapped him to cover a staff shortage on the forecasting roster.

Doug was keen to be close to the action, and it wasn't long before he found his destiny with Ross Maine's Numerical Methods Section of the Research and Development Branch.

Numerical weather prediction was emerging as a new and exciting area of research, and Doug participated in early experiments with the University of Melbourne, from which he emerged with a PhD.

Dr Brian Tucker had replaced Neil McRae as Assistant Director (Research) and was keen to see the Bureau become a leader in numerical weather prediction. So Doug was chosen to spend a year at the Geophysical Fluid Dvnamic Laboratory at Princeton in the United States, tailoring their primitive equation model for forecasting experiments in the southern hemisphere.

Those of us still in operational forecasting were incredulous and not a little envious when Doug told us of his impending mission.

Not too many years later I found myself being interviewed by Doug for a position in the newly formed Commonwealth Meteorology Research Centre, an amalgam of Bureau meteorologists and CSIRO research scientists. He put me at my ease when I didn't have a clue what sigma coordinates were.

I worked in Doug's group for five years and was always impressed with his great reserves of tact and patience. One of our favourite characters was "Swiftie Gonzales", the hero of one of Doug's jokes. Swiftie was smooth and charming like Doug himself, and the fastest lover on earth.


Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Commonwealth Meteorology Research Centre

People in Bright Sparcs - Gauntlett, Douglas John

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