Background
Whale was born in Windsor, England in 1921, the son of Frank Arthur Whale. He married Natalie Stella Clarke in 1942, the daughter of Joseph Clarke.
Whale was born in Windsor, England in 1921, the son of Frank Arthur Whale. He married Natalie Stella Clarke in 1942, the daughter of Joseph Clarke.
He had his secondary schooling at Auckland Grammar School before studying science at the University of Auckland, from where he graduated Master of Science He used a differential analyser in his Doctor of Philosophy studies, an early form of computer, and purchased the machine in 1948 for £100.
In 1946. They had one daughter. The family returned to New Zealand in 1950, and Whale brought the differential analyser with him. The computer is these days on display at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland.
He took up the chair of the Radio Research Centre in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland.
The position was especially created for him. His area of research was long distance radio, and he supervised between 60 and 70 Doctor of Philosophy and Masters students during his time at Auckland University.
Whale was invited by Bill Pickering to the Goddard Space Flight Center to undertake research on the reasons for loss of communication when rockets pass through the ionosphere. Whale was a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1969, and the University of California in 1969–1970.
He died on 11 September 2009.
He won two scholarships to Trinity College, Cambridge (one of which was the 1851 Research Fellowship), and the family relocated to England for his Doctor of Philosophy studies. Whale received the T. K. Sidey Medal in 1955, set up by the Royal Society of New Zealand as an award for outstanding scientific research.
