Robert Speight was a notable New Zealand geologist, university professor and museum curator.
Background
Speight was born in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, England in 1867. His father, a strong disciplinarian, was a teacher at the school at Tai Tapu, which is a rural village some 9 kilometres (56 mi) south of the Christchurch suburb of Halswell. His father transferred to Saint Albans School and the family moved to Christchurch, and Speight continued his education at Canterbury College.
Education
He graduated in 1888 with a Bachelor of Arts, and in 1889 with a Master of Arts with first class honours in mathematics.
Career
When he was about 12, his family emigrated to New Zealand. Robert Speight gained a scholarship at Christchurch Boys" High School and it is said that his daily travels along the foot of the Portuguese Hills, an extinct shield volcano, raised his interest in volcanology. Speight took a teaching position at his secondary school and studied science part-time under Frederick Wollaston Hutton, graduating in 1891 with a Bachelor of Science.
When Hutton retired his teaching position from Canterbury College in 1903, Speight succeeded him as a lecturer, while retaining his teaching position at Boys" High for some more years.
Speight was appointed assistant curator of Canterbury Museum in 1911, and was full director from March 1914 to November 1935. During his career, Speight published 130 papers and reports, which span a wide area of earth science.
Geographically, he mostly published Canterbury topics, but also the Kermadec Islands and the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands (which he visited in 1907). His papers on past worldwide climate changes and their causes gained him international attention, and he was elected to fellowships of the Geological Society of America and the Geological Society of London.
He was also a fellow of the New Zealand Institute, and was the organisation"s president from 1933 for two years and during that time, the name was changed to Royal Society of New Zealand in reference to the Royal Society based in London.
The New Zealand Institute had awarded him the Hector Memorial Medal in 1921, at the time its highest award. He died at Street George"s Hospital on 8 September 1949, aged 81.