Leith Knowles - a eulogy
As presented at Leith's funeral by colleague and fellow researcher, Nick Ledgard.
I would like to say a few words about Leith, both as a personal friend and as a professional work colleague. In the latter respect, especially relative to the D-fir Research Co-operative (of which Leith was the creator and Manager and I am Secretary), I am also speaking for a number of others, most of whom I have contacted over the last couple of days, and a number of them have since got back to me, expressing their sadness at Leith’s passing. Included in those are some from the Western Mensurationist Association in N. America. As many of you will know, Leith’s forestry prowess was well respected offshore (the States, Canada, UK and France) where he had many colleagues.
Professionally, I viewed Leith as a genuine forester, and to be honest with you, I don’t think such people are as common as many of us would like to think. He knew that forestry above all else is just another land use, and as such has to be considered holistically, as part of a whole heap of land uses and their impacts. He was certainly not just a commercial plantation man – he valued all trees and the multiple roles they can play. To realize that, you only have to look at his and Barbara’s property at L. Okareka with its host of different species, both native and exotic. One of the best dawn choruses I have ever heard on the mainland was at Leith and Barbara’s place.
That holistic and practical view of trees was very evident in his practicing of professional forestry as a researcher. His background as a ranger trainee assured that. Many of us will have been on field trips with Leith, and it did not matter where you were – Northland, the Wairarapa, Nelson, central Canterbury or Southland – he would forever be pointing out trees that in his early days he had personally planted, thinned and pruned, or measured. It must have been that sort of background that led to the aspect of Leith’s research that I admired most – how he went out of his way to blend the academic with the practical. The foresters amongst you will know that the radiata and D-fir calculators are excellent examples of that mix – he was determined to make sure that the summation of all our knowledge was made as readily available as possible to the rank and file – even though that may have invoked the ire of the more commercially minded in our outfit.
Leith’s forestry knowledge was vast and he was very good at sharing it in many ways, including of course, publications. Whenever I am attempting to write something, and make a point which I would like to reference, I just type (Knowles et al). Leith was that prolific in his writing that you could choose any year you liked. If I wanted to impress readers even more I just modified that slightly and typed (Knowles, Kimberley et al).
As Secretary of Leith’s professional baby, the NZ D-fir Research Co-operative, I know that the loss of our Manager will leave an enormous gap. Tomorrow we are having a meeting to see how we can attempt to fill it. A number of people will be there and we will decide what should be done democratically – quite a change from the management of the past, which could best be described as a benevolent dictatorship. And I could probably predict quite accurately what the future will determine as having been the best form of management.
Leith’s passion for forestry and life in general often led him to saying things that might be taken as quite cutting or cynical, but he usually said these things in order to emphasize his point – rarely with the intention of offending anyone. I remember down at Tapanui at the D-fir Co-op meeting earlier this year. We were in the field discussing D-fir genetics and Leith made one of his dogmatic ‘this-is-the-way-it-is’ statements – to which Charlie Low (one of our top geneticists) responded “Leith, I don’t think that is right” and then started to give his version of events. Leith listened for as long as he felt was civil (about 20 seconds), and then cut in “Charlie, I think you are getting confused – and I can sympathise with that, as many lay people think the same way”. Charlie, of course, pulled his head in and kept quiet, as he knew it was pointless contesting with Leith in a public forum. But on the way back to the bus, Mark Kimberley came up behind Leith and said “You know, Leith, Charlie was right”. Leith whipped around, but when he saw it was Mark, he checked himself, and listened - eventually conceding that perhaps Charlie was right. He apologized accordingly. Next day, we had the Business session inside, and every time Leith tried to make a statement of fact, we all chorused “But yes, Leith. That is what most amateurs would think.” Leith thought it was a great joke.
Leith’s humour. That was another aspect of Leith which I greatly enjoyed. He would ring me and describe a D-fir Coop problem, saying that it really was something which the Coop secretary should have fixed. He would then go on to describe the numerous deficiencies of the Secretary – to which I would patiently listen while trying to think of a suitable counterattack. Usually that was “Well, if the Co-op Manager spent less time fishing, then there would be far fewer problems.” He reveled in that sort of jocular interchange.
Finally, a little bit about my personal friendship with Leith. That started over 40 years ago, when I was a forestry trainee at the annual induction course for trainee intakes at Whaka on the FRI campus. Leith was an instructor there. Every year in February/March, there was a 6-week induction course for about 20 trainees, aimed at sorting out a) who really wanted to do forestry and b) which of us should go onto ranger school and which of us should become academic foresters. Basically, if you were more than 2 axe handles across the shoulder you went into the scrub, and if you were less you went to university. Even though I was not a 2-axe-handle man, I joined the NZFS in order to work outdoors, as I was a very keen hunter, shooter, fisherman – so I had my sights set on being a ranger. But Leith had other ideas. Even though he had had no tertiary education himself, he felt that I could best better my forestry future by going to University. So that was what he promoted to the boss - who being Ralph Naylor, was receptive to such an idea. And that for me, was the start of a long and enjoyable career, which has brought me right up to this present, rather sad, point in time.
As you can see, Leith has been an integral part of my life, and I know it is the same for many of you. Especially, of course, for Barbara, Sarah and Carolyn and their extended family. Let me finish by saying that Leith’s passing may be leaving a gap compared to the past, but lets celebrate the fact that thanks to his being with us, and leading the contributory life that he did, we are all much better equipped (in all senses of the word) for the future. Thank you so much for that, Leith.