Rodney Deane Davies • Bruce Swinyard

Extract

Rodney Deane Davies 1930–2015

...

Rod was born in Balaklava, South Australia, on 8 January 1930, oldest son of Holbin and Rena Davies. He grew up on the family farm and, at the age of 16, gave his first sermon in the Methodist Church in South Australia, wearing khaki shorts in the summer heat. He attended Adelaide High School and in 1946 he was offered a scholarship to Adelaide University to study physics. There, at the Student Christian Movement, he met Beth, whom he married in 1953. The brilliance of the Australian sky, his enquiring mind and good fortune early in his career inspired him to dedicate his life to astronomy.

Rod's first job was with CSIRO as a research officer in the Radiophysics Division in Sydney, starting by measuring radio bursts from the Sun. In 1953, aged 23, he wrote to Bernard Lovell at Jodrell Bank. Bernard was a wartime friend of his boss, Joe Pawsey. Bernard replied, inviting him to become an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester. Rod accepted and left his post at Jodrell Bank only once, to return on sabbatical to CSIRO in Sydney in 1963.