Evan Graham Turbott
|
Graham Turbott QSO |
|
|---|---|
| Born | Evan Graham Turbott 27 May 1914 Stanley Bay, New Zealand |
| Died | 12 December 2014 (aged 100) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Fields | Ornithology, zoology |
| Institutions |
Auckland War Memorial Museum Canterbury Museum |
| Alma mater | Auckland University College (MSc) |
| Thesis | Some observations on the distribution and anatomy of Leiopelma hochstetteri fitzinger (1937) |
| Spouse | Olwyn Mary Rutherford (m. 1940; d. 1994) |
Evan Graham Turbott QSO (27 May 1914 – 12 December 2014), generally known as Graham Turbott, was a New Zealand ornithologist, zoologist, and museum administrator. He served as director of the Auckland Institute and Museum from 1964 to 1979.
Born at Stanley Bay on Auckland's North Shore, Turbott was the eldest of the three sons of Thomas Turbott, a primary school headmaster, and his wife Evangeline Alice Turbott (née Graham). His brothers included the diplomat and businessman Ian Turbott. He was educated at Takapuna Grammar School, and went on to study at Auckland Teachers' Training College and Auckland University College. He graduated from the latter institution with a Master of Science in zoology in 1938. His thesis was entitled Some observations on the distribution and anatomy of Leiopelma hochstetteri fitzinger.
On 7 September 1940, Turbott married the ethnologist Olwyn Mary Rutherford at All Saints' Church, Howick.
In 1937 Turbott was appointed as assistant zoologist at Auckland War Memorial Museum. zoologist and 1946. In 1944 he spent a year on coast-watching duties in the subantarctic Auckland Islands as part of the Cape Expedition, which also included Charles Fleming and Robert Falla, but he also found time to pursue his interest in natural history. He later wrote about the experience in the book Year Away: Wartime coast watching on the Auckland Islands, 1944, published in 2002.
Turbott returned and continued at Auckland Museum, until becoming assistant director of Canterbury Museum, Christchurch in 1957. He returned in 1964 to take up the post of director of the Auckland Institute and Museum, succeeding Sir Gilbert Archey. He remained there until he retired in 1979, when he was named as the museum's director emeritus.
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