Enginering geologist’s committment to the craft
Dr Bruce Riddolls lived by one mantra – to understand engineering you had to understand rocks.
The engineering geologist helped develop the Clyde Dam, worked on projects in many countries and travelled to Antarctica.
His friends say he had a ‘‘quiet and dry’’ sense of humour and an unassuming, unassertive personality.
Riddolls was born in Lower Hutt, but moved to Lincoln within six months when his father became head of agricultural engineering at Lincoln Agricultural College.
‘‘Bruce was very much a Canterbury man,’’ his wife, Tricia, said.
He studied a masters at the University of Canterbury, then travelled to Antarctica to geologically map Victoria Land.
‘‘They were supported by food drops there or otherwise they had their sledges,’’ Tricia said.
While he was in England studying towards a PhD from Exeter University, he met his wife, who was in her final year of geology honours.
‘‘He just got chatting and we both enjoyed music as well,’’ Tricia said.
‘‘We were both in the university production of [Gilbert and Sullivan’s] The Yeomen of the Guard and that’s probably where we got together really.’’
Tricia remembered their first date – watching the All Blacks play Wales in Cardiff in 1967.
She said the game of rugby was ‘‘alright, but I was more interested
in the man’’.
The couple married in England, but soon returned to New Zealand.
Riddolls began working in the public sector with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research’s NZ Geological Survey division (now GNS Science). Through this time, he advised governments on hydroelectric, thermal, tunnelling, roading, railways and gas pipeline projects.
He soon moved to the private sector and worked for Worley Consultants in Auckland. As chief engineering geologist, Riddolls led assignments on civil and mining engineering projects in New Zealand, Laos, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
In the 1980s, he set up his own consulting firm – Riddolls Consulting Limited (RCL) – with his wife in Queenstown. The biggest project he worked on was the Clyde Dam, which was challenging not only with the dam itself but with the engineering around Lake Dunstan.
One of his biggest jobs was having to stabilise slopes to avoid them crashing into the dam.
In the 1990s, the family returned to Christchurch, Riddolls’ home turf.
‘‘He was very happy to come back and work in Christchurch,’’ Tricia said.
‘‘He just loved walking – he just loved to be able to get out into the bush, up to the mountains, along the sea. Nature was very close to his heart and he loved the natural world.’’
In the garden city, he started a company with fellow geologist Guy Grocott, working on several public and private projects. They merged with Canadian firm Golder Associates Limited in 2000.
Three years later, Riddolls moved back to do his own thing, reestablishing RCL. In 2005 he helped form B2G Energy Ltd and explored coal-bed methane gas.
The company was granted a licence to explore the Roxburgh Coal Field, but the hole the company drilled was barren.
The Riddolls moved to Auckland in 2014 after the earthquakes, but couldn’t spend too long away from Canterbury and moved to Pegasus in 2018.
Tricia said her husband’s legacy was pushing and training people to think like a geologist.
‘‘It doesn’t matter if you were doing a tunnel, a road alignment or a mine, you’re working with the rocks. He felt very passionately that you had to understand the rocks and the geological models so you could do the right sort of engineering,’’ she said.
Engineering consultant David Hopkins, who first met Riddolls in high school, remained friends with him for life.
‘‘It’s one of those things, common interests – we both like playing cricket and golf, we’re both sons of academics,’’ Hopkins said.
‘‘He was always very dependable, very honest, not afraid to say what he thought . . . he’s very sincere and well read. He was noted for his quiet and dry sense of humour.’’
Riddolls died in June, aged 75, after fighting prostate cancer.
He is survived by his wife and his two daughters, Ellen and Frances.
‘‘Bruce was very much a Canterbury man.’’ Bruce Riddolls’ wife, Tricia