Piano-playing physicist lived for science and family
Physics, the piano, and family were the unusual blend that made Scott Whineray an interested and interesting man. Son Matt suggests that, if his father had not been a nuclear physicist, he could have been a concert pianist.
He was born the fourth of five brothers, all since deceased, perhaps the most famous of whom was long-serving All Blacks captain Wilson Whineray.
The sons of Ida and Bruce Whineray, the brothers grew up in Epsom, Auckland, in the 1940s. Scott Whineray attended Auckland Grammar, played sport, and went on to gain a masters degree in science, specialising in physics and, more particularly, the study of subatomic particles.
He and Maureen Keith were married in 1963, and embarked on a journey of international travel and study. Whineray studied for his doctorate at McMaster University in Ontario, then moved to Copenhagen, and later Canberra.
Matt, now chief executive of the NZ Super Fund, spoke at a memorial service in Auckland of how his father still lit up, at the age of 84, when he remembered his finest physics moment. It was a breakthrough in the understanding of his specialist subject, the rare earth element ytterbium, number 70 on the periodic table.
The couple’s eldest daughter, Janet, now an obstetrician and gynaecologist in Christchurch, was born in Copenhagen, with Maureen attended by a nurse who could not speak English.
She was followed by Matt, and twins Erica, who is a breast surgeon, and Fraser, former chief executive of Mercury Energy and now Fonterra’s chief operating officer.
Determined to put down roots in New Zealand, the Whinerays moved to Palmerston North in 1972 to raise the family, wanting the offspring to be able to bike around the city independently and attend university.
Whineray was a senior lecturer at what was then the relatively young Massey University, at a time when staff were being recruited from around the world. Fraser recalled his father developed a deep love of teaching, designing simple and effective laboratory demonstrations, driven by a determination to make physics interesting for all.
His focus was not just university students. He also helped strengthen physics teaching in high schools as a member of the New Zealand Institute of Physicists group advising the Department of Education.
He had an interest in aviation, shared with his brother Murray, who sadly died after his Royal New Zealand Air Force Vampire jet crashed and burst into flames on landing during an aerobatic display at Ohakea airfield in 2008.
Scott Whineray contributed some of his knowledge to Air New Zealand, and helped design the curriculum for the Massey Aviation School. During those years in Palmerston North, Maureen was a medical laboratory scientist working at Palmerston North Hospital.
Whineray was for about six years a member of what was then the combined Palmerston North High Schools Board which governed Boys’ High, Girls’ High, Freyberg High and Queen Elizabeth College. While on the board, he formed an enduring friendship with Palmerston North men’s retailer Jim Owen, and the two men ran a campaign to have the combined board split up, believing each school would benefit from a dedicated, individual board.
Owen, who travelled to Auckland for his friend’s memorial service, remembered Whineray as an intelligent, sincere and thoroughly nice man, but said the high schools’ experience had been a frustrating time for them. Whineray did not seek re-election to the board in 1985.
He and Maureen returned to Auckland to live in 1995. Whineray worked for the next 11 years through to retirement at Massey University’s Albany campus, where he established the physics department and its laboratories.
In retirement he was a keen member of the U3A inventors’ group. He was a proud grandfather of Stanley, Pippa, Emily, James, Tess, Ben, Jack and Olivia, and devoted much of his later years to encouraging them.
The family clubbed together for his 80th birthday to buy him recording time at Neil Finn’s Roundhead recording studio. Those recordings of him playing the piano provided the soundtrack for his memorial service on New Zealand’s first Matariki public holiday.
Matt said the coincidence was entirely apt, as that rare metal ytterbium that had sparked his greatest work as a physicist was a kind of stardust. The family would particularly remember Whineray, a modest and witty husband, father and Poppa, when the constellation rose each winter. –
The family clubbed together for his 80th birthday to buy him recording time at Neil Finn’s Roundhead recording studio.