Creative engineer brought wisdom and wit to all he did
Robert (Bob) George Norman engineer, state services commissioner b October 5, 1923 d February 6, 2021
Playing rugby on the frozen ice of Antarctica and hanging out with the emperor penguins at Scott Base – Bob Norman’s engineering career took him to some farflung places.
Norman, who has died aged 97, was an unusual mix: an engineer committed to finding better ways society could make best use of technology, and an environmentalist who knew that mankind was responsible for its limited planetary resources.
Norman was regarded as legendary in engineering annals in New Zealand. Intelligent, direct, uncompromising. An innovative, creative thinker, hugely knowledgeable about bridge design among many other areas of engineering, and often a thorn in the side of several ministers of works.
During a distinguished public service career he oversaw many assets, including New Zealand’s Scott Base.
Norman visited Scott Base in 1967 in his capacity as Assistant Commissioner of Works. There he connected with Sir Ed Hillary, whose party was in Antarctica and undertaking the first ascent of Mt Herschel. Norman was a founding and longstanding patron of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, which he helped initiate with Trevor Hatherton in 1987 – a role he held for 27 years.
He saw the need for humans to be worthy custodians of the ice continent and to be keenly aware of what we could learn from it.
He loved the emperor penguins and was delighted by work with the dog teams. He was deeply saddened when dogs were banned from the Antarctic in 1994 by what he saw as flimsy environmental logic, all introduced species (except humans and their petrolguzzling snow machines) being barred.
The good times on that continent extended to rather freezing rugby matches, where, in addition to potentially violent wind chill which could swiftly lower the temperature by dozens of degrees, one of the big risks was that the ref’s whistle would freeze.
On his return from one Antarctic trip, Norman apparently turned up to Titahi Bay North School, where his wife was a teacher, in his full Antarctic kit.
Norman’s engineering vision can be seen all over Wellington – the highway up Nga¯ u¯ ranga Gorge, the architecturally lauded overpasses that connect the gorge road with the motorway into the capital, the design of Te Papa.
As head of the once-influential Ministry of Works, and as a former state services commissioner, Norman oversaw big infrastructure projects throughout the country.
The bridges he engineered were radical examples of an innovative ‘‘push bridge’’ construction technique used for the first time in the southern hemisphere.
Norman oversaw their incremental launch design, and persuaded bureaucrats and politicians to get the funds to build them.
He spent most of his working life at the Ministry of Works, joining the Civil Engineering Design Office as a young engineer after World War II.
He recorded some of the MOW’s achievements in his 1997 book You Can’t Win ’Em All – Confessions of a Public Works Engineer.
The book’s title proved to be even more prescient than he could have realised. In his view, the subsequent deconstruction of this powerful and transformative organisation was as shameful as it was illogical.
In numerous letters to newspapers, articles and interviews, he denounced the ‘‘neo-liberal politicians’’ who deliberately let infrastructural progress stagnate.
The current scramble to catch up on deferred maintenance, he and others argued, proved their point. And the slow progress in restoring a shattered Christchurch after a series of quakes added poignant persuasion to his case.
Bob Norman was a Lower Hutt boy, whose parents were originally from the West Coast. After studies at Hutt Valley High and Nelson College, where he switched from the classics to science, he headed to Canterbury College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering with honours in 1944.
He was shipped out to Egypt with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, then to Italy where he was introduced to a life-long love of opera and Italian culture. He later went to Japan as part of J Force, developing infrastructure in a remote village.
He spent two years in the United Kingdom in 1949-50 on a University Travelling Scholarship and, while there, was joined by his fiance´ e, Beverley Rae. They married in 1950 and went on to have five children.
The family settled in Titahi Bay, where they lived for the better part of 50 years.
Back in New Zealand, Norman returned to the Public Works Department as a design engineer and did an honours degree in maths at Victoria University.
In 1956, he headed off for 15 months in the US on a Harkness Fellowship, crisscrossing the States.
On his return, he brought with him a 1957 Plymouth Plaza, and for many years, the huge, finned, red-and-white car was a familiar sight in Titahi Bay, its bench seats readily accommodating the whole family.
The Bay has remained the family’s tu¯ rangawaewae. It was here he built their home, engaged in local theatre and tennis, attended rugby matches, dived into the surf with his kids, and, as a keen fisherman, knew the tides and currents like the back of his hand.
As an admired orator, Norman’s public addresses were many.
He was well-known for his memory, his ability to recite Shakespeare, and to formulate parodic responses to politicians, penned in impeccable italic script.
His colleagues never received a simple email from Norman. There were always at least a few lines of rhyme composed with wit and panache, and a poem his team looked forward to receiving every Christmas.
In 1985 Norman was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for Public Service. For his services to engineering, he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers, NZ, in 1997.
He is survived by Geoff, Sally, Alan, Kit, and Simon; by grandsons Tom, Ryan, Jake, Daniel, Joe, and Adam; and by great-grandson Emilio.