OBITUARY GEORGE RICHARD (DICK) ROBERTS

Dick Roberts said more than 3000 folk had worked on his farm during the 30 years or so that he lived out his ideals of appropriate land use in Todd Valley.
He was one of the instigators of the WWOOFing Scheme (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and workers came came from every corner of the globe, learning about his theories, which he practised.
The words microclimate, ecology and sustainability were all frequently on his lips, long before they became common practice. Though many of his ideas may now almost be in danger of becoming hackneyed, he was among the first to disseminate them in Nelson.
Mr Roberts was a fervent teacher, and his urge to impart his enthusiasm for biology, evolution and genetics resulted in his huge photo library; slides he’d taken all over the world which eventually illustrated text books and encyclopedias on matters geographical, biological and agricultural.
This was all part of his utilitarian philosophy.
Though there were flowers at his place (I suspect smuggled in by WWOOFers), when presented with some beautiful blooms, he would be more inclined to hold forth on the exquisite mechanisms that had evolved to promote pollination than just delight in them.
He was no Mr Gradgrind, but there were inclinations that way. He was something of a missionary in his zeal for reason. He was a long- time member of Rationalist and Humanist associations, and was a member of Voluntary Euthanasia and Exit groups. Almost the last words he spoke to me were “I’ve just bought a wonderful book on genetics, you must read it!”
He was a long-serving member and president of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association, and wrote articles for magazines that were devoted to conservation and other green topics.
He was a keen healthy lifer, but confessed one day that although he grew and ate salads he really didn’t like them.
On a more personal level, his longest lasting relationship, with Faye, was tragically cut short a few years earlier by her death from cancer. She, perhaps, made him aware of his limited cultural interests, and for a while he was a member of a Book Discussion Scheme, though he hardly ever read the books, unless they had a factual, preferably biological, bias. He was prone to losing the books and when a meeting was to be held at his house he always forgot and went to a compost meeting instead. Consequently, he was drummed out of the group.
As a schoolboy Mr Roberts lived for sport, got a blue at Cambridge for running, introduced dancing at the boys’ boarding school where he taught, and tango dancing became his abiding delight.
He gained a commission in World War II and later took a degree in biology at Cambridge University.
He was modest about his abilities, and was fond of saying that while he was not particularly bright “I’ve used every neuron I’ve got”.
In many ways he was ahead of his times. Born in Devon, he came to live in New Zealand shortly after the Cuba crisis in the belief that if things got really bad, the southern hemisphere had a better chance of pulling through – a reasoning that is arguably still very sound.
A few years ago, having failed in his endeavour to make his farm an educational trust to continue his land-use philosophies, he sold up and went to live in the city, where he died peacefully on March 23. He was 84.
Mr Roberts is survived by his daughter Joy and granddaughter Nova.

Christopher Vine.