Noel Jack de Jersey (1923–2016)

Abstract

![][1] One of Australia’s three pioneering palynologists, Noel Jack de Jersey passed away in his 93rd year on 26 March 2016 at his home at Cedar Grove, about 40 km south of Brisbane in Queensland. The other two pioneers are Isabel C. Cookson (1893–1973) and Basil E. Balme (1923–). Noel de Jersey was a quiet, life-long high achiever, delving initially into seismology, coal petrology and palaeobotany, and subsequently into taxonomic and biostratigraphical palynology, his career of choice. He was a Foundation Member of the Geological Society of Australia and, in his spare time, a keen golfer and traveller. Noel was born on 25 February 1923, and lived for five years at coastal Tweed Heads in northernmost New South Wales. His father was Headmaster of the Coolangatta State Primary School in southeastern Queensland, just across the Queensland–New South Wales State border, where Noel began his early primary schooling. This he completed in 1935 at Goombungee State School, northwest of Toowoomba and west-northwest of Brisbane, following his father’s transfer there as headmaster. He attended the Church of England Grammar School in Brisbane from 1936 to 1939 and, in his final year at 16 years of age, Noel was academically the highest ranking student in the school. This led, in 1940, to Noel winning one of the 20 available open scholarships to the University of Queensland (UQ). Professor Henry Casselli Richards, the inaugural professor of geology and Dean of the Faculty of Science at UQ, persuaded him into studying geology, which was not Noel’s original intention. Professor Richards, in recognising Noel’s academic talents, took him under his wing and encouraged him to take on an additional subject beyond the required four that he was already enrolled in. That extra subject was geology and, until then, Noel had considered chemistry to be his career … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif