Pat Ryan Retires

Mr Ryan, 56, has suffered increasingly from indifferent health in recent years, and after a medical examination last month was placed on sick leave until retirement. His deputy in Hobart, Met. 3 Mr Ken McKinnon is acting RD.

Pat Ryan joined the Bureau as a clerk in 1937, was appointed a cadet meteorologist in 1939 and subsequently transferred to the weather officer's course, which he completed in December 1942. He served in this category for 21 years from 1943 to 1964 at Melbourne, Darwin, Townsville and Sydney Airports, and was OIC at the last three.

During his term in charge of the Sydney airport met office (May 1960–May 1972) he was promoted to Met. 4 in September 1964, served for seven months as RD Tas in 1969 and also acted briefly as RD NSW in 1970. He was transferred to Tasmania as RD after H. G. Bond's retirement in 1972 and in the three years that he presided over the Hobart office he did a tremendous amount of work in establishing met. relationship for flood emergencies in the northwest quarter of the State. He travelled frequently to maintain good relations with his field staff.

Pat Ryan's forte has always been operational meteorology, particularly aviation meteorology, and his work in the international liaison field at Mascot will be well-remembered, both here and abroad.

He was the official Bureau representative at the inquiry into the loss of the Viscount airliner VH-TVC during a thunderstorm over Botany Bay in November 1961 and was responsible for daily advice to DIR on professional meteorological aspects of the inquiry. Subsequently he led the forecasting team at the Sydney Airport met. office in the development of JACMAS. This was a system of providing warnings to aircraft of severe or extreme turbulence in the approach control area of the airport, and is known today as the TAST (Terminal Area Severe Turbulence) service used at Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

In 1956, as OIC at Townsville met office, he gained ministerial approval for his work when radar was used for the first time in Australia for cyclone detection. During his time in Darwin, he was the Bureau's official representative on the Northern Territory Water Resources Committee, and in 1967 while at Sydney he attended the fourth session of the WMO meeting of the Commission for Aviation Meteorology in Montreal.

That his services to meteorology for 38 years have been invaluable was attested to by a letter from A/DIR Allen Bath, who told him that while he was glad that Pat has decided he 'should not try to battle on any longer, on the other hand I have very deep feelings of regret that the Bureau will no longer have the benefit of your highly developed talents as a meteorologist. I hope that on retirement your health will improve and that you will be able to enjoy a well-earned rest.'

DIR Bill Gibbs sent the following telex from Geneva: 'It was with regret that I learned of your retirement on the grounds of invalidity. Grateful for the significant contribution you have made to the development of the Bureau.'

Weather News, on behalf of Pat's friends and colleagues, would like to wish him well in retirement, and hope that his health improves.

Bureau of Meteorology