Happy Retirement, and Happy Birthday too! [Ralph de la Lande]

Ralph's departure from the Public Service came after a career spanning 46 years.

At a presentation to Ralph on 7 August, the Director, Dr John Zillman told the assembled group the Bureau had been fortunate over the years in terms of the engineers who have come from outside to a specialised organisation and made an enormous contribution.

He said that Ralph, in his quiet and effective way, had been responsible for some fundamental changes in the way the Bureau does things, and an agent for a number of major developments.

Ralph had been the "guiding hand" behind the remarkably successful FGGE buoy program, one of the significant steps of the 1970s.

ADC Mike Moore, who worked with Ralph for many years, expressed his thanks for the
guidance and encouragement he had received. He said Ralph was looked on as a "traveller"—possibly because of his reputation for having to conduct a "personal inspection" of every proposed AWS site.

Don Handcock, who retired a week earlier, spoke of happy times spent with Ralph in Saudi. He said Ralph was one of those people who had the knack of making the good times better and the bad times not so bad.

Former ADF Keith Henderson, who retired last December and had worked with Ralph since 1970, also called in to pass on his best wishes.

In his parting comments, Ralph said he had no regrets about joining the Bureau and had found it a stimulating environment. He said it was full of "challenges and action", with an excellent team of people. He was sorry to be leaving but realised, that everyone reached a stage where they should "hand over".

Ralph was presented with a barometer from his many friends.

Bureau of Meteorology