Robert George Norman (1923 - 2021)

Bob Norman had a distinguished career with the Ministry of Works and served as Commissioner of Works 1983-1985. He was well known for his forthright approach and for his publications which included memoir and poetry.

Bob Norman

Early years and war service

Bob Norman was born in Wellington and spent his childhood in the Hutt Valley before attending Nelson College for his secondary education. He then completed an honours degree in civil engineering, graduating from Canterbury University College in 1944.

After graduation Bob joined the Public Works Department before enlisting with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. He served as a sapper in the New Zealand Engineers and spent six months in Egypt, four months in Italy and then six months in Japan. Bob recalled seeing the appalling spectacle of Hiroshima and the total devastation of Japanese infrastructure.

First roles with the Public Works Department

Bob returned to New Zealand in September 1946 and was appointed to the Public Works Department Design Office. At this time, there was also a Ministry of Works, established in 1943. The two departments merged in 1948 to become the Ministry of Works (MOW).

The Public Works Department was known for its design and construction of the large span hangars built in Ōhakea and Whenuapai and the famed Mōhaka rail viaduct. While with the Department, Bob made a name for himself working with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) to write and present a paper on ‘Vibrations of a highway bridge.’

In 1948 Bob was awarded a University Travelling Scholarship, and spent 18 months studying engineering construction in the U.K. His fiancée, Beverley Campbell joined him in the U.K. and the couple married in January 1950. They returned to New Zealand later that year and Bob continued his work with the Civil Design Office and at the same time completed an honours degree in mathematics.

While with the Civil Design Office, Bob played a big part in the development of the pre-stressing of concrete structures, particularly in relation to the development of the port at Tauranga. He also played a part in the development of the MOW Bridge Manual which became an important reference work for structural concrete.

Bob recalled working with Percy Laing, then MOW Chief Designing Engineer, who impressed Bob with his claim that “engineering design is more art than science .”

At the beginning of 1953, Bob moved away from the rarefied air of Head Office to spend time working in the Napier District Office. He enjoyed the direct contact with people in the field and with the public. Bob was a good raconteur and had a fund of stories from his time in Napier, many of these are recounted in his book You can’t win ‘em all: confessions of a Public Works engineer, published 1997.

Scholarship to the United States

Bob returned to the MOW Head Office in mid-1955 but was only there briefly before heading to the United States on a Harkness Scholarship. He travelled widely through the States, studying bridging techniques and meeting senior bridge design engineers.

The trip to the States was a valuable learning experience for Bob. He maintained the connections he made there throughout his career and always acknowledged the help the MOW received from his American connections as well as other international sources.

In the Ministry of Works Design Office

Back in New Zealand in 1957, Bob spent the next ten years working in the MOW Design Office, first as a Design Engineer and later as Chief Design Engineer. Bob said of that decade, that it was “the most fruitful and rewarding” of his engineering life.

One of the projects Bob was involved with during that time was the ‘clip-on’ additions to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Bob questioned the narrow depth of the girders in the middle span in the international consultants’ design. It turned out this measurement had been arrived at based on the Auckland Harbour Board’s requirement for clearance under the bridge and the National Roads Board’s standard design for bridge approaches that limited the gradient to a maximum of 1 in 20. Bob renegotiated these constraints, and the bridge design was modified to include a greater safety margin.

Bob encouraged the use of innovative techniques; always backed up with careful research. The technical strength of the Ministry was its ability to identify problems and establish standards which helped to prevent failures in structures or roads. Under Bob’s leadership, the Ministry proved itself time and again able to give the Government invaluable advice, such as the standards for cement and steel, particularly reinforcing steel. It also developed new procedures for bridge construction, for example, incremental launching, tunnelling, aerial survey and soil conservation.

State Services Commissioner

In 1967 Bob accepted a position as a Member of the State Services Commission, with responsibility for personnel administration and organisation of fourteen government departments whose activities involved scientific and technological work.

One of the departments he oversaw was the DSIR and Bob was asked to report on the Department’s management of the Antarctic programme. Bob’s visit to Scott Base made a lasting impression on him and began his enduring love of the Antarctic. Recalling this visit in his book, You can’t win ‘em all, Bob wrote "…there is nothing to beat the sensation of landing on ice – opening the door to the clean, crisp air and crunching the ice and the powdered ice under your boots. Suddenly, the rest of the world has vanished, as if it never really existed."

Bob served as Chairman of the Ross Dependency Research Committee and was a longstanding patron of the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Commissioner of Works

Towards the end of 1969 Bob returned to the Ministry of Works as Assistant Commissioner of Works. He was appointed Commissioner of Works in 1983 and retired from this position in 1985. The MOW was renamed the Ministry of Works and Development in 1974 to reflect its increased planning role for the Government.

Bob was largely responsible for the Ministry’s engineering operations. He advised on many big developments, including South Island hydro schemes and road improvements. He was also involved with the Ministry’s soil research and conservation work.

Bob was a leader in the growing environmental movement and for 13 years was a member of the Environmental Council. Bob attended a number of UNESCO and United Nations meetings, including the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. He chaired an international panel of experts on environmental education in Paris in 1974 and, up until his retirement, served as chairman of UNESCO’s sub-commission on Man and the Biosphere.

Politics and Bob’s approach

Bob’s role as Commissioner of Works involved a good deal of politics. When the Department came in for criticism Bob always showed confidence in his staff and was stout in their defence if criticism was unfair or misguided.

He could also be reasonably forthright when he considered it necessary. He wrote in his book, You can’t win ‘em all, that over his years in the public service he “had sometimes not been known for deference or tact when it came to controversy in public issues.” But that he lived by the simple philosophy that “irrespective of the issues or the consequences, you had to do or say what you thought from the heart was right.”

IPENZ involvement

Bob was an active member of the then-Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ), now Engineering New Zealand. He served on the Institution’s Council in the early 1960s, and on the Education Committee. He was elected Vice President in 1980 and served as President for the 1991/92 year. He was made a Distinguished Fellow in 1997.

Retirement

Bob retired from his role as Commissioner of Works in April 1985. He continued his involvement with IPENZ and spearheaded the IPENZ 1990 engineering heritage project.

Not one to be idle in retirement, Bob also continued his work on environmental matters, management education, fundraising for the School of Engineering at Canterbury and various consulting assignments, including the refurbishment of Parliament Buildings.

His greatest pleasure was his long involvement with the New Zealand Antarctic Programme. Bob was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for Public Service in 1985.

Writer and speaker

Bob was a prolific writer of technical papers. For IPENZ publications alone he produced 23 papers between 1947 and 2000.

He was always an entertaining speaker and gave four major public presentations - the W.L. Newnham lecture in 1970, the Dobson lecture in 1977, his President Address in 1982, and the Hopkins lecture in 1986.

Bob also enjoyed writing poetry and could throw a few lines together at a moment’s notice. On a commemorative rail trip on the North Island Main Trunk to celebrate the IPENZ 1990 engineering heritage project, the train electrification failed, and engineers were left stranded in an increasingly chilly carriage. Bob wrote a poem on the spot entitled 'The Hostages of Mangaweka Hill’ and broadcast it over the train’s PA system.

Bob published five books, two of which were mainly of his poems.

Family life

Bob and Bev settled in Titahi Bay where they lived for the better part of 50 years. Bev was a true support for Bob through his career. The couple had one daughter and four sons.

In the epilogue of his book, You can’t win ‘em all, Bob wrote

Let's not forget the end-a builded work
That serves us well, and in good cost and time,
And in so doing, graces its surrounds.

Design has always been my life. It starts with a dream, and concludes with another small step forward in our engineering legacy.

Over the years, our engineering heritage has come about with three basic objectives-and these have never changed. They are economy, utility and grace.

Economy, because technology should be able to offer a much greater choice of options, and a better understanding of the consequences of choice; utility, because through research and development, we shall be better equipped to understand the performance of our works, and the demands that will be placed upon them; and, finally, there is that intangible remaining quality-grace. For what profit a society if its engineers, architects and builders meet all the other needs, but fail to produce objects of delight?

Bob Norman's publications

Bob Norman, You can’t win ‘em all: confessions of a public works engineer (Porirua: Slide Rule Press, 1997).

Bob Norman, Some of me pomes & a few uvver fings: an anthology of original verse & prose (Paraparaumu: Slide Rule Press, 2006).

Bob Norman, To get to the other side: a personal encounter with some bridges around the world (Paraparaumu: Slide Rule Press, 2011).

Bob Norman, Some more of me pomes & a few uvver fings: an anthology of original verse & prose (Paraparaumu: Slide Rule Press, 2014).

Bob Norman, 94 not out: talks of an engineer (Paraparaumu: Slide Rule Press, 2017).

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