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- MY LIFE AND TIMES by Keith McCree -

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About Keith

I was born in 1927 in Christchurch, New Zealand. My great grandfather Edward Macaree was a Londoner who brought his wife Sarah and their family out to Christchurch in 1877 (Chapter 1). In New Zealand the family used the name McCree. My grandfather was Charles McCree (Chapter 2) and my father was Jeff McCree (Chapter 3). He married Alma Harris in 1925. My childhood was spent in in their home in St. Albans (Chapter 4).

I was born with a problem-solving brain, and began dabbling in science at an early age. I was educated at St Albans school and Christchurch Boys' High School, and received the B. Sc. and M. Sc. degrees in physics from the old Canterbury University College, the Alma Mater of 'The Father of the Atom', Ernest Rutherford. It is now an arts center.

My supervisor for the master's degree in 1948 was Professor F.C. Chalklin, who had recently arrived from University College, London. I learned from him the nuts and bolts of physics research (including the advice to become ambidextrous). I helped Prof. Chalklin to set up the vacuum spectrograph for soft X-rays that he had been using to study the structures of crystals. Unfortunately, it turned out that the spectrograph had been damaged during the bombing of London and could not be focussed properly. Shortly after, Professor Chalklin was killed in a plane crash while on the way to an international conference.

Like most other New Zealanders, I learned to play the piano as a child. I became a proficient amateur pianist and organist. I played the flute in my father's chamber music group, in which he played the clarinet, my grandfather played the saxophone, and friends played an eclectic selection of other instruments. Later in life I enjoyed learning to play the viola. Now I play an electronic piano that simulates the sound of a concert grand (also harpsichord, organ and 11 other instruments).

Another important part of my early life was tramping (hiking) and biking (Chapter 5). I have fond memories of excursions to Arthur's Pass in trains drawn by steam locomotives, in the days before the Pass was readily accessible by road. Everywhere I've lived since, I've enjoyed exploring the area on foot or by bike.

By the time I reached 21 I was bored with life in my home town. I got a job as a research physicist for the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R.) in Lower Hutt, near the capital city Wellington. In 1950 I was sent to Taupo to join a team doing geophysical exploration of New Zealand's volcanic hot springs, research which laid the groundwork for geothermal power production at nearby Wairakei (Chapter 6).

Back in the lab in Lower Hutt, I became interested in the question of how to establish standards for the brightness and color of a traffic signal. In 1955 I wrote to an expert in the physiological basis of color vision, Professor W.D. Wright of Imperial College in London. He invited me to study for a Ph. D. with him. So I packed my belongings in a tin trunk from my grandfather's factory and proceeded to London via the Suez Canal (Chapter 7).

During my stay in London (Chapter 8) I enjoyed walking trips to the surrounding countryside (in England this is called "rambling") (Chapter 9). I also took a walking trip to the Lake District in northwest England (Chapter 10). I did a cycle trip to Wales with fellow-student David, and visited Michelle in Paris. On a student hiking trip to Salzburg (Austria) with Frank in 1956, I fell in love with a Swedish girl, Barbro Persson. Next year we were married in her home town (Chapter 11). We lived for a few months in a flat in Warwick Avenue, Notting Hill.

After I graduated in 1958, we travelled to New Zealand via the Panama Canal (Chapter 12). We moved into my old flat in Mahina Bay, on the eastern shores of Wellington Harbour (Chapter 13). Our two boys, John and Alan, were born while we lived at Mahina Bay. We later moved to Rona Bay in Eastbourne (Chapter 14). During the next few years we made many camping trips around both the North and South Islands ((Chapter 15, Chapter 16).

I returned to work at the Physics Lab of the D.S.I.R. in Lower Hutt. There was little interest in color vision in New Zealand, where the main industry is agriculture, so I continued my earlier work developing light measuring instruments for plant science studies. These included solarimeter for measuring photosynthetically active radiation (P.A.R.), a term which at that time was ill-defined and seldom used. I began research on the physiological basis for photosynthesis and respiration in plants, in collaboration with John Troughton.

To be continued . . .

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