Frederick William Furkert, 1876–1949
F. W. Furkert was chief engineer and under-secretary of the Public Works Department from 1920 to 1932, and was responsible for the first hydroelectric works in New Zealand. He inspected the Larderello geothermal power station in Italy in 1926, but developing geothermal power in New Zealand was deemed too risky at the time. It was another 25 years before serious investigations got underway.
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Leslie Issott Grange, 1894–1980
Geologist Les Grange carried out extensive fieldwork in the Taupō volcanic zone between 1926 and 1930, producing detailed maps of the region and an important monograph. In the 1930s and 1940s Grange worked as a soil scientist. As director of the New Zealand Geological Survey from 1952, he strongly advocated geothermal development, and produced a bulletin, ‘Geothermal steam for power in New Zealand’.
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James Healy, 1910–1994
James Healy was a government volcanologist, based in Rotorua, from 1945 to 1971. An urgent need for power generation in the North Island after the Second World War led to the start of geothermal investigations, in which he played a leading part for many years. After retiring, Healy nevertheless undertook several overseas geothermal investigations and helped to set up the Geothermal Institute at the University of Auckland.
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Thomas Athol Rafter, 1913–1996
Athol Rafter was a nuclear scientist with an international reputation in the field of radiocarbon dating. He became the first director of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) from 1955 to 1978. Rafter recognised that naturally occurring stable isotopes would help scientists understand environmental processes, including geothermal systems, and he encouraged research in this area.
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Charles William Oakey Turner, 1901–1994
Charles Turner was a leading engineer for the Ministry of Works, and was responsible for major power developments after the Second World War. He strongly supported the use of geothermal steam to generate power, and was appointed one of the directors of Geothermal Developments Ltd, a joint British–New Zealand company established to develop the Wairākei field.
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