Mary Earle

OBE
Earle in 1992
Born
Mary Davidson Cameron

(1929-10-20)20 October 1929
Banavie, Inverness-shire, Scotland
Died18 April 2021(2021-04-18) (aged 91)
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
Spouse
Dick Earle
​
(m. 1961)​
Scientific career
FieldsFood technology
Institutions
ThesisThe purification of soya lipoxidase (1957)

Mary Davidson Earle OBE (née Cameron; 20 October 1929 – 18 April 2021) was a Scottish-born New Zealand food technologist. She was the first female faculty member of a university engineering department in New Zealand when she joined Massey University's food technology department in 1965.

Early life

Earle was born Mary Davidson Cameron on 20 October 1929 in Banavie[1] near Ben Nevis in Scotland,[2] the daughter of Ronald Cameron.[3] She studied chemical engineering at the University of Glasgow, and completed her PhD in food science there in 1957.[1][4][5] The title of her doctoral thesis was The purification of soya lipoxidase.[4] She then worked in product development in the British food industry for five years.[6]

While studying at Glasgow, she met her husband, Richard Lawrence Earle, who was also undertaking doctoral studies there,[5] and the couple married in 1961.[3]

Career in New Zealand

After moving to New Zealand in 1961, Mary Earle began work at New Zealand's Meat Industry Research Institute. She joined the staff of Massey University Food Technology Department in 1965,[5] becoming the first female engineering academic in New Zealand.[7] Her early work was adding rigour to the university's graduate course in food technology,[5] which had been established the year before she joined Massey. In time she would develop the Food Technology Research Centre, which made the university's resources available to industry.[7]

In 1992, Earle became a full professor when she was awarded a personal chair by Massey University, the first in the university's technology faculty. She was the fourth female professor at Massey.[5] She retired from Massey in 1994, and was accorded the title of professor emerita.[6][7]

Earle served on the board of the New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research, and was a director of the Pork Industry Board.[5]

Later life and death

Mary and Dick Earle in 1995

In retirement, Mary and Dick Earle wrote eight books together, including Creating New Foods: The Product Developer's Guide in 2009.[8] They established scholarship and grant programmes to support students, particularly women, in engineering and technology, and founded the Earle Creativity and Development Trust to develop and nuture science and technology, the visual and fine arts, literature and history, and music in the Manawatū and Rangitīkei regions.[6]

Mary Earle died in Palmerston North on 18 April 2021, and she chose to be buried in Turakina where some of the earliest Scottish immigrants to New Zealand had lived. She had been a president of the Clan Cameron Association of New Zealand whose members celebrate their Scottish roots.[1]

Honours and awards

In 1973 Earle was elected a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology, and then an Honorary Fellow in 1994.[9] In 1992, Earle was elected an honorary fellow of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers.[5] In the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to food technology,[10] and the same year she was one of 544 recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.[11]

In 2018, Earle was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Science degree by Massey University.[12] She also received an honorary doctorate from Khon Kaen University in Thailand, and was an honorary fellow of the Institute of Food Science & Technology.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Food technology pioneer and generous mentor Mary Earle remembered". Stuff. 7 May 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Ben Nevis from near Banavie (Getty Museum)". The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  3. 1 2 Traue, J. E., ed. (1978). Who's Who in New Zealand (11th ed.). Wellington: Reed. p. 105. ISBN 0-589-01113-8.
  4. 1 2 Cameron, Mary D. (1957). The purification of soya lipoxidase (PhD thesis). University of Glasgow. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Pioneering technologist granted personal chair". Mμ. Massey University. 27 July 1992. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Honorary doctorate citation, Richard and Mary Earle, 2018". Massey University. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 "Professor Emerita Mary Earle: a life dedicated to food technology and scholastic endeavour". Riddet Institute. 30 April 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  8. ↑ Earle, Mary D. (2009). Creating New Foods: The Product Developer's Guide. New Zealand Institute of Food Science & Technology.
  9. ↑ "NZIFST - List of Fellows". nzifst.org.nz. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  10. ↑ "No. 53334". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 12 June 1993. p. 38.
  11. ↑ "The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 – Register of recipients". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  12. ↑ "Honorary degree citations". Massey University. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
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