Cyril Williams:CYRIL WILLIAMS, who has died aged 86, was a geologist of outstanding international experience and service. He was director of the Geological Survey of Ireland from 1967 to 1987 during which time he transformed the neglected survey, into a modern, confident and internationally respected organisation.
Cyril was born in Durban, South Africa in 1922 and studied geology in Cape Town University.
After a break for military service in the second World War, flying many missions in the Mediterranean, his first professional work was contract mapping for the Geological Survey of South Africa, an experience that led to his lifelong involvement with national geological surveys around the world. He then served with surveys in Uganda, Mauritius and the New Hebrides before returning to Uganda where he was commissioner for mines and the geological survey from 1962 to 1967. In 1969, he was awarded an OBE for his services to geology and mining in Uganda.
The revival of the Irish metal mining industry with the discovery of the Tynagh Mine in 1963, meant the government recognised the need to modernise the Geological Survey of Ireland as a source of expert, independent advice in relation to national mineral, oil and development issues.
Cyril, with his knowledge and experience of the international mining industry and record in the establishment and direction of national geological surveys, was appointed its director in 1967.
The survey was then a division within the Department of Industry and Commerce and Cyril’s first task was to submit to that department a comprehensive plan to expand the survey to meet the need for practical, applied specialist advice to government, industry and the public in relation to all aspects of natural resources.
The plan allowed a multi-disciplinary team of geologists be recruited and during the 1970s and 1980s, the survey became a dynamic, productive organisation.
The survey reclaimed its place at the centre of national development in many fields, including the licensing and promotion of the booming mining and mineral exploration sector; the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework for nascent offshore oil and gas exploration; the effective but sustainable development of Ireland’s groundwater resources and building national databases of integrated sub-surface information that was valuable to the infrastructural developments of the 1990s.
A priority for the revitalised and enlarged survey was to renew and expand the basic knowledge of geology through field mapping, data gathering, collation and interpretation so all the survey’s publications and advice would be of the highest quality possible. The revolution of plate tectonics in the earth sciences of the mid-1960s had come from the seabed discoveries in the world’s oceans.
Cyril had seen at first hand the manifestation of ocean dynamics in the New Hebrides. He also recognised the importance to island nations with no onshore hydrocarbon resources of the potential for offshore oil, gas and other resources.
He therefore advocated to government the need for Ireland to have detailed knowledge of the form and geology of its offshore waters as a vital national interest. He set up a marine geology capability in the survey early in his directorship, which led to the National Seabed Survey.
Cyril’s international background and perspective meant he encouraged the survey to become involved in wider, international geoscience issues. For example, survey staff provided important technical input to the series of Law of the Sea conferences that set international agreements on marine law and resources.
The expansion during the 1970s and the 1980s meant the survey outgrew its headquarters at Hume Street. A major achievement in his later career was leading the design and negotiating the building of a new headquarters on the Beggars Bush Barracks site, which the survey still occupies.
Cyril and Margaret Williams retired in 1987 to Ogenelloe in Co Clare, where they entertained many visitors from around Ireland and abroad and sailed on the Shannon waterways.
He never retired however from his love of the Earth and its rocks and kept debating and writing until the end about the volcanoes of the world.
Cyril’s first wife, Norah, died before him. He is survived by his second wife, Margaret, his sons, David and Paddy, and his step-daughter, Jill.
Cyril Edward Williams, OBE, MRIA, BA, MA, PhD: born November 9th, 1922; died January 4th, 2009