Charles Reed Laws

Charles Reed Laws (21 January 1894 – 25 February 1985) was a New Zealand geologist and malacologist, known for his work studying micromolluscs of New Zealand.

Biography


Laws was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 21 January 1894. His father was Methodist reverend Charles Henry Laws. He was educated at Christchurch and Dunedin, and attended Christchurch Boys' High School. After two years at high school, Laws left in order to become a teacher himself. During World War I, Laws became a sergeant of the 12th Reinforcements in Egypt and France. He later studied at Auckland Training College and Auckland University College, beginning to teach at primary schools in 1921. He completed his Bachelor of Science at Auckland University College in 1922, and in 1925, he became the second person to complete a thesis on geology at Auckland University College, winning the Julius von Haast Prize, awarded by the University of London.

From 1929 to 1931, Laws became a lecturer in geography at Dunedin Teachers' Training College, which he followed by being the Lecturer in Geography and Natural Science at Auckland Training College from 1932 to 1946. In 1946, he left to become the senior lecturer in geology at Auckland University College. Laws became acting head of geology in 1949 after the death of Arthur Bartrum.

Laws was encouraged to study malacology by paleontologists Harold Finlay and John Marwick. During the 1930s and 1940s, Laws became an authority on the gastropod family Pyramidellidae, publishing 122 new descriptions for species within this family. Laws was also involved in major fossil finding expeditions at Kaawa Creek and Pakaurangi Point. In recognition of his work, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1950.

Laws retired in 1959, after which he dedicated his life to spending time with family and his hobbies, including rose gardening.

Personal life
In 1921 Laws married Evelyn Katie Lee. Together they had twin daughters in 1925 and a son in 1933. Laws' daughter Jocelyn was friends with his student Hope Sanderson (the first woman to graduate with a MSc with Honours in Geology in New Zealand), who she accompanied on a trip to England.