BRION JARVIS PhD

Brion Douglas Walton Jarvis

(1928-2015)

Brion passed away peacefully at Summerset Home on Friday 8th May 2015

Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.

Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015

- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf

Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.

Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015

- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf

Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.

Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015

- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf

Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda and Sharon and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.
"A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life, indeed Dad."
We are very grateful to Drs Murray Shaw and John Burke and the staff at Summerset Village for their care and support. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Methodist Social Services would be appreciated and may be left in the church foyer. Messages to the Jarvis family C/- PO Box 5191 Palmerston North 4441. Friends are invited to join with family for a celebration of Brion's life at Wesley Broadway Methodist Church, 264 Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North, on Thursday, 14th May 2015, at 10am, followed by a private cremation.

Published in Manawatu Standard on May 11, 2015

- See more at: http://deaths.manawatustandard.co.nz/obituaries/manawatu-standard-nz/obituary.aspx?pid=174830017#sthash.GbeVsChu.dpuf

We remember with love: "A wise and gentle man who will be sadly missed by us all. Yours was a worthwhile life indeed Dad."

Brion was a wonderful friend and dearly loved husband to Audrey for 56 years. Treasured father of Susan, Linda, and Sharon, and to Melissa and Emma Buckle. Loved father-in-law of Mike. Dearest grandfather of Amelia, Felicia, and Cajetan; Edwina, Elliot, and Anna; Jack and Josh; and great grandfather of Lucas and Twila.



Brion was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, UK and educated at Caterham School in Surrey. He served two years in the Royal Air Force as a radar operator before obtaining a Diploma in Dairying from Nottingham University and a National Diploma in Dairying. He emigrated to Australia in 1951 and worked for the Portland Cooperative Dairy Company and Glaxo Australia, before moving to Melbourne to work in the CSIRO Animal Health Division and undertaking part-time BSc studies at Melbourne University. He obtained a Victorian Department of Agriculture scholarship in 1958 and undertook a BAgrSc course at Massey University, NZ, graduated with a PhD from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, then spent 2 years at the University of California (Davis), before returning to Massey in 1967 as Senior Lecturer in Microbiology.
   His research interests have covered rumen cellulolytic bacteria, the interactions between rumen bacteria and ciliate protozoa, then moving on to work with Rhizobium and Agrobacterium and their classification.  Brion retired from Massey at the end of 1993, but still retained an active interest in Rhizobium.

Audrey Jarvis (wife of Brion) says: We met in Port Fairy in Victoria in 1955, when we both worked at Glaxo Laboratories. Brion had come to Australia from England as a  '10 pound Pom', and I arrived as a new graduate from Melbourne University. Port Fairy has wonderful beaches, and Brion's favourite activity was spearfishing. The first time he invited me to go out (on his motor bike) he had been spearfishing. He and his friend caught so many fish that they themselves could not fit in the boat with them, and they had to swim behind it to get it home. He was nearly two hours late meeting me. I was still willing to go out with him, and he was impressed.
   Brion came to Palmerston North to be a student at Massey University in 1958, and at the end of that year we married in Melbourne. We both came to live in Palmerston North, and we became part of Trinity Methodist Church.
   Brion had a tremendous love of nature, and he combined this with his artistic skills, in his many Nature Books. Here are some sketches of chiffchaff.



    In 1974 we built a house on 11 acres in Old West Road, and Brion added raising calves to our family activities. And there were horses for the girls.
   Brion was a dedicated scientist, working long hours, and he regretted that he didn't have as much time for family holidays. He worked on protozoa, which, unlike many bacteria, one cannot simply freeze and take out of the freezer when convenient;  he would come home each morning from church camps to feed his protozoa.
   Brion was very supportive of my wish to have a scientific career. I joined the staff of the NZ Dairy Research Institute in 1968.
   I remember Brion as a wise and dependable Dad and Poppa. And he was a wonderful friend and husband to me for 56 years. My heart is overflowing with gratitude for the life we have had together, and with sadness because he is no longer here with me in a physical form. I know he will live on in many ways as he remains in my and our memories.

Brian Colless says: Since 1970 the Jarvises and the Collesses have been a close-knitted family group. We are all refugees from Australia (it's easier to get out of Oz than into it). Having left our relatives overseas, we became cousins and uncles and aunts to one another.

   Brion Jarvis was certainly a good mentor to my children. Young Nigel went paua fishing with him, underwater, and felt safe, he said recently.

The two families went on camping holidays together, usually arranged through our Methodist church: Waikanae, the donkey ranch; Taranaki, the snowy mountain; Coromandel, the camp by the sea. In all this, my main role was to be there to have my ginger beard tugged (but I never pulled pigtails or ponytails).

   I would also like to speak for my dear departed wife Helen. Brion and Helen were friends. And Helen constantly demonstrated  her faithfulness to me by only having close friendships with men named /braian/. My daughter Laurel says this ensured that when Helen called out a name in her sleep, it would always be the right one, no matter what the spelling: Brion, Bryan, Brian (in my family, mine is Brain). Actually, Brion's birth certificate spells his name Brian, but the spelling he used assured him of uniqueness.
   Helen and Brion truly influenced many young lives through the Sunday school class they took together; and they had a sleep-over on one occasion, in the church hall.
   Helen passed away on Christmas Eve in 2014. Brion departed from us on the 8th of May, which was Helen's 56th wedding anniversary. They both died as the sun was setting, in different seasons (summer, autumn) but it was a good way to go. "As the sun sinks slowly in the west, we say farewell ...."