Stuff Digital Edition

High flier in face of great loss

Mathematician b October 23, 1938 d July 6, 2021 – By Peter Fama and Andrew Duncan

‘They should never have let a woman do it’’ was a recurrent grumble from traditional coal miners when Dr Mary Fama turned up periodically to check out the application of her analytical work on mine structure. Paradoxically, the collapse of a roof in one Queensland mine followed a manager’s disregard of Mary’s mathematical calculations and recommendations.

In 1967, Mary had graduated from Harvard University with a PhD in applied mathematics – a singular success at that time for a young Kiwi woman in an academic world of international male students. But by the end of her life, Mary’s achievements had become exceptional not only professionally but in her extraordinary resilience in the face of great personal stress and loss.

Born in Windsor, west of London, Mary Elizabeth Duncan was the second in a family of five children. Her parents, Kitty and Jimmy, were devoted Catholics, Jimmy having spent time in training as a Benedictine monk. Kitty was English, Jimmy of New Zealand-Scottish extraction.

The shadow of war overhung Mary’s early childhood. Her father was commissioned in the British Army, and narrowly escaped France through Dunkirk. Later, he became a senior planner in Churchill’s war room. Mary’s maternal grandparents were killed in the Blitz in 1941, a cruel shock to the family.

When Mary was five years of age, she was sent with her older sister, Anna, to boarding school in Scotland. But in 1947, she was taken with the family to Vienna, where Jimmy was an administrator in the occupying government.

The family eventually migrated to New Zealand when Mary was 10. They lived in Heretaunga, and then in northern Upper Hutt.

Mary was a perceptive and intelligent student. She was also both inquisitive and warm-hearted. At Sacred Heart College in Island Bay, she excelled in all her studies and even persuaded the college to engage for her a special teacher in mathematics – a subject not then considered essential for young ladies. In her final year she gained a national university scholarship.

Unfortunately, in that year Mary was also discovered, with several friends, taking part in a clandestine ‘‘midnight feast’’, which resulted in the brutal confiscation of all her school academic prizes. She continued to retain a mischievous streak in her character.

It was probably at some time during childhood that Mary contracted undiagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis – a precursor to the lung disease that troubled her much later in adult life.

Subsequently, she completed a BA at the University of Canterbury, and then a BA (first class) in mathematics at Oxford University. After her return to New Zealand in 1962, she joined the staff at the applied mathematics division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).

However, her tertiary education was not yet complete. With a Fulbright travel grant, a New Zealand Federation of University Women Fellowship, and a Harvard Fellowship, she took off for Harvard, graduating in 1967 at the age of 28.

On her return to New Zealand that year, she resumed work for the DSIR. One of her more curious projects was the calculation of stress deformity in sewer pipes – an unusual conversational topic at social gatherings, she found.

In 1968, through a mutual friend, she met Peter Fama, a young psychiatrist then working in Auckland. Peter had at that time contracted to return to a job in Australia. But it was love at first sight. The couple married later that year in Sydney, where both had relatives. They lived on the North Shore, and Mary worked as a junior lecturer at the University of Sydney.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable time, until their troubled family life began unhappily with the death of their first

child, Paul, who survived premature birth for only a few hours.

Their second child, Michael, arrived in 1970 and, in those early years, was more robust.

Peter came from a quite different family background, in which he had been

an only child. On one memorable occasion not long after their marriage, he declared imperiously at a dinner party, ‘‘I hate sharing!’’ The guests were visibly stunned. But Peter and Mary’s marriage came to last for more than 52 years.

Mary, Peter and Michael returned to

New Zealand two years later. Mary once more resumed work with the DSIR. With the new ‘‘fast’’ computers of the time, there had emerged the practical application of the mathematical process of finite element analysis, which Mary with diligence and enterprise applied to problems in the design of coal mines.

Twins Susan and Christopher arrived in 1971. But though they seemed healthy and vigorous, Michael by age 7 could not stand up steadily. His ‘‘wobblings’’ were subsequently diagnosed as the progressive neurological disease Friedreich’s ataxia, a hereditary condition caused by a recessive gene.

In 1983, the family returned to Australia to pursue their professional careers further. They settled this time in Brisbane and stayed there for 27 years.

Mary was appointed senior scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), working at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technology in western Brisbane – one of only two women scientists in that centre. The research group for which she worked came to lead the world in modelling ground strain and movements in mining.

But at home, from his early teenage years, Michael had to use a wheelchair. And from about that age, the twins had to give up their bicycles. All three children now had Friedreich’s ataxia.

The disorder eventually led to incoordination and weakness of all muscles, including those of speech, and eventually affected the children’s hearts. Michael died at 27, Susan at 33, Christopher at 36.

The children had all achieved very well in the face of their disabilities. Christopher, like Mary, completed a PhD in mathematics – this time, of black holes, the same speciality as Stephen Hawking. But for the parents, ultimately there were more tears than cheers.

Mary’s respiratory problem became evident in the late 1980s, with the diagnosis of bronchiectasis, a progressive lung disease which gradually destroys the walls of the bronchi or breathing tubes.

Mary and Peter eventually retired from work and returned to New Zealand in 2010, settling in Havelock North.

In 2013, Mary suddenly went blind in the left eye. It was discovered this was because of an abscess from her lung bacteria.

Repeated courses of antibiotics kept her respiratory symptoms subdued, but finally further complications of bronchiectasis took their toll. She died in Hawke’s Bay Hospital on July 6.

It was the end of an extraordinary life. Mary had been a person of warmth and kindness, always wanting the best for everyone. She was a strong, active supporter of charitable projects, and herself founded an enduring Hastings charity that continues to supply warm clothing for school children.

She was resolute in her Christian faith. Strong-willed, even bossy, she nevertheless had a personal charm that endeared her to everyone.

Obituaries

en-nz

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281981790735925

Stuff Limited