Mr Ronald (Bill) M. Wild (Civil and Environmental Engineering 1938)

Provided by Peter Morris (MSc Civil and Environmental Engineering 1981)

Bill Wild died on 28 March 2007, aged 90 years. He was an extraordinary man.

After war service in the Royal Engineers and time with consultants, he came to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1947 to join the Irrigation Department. He did the route selection for the Kariba Dam access road - following the elephant trails down the escarpment - and built the road, supervised the grouting for Kariba and was Resident Engineer for Kyle Dam (a 65-metre high thin arch). He became Chief Designs Engineer where he was responsible for many of the country's large dams and canals. Bill retired from government service in 1980 as Secretary for Water Development.

He joined Stewart Scott Consulting Engineers where he designed and supervised over 60 dams, irrigation schemes and tunnels. He pioneered and extended the limits of masonry arch dams and this work culminated in the Lucilia Poort Dam, a 40-metre high thin masonry arch, completed in his eighty-ninth year.

He remained active in engineering until shortly before he died. His many works in Zimbabwe are a memorial to a great engineer.

Bill was married to Maureen for 38 years, from 1956 to 1994. He is survived by five children (Bruce, Moira, Les, Ivan and Glenda Joy), 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.