| Charles Reed Laws | |
| Birth Date: | 21 January 1894 |
| Fields: | Geology, malacology |
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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.
Laws was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 21 January 1894.[1] His father was Methodist reverend Charles Henry Laws.[2] He was educated at Christchurch and Dunedin, and attended Christchurch Boys' High School.[1] After two years at high school, Laws left in order to become a teacher himself.[1] During World War I, Laws became a sergeant of the 12th Reinforcements in Egypt and France.[1] He later studied at Auckland Training College and Auckland University College, beginning to teach at primary schools in 1921.[1] 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.[3] [1] [4]
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.[1] In 1946, he left to become the senior lecturer in geology at Auckland University College.[1] Laws became acting head of geology in 1949 after the death of Arthur Bartrum.[5]
Laws was encouraged to study malacology by paleontologists Harold Finlay and John Marwick.[6] During the 1930s and 1940s, Laws became an authority on the gastropod family Pyramidellidae, publishing 122 new descriptions for species within this family.[3] Laws was also involved in major fossil finding expeditions at Kaawa Creek and Pakaurangi Point.[3] In recognition of his work, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1950.[6]
Laws retired in 1959, after which he dedicated his life to spending time with family and his hobbies, including rose gardening.[3] [1]
In 1921 Laws married Evelyn Katie Lee. Together they had twin daughters in 1925 and a son in 1933.[6] 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.