Appreciation: Dr David Naylor: One of Ireland's most respected geologists

Irish Times

a day ago

Dr David (Dave) Naylor, one of Ireland's most highly respected geologists, passed away in his 90th year on June 15th in Maryland, USA, following a short illness. During a career of more than 65 years, he worked in academia, the civil service and industry.
Born in Yorkshire, and a Leeds University graduate, he spent three years as a field geologist with De Beers in South Africa and Namibia exploring for alluvial diamonds. In 1959 he commenced PhD research at Trinity College Dublin where he was appointed a lecturer in 1961.
Following a mineral discovery at Tynagh, Co Galway that led the way to Ireland becoming a major zinc and lead producer, Dave undertook a consultancy project on the drilling results in late 1961. His consultancy fee of £40 went towards the cost of an engagement ring, and in 1962 he married Verney Hickin. Verney became a well-known garden designer and columnist with The Irish Times.
In 1964 Dave joined Chevron as a petroleum geologist in Calgary, Canada, carrying out wellsite and helicopter-based mapping projects in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. In 1969 he co-founded and later became managing director of Exploration Consultants Limited, a London-based consultancy that was heavily involved in the early days of North Sea oil exploration and development.
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Subsequently, in 1976 Dave joined the Geological Survey of Ireland as assistant director, overseeing the field mapping programme, and was Irish technical representative on EC committees and at the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference.
In 1981 he became general manager of Oil & Gas at Northgate, overseeing licence interests in offshore Ireland, the North Sea, North America, Australia and Fiji.
From 1990 until 2000 he was project manager for ERA-Maptec, and from 2000 was consultant to the 162 Group of natural resource companies in Dublin, often involving field work in the Middle East and elsewhere.
An expert on the geology of southwest Ireland and the Irish offshore sedimentary basins, he was adjunct professor at University College Dublin and a research associate at TCD. Co-author of five books and more than 70 scientific publications, his first publication was in 1964.
Fittingly, his final publication, in 2024, was in the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, of which he was a founding editor. Dave loved field work, never losing his enthusiasm or scientific curiosity. He believed that a geologist should never become too far removed from the rocks.
Dave and Verney moved from Dublin to Durrus, Co Cork, in 2000, and in 2023 to Maryland, USA, to be closer to their sons, Sean and Mark, and their families.
His many interests, in addition to geology, included the piano, jazz music and especially travelling with Verney, often on horticultural/botanical expeditions. They visited dozens of countries including Nepal, Bhutan, China, Argentina, Peru, Australia, India, Iran, Syria and Jordan. Their last trip, shortly before Dave's illness, was to sites along the River Nile in Egypt.
Coming from modest means himself, he neither condescended to others nor disrespected an opinion based on the perceived social class of the speaker.
A mentor to generations of geologists, he will long be remembered in the geoscience sector and beyond as a kind, generous and wise friend with encyclopedic geological knowledge. He was a true explorer.