engineering

Gordon Morrison (engineer)

Gordon Morrison (engineer) is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gordon Morrison (engineer) rather than just read about it. In short: Walter Gordon Morrison (12 March 1903 – 28 October 1983) was a New Zealand consulting engineer and local-body politician. Biography Early life Morrison was born in Waimate in 1903.

Key takeaways

Gordon Morrison (engineer) belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gordon Morrison (engineer) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gordon Morrison (engineer) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Walter Gordon Morrison (12 March 1903 – 28 October 1983) was a New Zealand consulting engineer and local-body politician.

Biography

Early life Morrison was born in Waimate in 1903. During World War II Morrison was captain and commanding officer of the Fifth Field war Park Company of New Zealand Engineers in Crete during 1941. There he saved a company of New Zealand soldiers from capture at Souda Bay. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and worked on many civil engineering projects in the Middle East. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) in the 1952 Queen's Birthday Honours for his services on the New Zealand Territorial Force. The following year, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal. Morrison married Aileen Machonachie in Shermansbury, Sussex, on 13 November 1965. Machonachie was assistant director of the overseas students department of the British Council.

Professional career He formed several firms including W. G. Morrison and Partners in 1959 and subsequently Morrison and Cooper and Partners, Consulting Engineers and Registered Architects, in 1971. He built the first prestressed concrete bridge in New Zealand over the Hutt River. He also designed Aurora House in Wellington for which he received a design award from the New Zealand Association of Consulting Engineers. Morrison retired from the partnership (then known as Morrison & Cooper) in 1974 but worked part-time in the office before he finally retired, moving to Waikanae in April 1980. In 1973 he was awarded the Alfred O. Glasse award by the New Zealand Planning Institute for his contribution to urban development planning in Wellington. He was later to serve as the President of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers between 1958 and 1959. For his contribution to engineering he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Canterbury in 1973.

Political career In 1959 Morrison won a seat on the Wellington City Council on a Citizens' Association ticket which he was to hold until 1971 when he retired. He was chairman of the Town Planning Committee of the city council for over a decade, where he finalised Wellington's district scheme. He also spent three years as chairman of the Housing Committee. Wellington Mayor Sir Michael Fowler later described Morrison as an "extremely good" councillor. Morrison attempted a political comeback in 1974. He stood as an independent, but was unsuccessful.

Later life and death Morrison died of lung cancer at the Mary Potter Hospice on 28 October 1983, aged 80, survived by his wife Aileen.

Notes

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gordon Morrison (engineer)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gordon Morrison (engineer) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gordon Morrison (engineer) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gordon Morrison (engineer) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gordon Morrison (engineer)

In research: Gordon Morrison (engineer) appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gordon Morrison (engineer) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gordon Morrison (engineer) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1903 births, 1983 deaths, 20th-century New Zealand engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gordon Morrison (engineer) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gordon Morrison (engineer) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gordon Morrison (engineer) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gordon Morrison (engineer) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gordon Morrison (engineer) in simple terms?

Walter Gordon Morrison (12 March 1903 – 28 October 1983) was a New Zealand consulting engineer and local-body politician. Biography Early life Morrison was born in Waimate in 1903.

Why does Gordon Morrison (engineer) matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gordon Morrison (engineer)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gordon Morrison (engineer).