Clifford Douglas (C. D.) Blake AO is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

agriculturalist and educationalist who became first

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

Charles Sturt University Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus public university located in New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Established in 1989, it was named in honour of Captain (British Army and Royal ...

, from 1990 through to 2001 and then after his retirement from CSU in July 2001, he took up an interim Vice-Chancellor position at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

from August 2001. Blake was born in

Muswellbrook Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney bas ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in 1937. He studied at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and at

Rothamsted Experimental Station Rothamsted Research, previously known as the Rothamsted Experimental Station and then the Institute of Arable Crops Research, is one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, having been founded in 1843. It is located at Harp ...

in England, where he earned a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. After completing a Rockefeller Travelling Fellowship in the United States, where he visited centres of biological teaching and research, Blake became a lecturer in plant pathology at The University of Sydney and the Wilson Fellow and Senior Tutor at St Andrew's College. In 1971 he was appointed Principal of the new Riverina College of Advanced Education, which he developed into one of the leading providers of distance education courses in Australia, introducing courses in business, liberal studies, and science. After amalgamating with the Wagga Agricultural College, he was able to introduce courses in agriculture and relocated the College to a new greenfield site north of the city. In 1981, he oversaw the amalgamation of the College with the Goulburn College of Advanced Education to become the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education. He was also a member of the Board of Adult Education in New South Wales, a member of the Advanced Education Council of the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission and the Chairman of the NSW Advanced Education Conference. In 1988 he was made a member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

and later appointed the first Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and awarded the Farrer Memorial Medal in 1996 for his contributions to agricultural science.

References

Living people 1937 births University of Sydney alumni Alumni of the University of London Australian biologists Farrer Medal recipients Officers of the Order of Australia Vice-chancellors of the University of Adelaide Academic staff of Charles Sturt University People from Muswellbrook {{Australia-academic-bio-stub