Oscar Werner Tiegs - Adult Life

Adult Life

On 14 August 1926, Oscar Tiegs married Ethel Mary Hamilton, a telephonist, at the Presbyterian Church in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn.

Tiegs was known to form lasting friendships, even from relatively brief associations. For example, colleagues he met only once while on a trip to Europe in 1928, had fond memories of him. He was known as Sandy Tiegs to his friends and colleagues.

He was godfather to David, the son of his mentor and colleague, Professor Thorburn Robertson.

Tiegs was always interested in learning and research, and was known to find administration and committee work distasteful. This would appear to be at odds with his being a Councillor, and Chair of the Library Committee, for the The Royal Society of Victoria.

As head of the Melbourne University's Department of Zoology, he encouraged research and empowered his staff to set their own courses of activity with a directed freedom that nurtured world class research. He tended not to be interested in the research of others unless it was closely aligned with his own, yet was proud of his staff and was keen to show visitors what his staff were doing.

He lectured without notes, mainly to first year students, to whom he gave a solid background in elementary zoology and comparative morphology, in a manner which was considered a model of presentation and clarity. He gave special lectures on arthropod evolution and the vertebrate nervous system to senior students. However, Oscar Tiegs' involvement in imparting knowledge started much earlier than his time at the University of Melbourne, he being a student demonstrator in biology at the University of Queensland in 1918.

In 1954 Oscar Tiegs was one of 23 Foundation Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, and along with the other 22 foundation fellows was a petitioner to Queen Elizabeth II for the Academy's charter. He, Sydney Sunderland, and Thomas MacFarland Cherry, two other petioners and foundation members were responsible for drafting the by-laws of the newly formed Academy

The Melbourne University's zoological museum, now called the Tiegs Museum, owes much of the quality of its collection to Oscar Tiegs. He spent time and care improving and extending its holdings, based on his belief in the traditional morphological approach to zoology.

Oscar Tiegs was a prodigious worker, and, for example, would take on extra lecturing duties during staff absences to not load his other staff, and only in later years did he balance his time more out of work. He was fond of music, in particular Beethoven and Mozart, and critically appreciated pictures. These interests, of music, art, and literature he shared with his wife Ethel.

Some felt Oscar Tiegs, while honest, was direct to the point of bluntness, and had a keen sense of humour. He was known for supportive letters sent to friends during World War II, and the gift parcels sent by him and his wife. Oscar Tiegs' geographical isolation, and his own diffidence probably prevented him from maximising his contribution to zoology, although rather than diffidence others describe it as an unassuming disposition. He is described as shy and reserved, preferring the laboratory to the committee meeting or social function.

He suffered from aortic stenosis, and died of a coronary occlusion in his home in Hawthorn, aged 59.