Biographical Information: Charlie
Pierce.
(From Tradewinds: Vol8,No3,J/A/S 2000)
(From Tradewinds: Vol8,No3,J/A/S 2000)
Charlie Pierce was chosen as the the SPaRCE Feature Teacher in
the Tradewinds in the Summer of 2000. He now works with the VASTEP
Project at the VAnuatu Teacher's College. He was asked for an
autobiographical sketch for this honor.
I was born in Nottingham, UK, during the Second World War, and grew up in the country of Kent - known as the "Garden of England". From very early days, I always wanted to be a teacher of Geography, and have had an abiding interest in weather and climate. I completed my Bachelor of Science degree at Bristol University, UK, then followed a Post-Graduate teacher training course. I remember that my topic for special study was on climate regions and the difficulty of their delineation. After graduating, I taught for 3 years in high school in Bristol, then decided to travel round the world and experience at first hand all those things that I had been teaching. It was the late 1960's - the "hippie era" and a time when you could travel overland right the way across the Europe to South East Asia, passing through the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand.
I was born in Nottingham, UK, during the Second World War, and grew up in the country of Kent - known as the "Garden of England". From very early days, I always wanted to be a teacher of Geography, and have had an abiding interest in weather and climate. I completed my Bachelor of Science degree at Bristol University, UK, then followed a Post-Graduate teacher training course. I remember that my topic for special study was on climate regions and the difficulty of their delineation. After graduating, I taught for 3 years in high school in Bristol, then decided to travel round the world and experience at first hand all those things that I had been teaching. It was the late 1960's - the "hippie era" and a time when you could travel overland right the way across the Europe to South East Asia, passing through the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand.
(Click on images for a full sized view.)
Charlie Pierce holding a SPaRCE Raingauge
So that is how I came to the New
Hebrides, known as "Vanuatu" since independence in 1980. In 1971,
I arrived as a volunteer to be the headmaster / teacher in Nur Baha'i
Primary School in Port Villa. At the end of the year, I married
Barbara, an Australian girl whom I had met in Perth, and we set up home
in Port Villa. I worked for the Condomiun Government of the New
Hebrides as a statistician, with special responsibilities for
conducting field surveys and censuses. I traveled extensively
around the islands of Vanuatu, especially at the time of the 1979
Census. By this time, a vacancy had arisen at Malapoa College,
the main English-medium secondary school in Vanuatu, and I was offered
a job teaching Geography and Social Science there. For the next
20 years, then, I taught senior secondary students, and was able to
resurrect my dormant interests in weather, and cricket.
The 2002 Weather Observing Group
Over the years, I have written a number of
school textbooks in Social Science, as well as producing booklets on
the 1979 Census, the training manual for enumerators in the 1989
Census, and the 1989 Population Atlas of Vanuatu - a 400 page document
that presents population data in map form for every census area in
Vanuatu. In 1996, I attended a "Climate Change" workshop for
South Pacific teachers in Asia, Samoa, and renewed my friendship with
Mark and Susan, who had previously come to Vanuatu in 1995 to set up
our automatic weather station at Malapoa up our automatic weather
station at Malapoa College. I helped to write some of the
chapters in the textbook for Pacific schools that was produced as a
result of this workshop. In 1997, I had an article published in
the "South Pacific Sea level and Climate Change Newsletter" on the
changing beach processes at Mele Beach, Vanuatu, and the possible links
to climate change.
The Group Posing with Charlie
In 1999, I left Malapoa to become part of a new project in
Vanuatu - the training of teachers for secondary schools. So I'm
currently working at the Vanuatu Teachers College - just down the hill
from Malapoa College. We have set up another weather station
here, called Napua, and my students help to collect the relevant
data. When they become teachers, I hope that they will be able to
continue their association with SPaRCE, and set up their own weather
stations in their schools.
The Teachers College Gauge Location : Looking to the South
So Barbara and I still live in VAnuatu. Our
two sons, Daniel and Sam, have "left the nest". Daniel is a
qualified water engineer and environmental engineer, with degrees in
Engineering and Geography. He is currently working in
Tahiti. Sam is still studying at the University of Western
Australia, specializing in Chemistry and French. We are all
actively involved in the activities of the Baha'i community, and now
live in a house just 100 meters from the sea, with panoramic views of
the setting sun and all the manifold changes in the weather. Long
may they continue!
Henry Wass
- Head Observer 
Hancy Vina
- Weather
Observer
Fred
Malesu - Weather Observer